Digital Storytelling Initiative
Overview
Digital Storytelling is the practice of using computer-based tools to tell stories. As is implied by the name, digital stories take advantage of an increasingly diverse array of computer-based media that incorporates images, text, recorded audio, video clips, animation, illustrations, and music. The topics that are featured in Digital Storytelling range from science communication to the recounting of historical events, oral histories, and personal narratives -- and everything in between.
Learn how Digital storytelling uses innovative tools to transform the classroom experience.
Examples
Examples of digital stories include:
- video ethnographies
- animated graphic representations of breakthrough scientific research results
- fictional works
- podcast interviews
- documentation of community histories through animated timelines
- journalistic features documenting environmental issues
Opportunities
Digital Storytelling opens new opportunities for scholars, researchers, and artists to convey information and to share ideas. The products of Digital Storytelling combine the traditional art of narrative construction with emergent forms of communication.
With the explosion of social media, these kinds of products are increasingly popular and offer powerful means for telling our stories and conveying information. Digital stories offer tools for communication that can exceed the reach of traditional forms of writing.
Unlike traditional forms of scholarly exposition, the creations of digital storytellers often live on the internet and can be accessible to broad audiences outside of the university. Students find this potential scope to add meaning to their work and thus they engage in more ambitious and creative projects as a result. In addition to the broad reach, the skills involved in digital storytelling are increasingly in demand by employers.
Vision
Our vision is to integrate Digital Storytelling into courses across the College. We envision faculty assigning final course projects that move beyond the traditional term paper to podcasts, websites, story-maps, and videos. These products not only expand the skills of our students but are more accessible to remote learners, community members, and the general public.
