Moving at the Speed of Creativity

One reason I think digital storytelling is so compelling, is that as human beings, we have always connected to and learned from stories. At one point that was our only means for sharing our histories and experiences. Text and books eventually took over that archival purpose, but there are limits to what the written word can convey and communicate, even when penned by the most skilled writers. We have had television, movies and video for a long time, but we have not had the ability and means ourselves as regular community members (and not specialists in video production) to create our own productions like we can today.

Creating a video clip of an oral history interview, of a family birthday, or any other event involves a multiplicity of aspects. As the videographer, you are both script writer and camera operator. You are the producer and the editor. You are the technical consultant and the content expert. You do it all.

You also have tremendous power. The lenses through which we each look at the world and the experiences we have in it vary considerably. When you take an hour of recorded video and reduce it down to 15 minutes (as I did with the sample video I shared in my Veteran Wisdom presentation) you quickly realize that as the video editor, you are making important decisions about what facts and opinions will be included and shared, and which ones will not. These types of editing decisions are made every day by the news media, when they decide what to show and share, but we are not usually cognizant of these decisions. Making your own videos drives this point home.

These types of projects also tend to be ones that students remember forever. That is not an insignificant observation. How many lessons did we all sit through in school which we quickly forgot as soon as the bell rang at the end of the period? Education is essentially an experiential and social activity, and too often we misperceive it to be a mere transmission and subsequent regurgitation of information. I encourage teachers at all levels to get students involved in doing interviews and oral history projects, because these are educational experiences which are inherently relational, experiential, and therefore valuable for students.

I am very interested in further developing my own digital storytelling skills. The series of 10 videos I created for our Texas Technology Leadership Academy (Gates grant) in Spring 2003 was my first large scale project involving digital video, but certainly not my first work. Ever since Apple introduced iMovie software , I have been a budding videographer, using my own family as cast and characters.

2 training organizations and opportunities that have been commended to me on digital storytelling are The Center for Digital Storytelling and the Digital Media Academy’s Digital Storytelling I course. I contend these skills of digital storytelling are needed by many, not by few. These are not just activities for the “GT” students in our schools: all children should be exposed to and provided with opportunities to become digital storytellers. The memories that my own children already have of their own childhood experiences have already been shaped by movies we have made together of our trips and activities. Digital storytelling can be compelling and life changing.

Technology integration is far more than learning how to use Microsoft Office better. For me, I would much rather spend time being creative with iLife applications like iMovie, iPhoto, iDVD, and Garageband. There is something about creating authentic multimedia products for an authentic, global audience– with incredibly powerful and yet simple tools– that I find so compelling! Are you still using a Windows-based computer and trying to be creative as well as productive? Give it up and join those of us who have seen the light and choose to express ourselves with our Mac computers! My Macintosh is an electronic extension of my mind, enabling me to reach across time and space in ways I never would have imagined even a few short years ago– and share my thoughts, my visions, my passion, and my dreams…. and record for our family’s priceless memories that we will never want to forget. And now that the movies we’ve created are on DVD, we won’t have to rely on our own memories alone to remember– we can re-experience and relive those moments together that we have captured forever in digital format.

Digital Storytelling rocks. Join in the fun! It is less expensive than ever!