creating the future by empowering youth voices: digital storytelling barbara stripling president,...
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Creating the future by empowering youth voices: digital storytelling
Barbara Stripling
President, American Library Association
Assistant Professor, Syracuse University, USA
Why empower youth voices?
Empowering youth voices
“It’s not as much a question of self-expression as a need of finding yourself.”
~ Pentti Saarikoski
• Counter invisibility• Develop sense of identity• Develop sense of cultural heritage• Share culture Build the future
Why storytelling?
Tell me a fact and I’ll learn
Tell me a truth and I’ll believe
Tell me a story and I’ll remember it forever
--Gail Matthews DeNatale
What is digital storytelling?
• Expresses personal narrative using multimedia --Modern expression of ancient art of storytelling –• Shares knowledge, wisdom, and values –
Reflection of personal culture• Involves process of meaning-making• Gives value to lived experiences• Connects experience and language
Why digital storytelling?
Why digital storytelling?
" Digital storytelling is exponentially more powerful than other forms of storytelling because the digital format immediately makes a student's knowledge available to a global audience. "
-Mark Standley
What is impact on our youth?
Strengthens literacy
Cultivates agency and voice
It’s like we all tell a story about ourselves inside our own head. Always. All the time. That story makes us what we are. We build
ourselves out of that story.
~ Adapted from Patrick Rothfuss, The Name of the Wild
Agency and voice
“Ask them what’s on their mind and give them the tools to help them say what they have to say in a more powerful way.”
` Dr. Ernest Morrell
Real problems,
Authentic voices CONTROLSelf-esteem
Builds sense of identity
You can take my life, my mind
too.
You don’t have to take my
heart.
I’m giving it to you.
But the one thing you will never
get is my pen.
Because without it,
I am nothing.
Sets high expectations
You were not expected to
aspire to excellence;
You were expected to make
peace with mediocrity.
` James Baldwin
Builds cultural competence
Know whence you came. If you knowwhence you came, there is really no limit of where you can go.
~James Baldwin
Values lived experiences
“Telling personal stories
publicly celebrates our
life.“ Bernajean Porter
What processes & tools are used?
• A point of view• A dramatic question• Emotional content• Economy• Pacing• The gift of your voice• Soundtrack
Thinking about images
Seven Elements of Digital Stories:
Mentoring
Characteristics of digital stories
Open-ended Branching Hyperlinked Cross-media Participatory Exploratory Unpredictable
Posters
Photo essays
Music videos
Documentaries, Narratives
Dear Child
Impact -- Social action
What does the future hold?
"I know only one thing about the technologies that await us in the future: We will find ways to tell stories with them."
-Jason Ohler
" A story should be remembered for its soul, and not the bells and whistles."
-Bernajean Porter
Social change
“I think social change can come from any direction. Creative expression can be spread globally, which means it goes beyond culture, generation, gender, religion, and location.
Creative expression doesn’t say ‘you should do this’ but it makes people think ‘I can do something’—it leads to social change.”
—Saori Miyagawa, Adobe Youth Voices Facilitator