The Power of Digital Storytelling (DS)

I learned about DS in 2007, introduced by my colleague Grete Jamissen. Back then, Norway had largely implemented the Quality Reform at all higher education institutions. According to the Norwegian Ministry of Education and Research, a main point of the reform was to give priority to a combination of teaching methods involving a high level of student activity, new forms of assessment, and regular feedback that promotes learning. I realized that DS was an answer to the Governmental demands and we introduced DS as an alternative approach to learn from reflection on experience from practice*.

DS started in the early 1990s at Center for Digital Storytelling/CDS, today: Storycenter, Berkeley.

As numerous collaborators exchanged ideas and found common ground in a shared vision of cultural democracy and social change, a partnership took shape. Dana Atchley, a media producer and interdisciplinary artist, had developed NEXT EXIT, a multimedia autobiography. Among others, he attracted local theater producer Joe Lambert as a collaborator in producing the piece on stage. Together, they discovered that people with little or no prior experience in multimedia could create powerful personal stories using the new digital media technology. […]. Over the next several years, the group refined a curriculum that became the basis for a community workshop called “digital storytelling”. Source: https://www.storycenter.org/press /

DS, the way my university adopted it is based on the CDS-model. In the 2-3 minutes production, the storyteller’s personal voice is the main characteristic. The storytellers develop their stories in a story circle, where the co-storytellers and professional facilitators assist through actively listening and giving feedback.

The digital stories are produced using simple video editing software to assemble images, voice-over, audio and background soundtracks. Besides the joy of sharing your story and getting feedback on it it’s also an arena for professional reflection and learning.
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*Want to read more?
See: Jamissen, G. & Haug, K.H. (2014). Towards the Digital Storytelling University. In: C. Gregori-Signes & A. Brìdigò Corachàn (ed.). Appraising Digital Storytelling across Educational Contexts. English in the World Series (general ed. Antonia Sàchez Macamo). Valencia: Universitat València (PUV). (p. 93-113). https://blogg.hioa.no/kristinholtehaug/files/2015/03/VEDLEGG-4.pdf