Digital Arts Service Corps - digital storytelling

AAAAAt Laaaaaast

Denise Cheng — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 21:58:20 +0000

Nine months since I took the digital storytelling class at PCM, I have finally finished my digital story!
One of the on-call media ed instructors, Peta Mni came up with the last component of my piece: the title. Yes, it was that hard to come up with one.

A bit of crossposting on digital storytelling

Denise Cheng — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 17:48:50 +0000

Thought I'd share a more appropriate post that I wrote for the PCM blog a couple of days ago. This is probably what I should be submitting for my field reports...

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Digital storytelling: The wonders never cease

10 Oct. 2008

I've had the privilege of being part of two digital storytelling workshops at Portland Community Media: once as sort of a teacher's aide and the second time as a participant.

I first heard of digital storytelling in 2006 as I was rounding the corner to my last semester in college. I was home for winter break and decided to take advantage of my locale to learn about media centers in the San Francisco Bay Area. I met Theeba Soundararajan of Third World Majority (TWM) and Jessica McCoy, who was the CTC Vista for Center for Digital Storytelling (CDS) at the time.

Both were storytelling organizations with slightly differing missions. They're media centers focused on expression, but TWM was more focused on giving minorities and immigrant communities the media tools that have traditionally been used to ignore, suppress or misrepresent them.

Theeba opened my eyes to digital storytelling as a tool for those who have been sidestepped and wrongly represented on the local and national scene. As a person who has trained in journalism, I've seen much of this and even experienced it, which can be very jolting for someone who plays on both sides.

I've had a couple of experiences now, but the most shocking was after returning from Lesotho as a Peace Corps volunteer and hearing an NPR Marketplace broadcast entitled Chinese businesses rile Lesotho locals. To establish the scene, there's a lot of resentment against the Chinese by Basotho because the Chinese have been economically successful there while the Basotho are cementing themselves in poverty. As a Chinese American, I experienced a hefty amount of misdirected discrimination. The Marketplace broadcast seemed to side with the idea that the Chinese were snatching up every economic opportunity, leaving nothing for the Basotho. Granted, there are sketchy business decisions that some Chinese have made, but the Basotho are in their particular position most of all because of lack of entrepreneurial spirit (my official title as a PCV was "Small Business Advisor"). It was disturbing to hear the NPR report not because I share a physical appearance with the Chinese, but because I had experienced both sides and could not believe the lopsided situation an NPR show represented. Talk about a group that's exploited Lesotho's economy, where was any mention of South Africa and their complete infiltration into Basotho commodities and cultural goods? In many ways, Marketplace legitimized the discrimination against Lesotho's Chinese community. I still haven't heard a peep after writing a letter to the editor, not even acknowledgement of receipt.

Of course, this goes on everyday. There are countless misrepresentations in the news, and while it's hard to combat if you have limited media resources at your hand (which I've also experienced), it's even harder when you have none. In that case, there's no reason to even cultivate an audience.

Jessica and I spent much more time talking about the role of storytellers and story holders. Storytellers in our society can be seen as journalists, filmmakers, politicians--those who don't tell their own stories but tell other people's. Story holders are the people whose stories are being told. The big question for me at the time was if storytellers and story subjects share the intent of confronting readers with a question, is it better for the storyteller to tell it or the story holder? An unresolved question, but ultimately, we came to the conclusion that as nonprofessional storytellers, story holders have much more power to eschew pretenses and rules, dramatic questions, rhetoric or otherwise. Doing personal storytelling also serves to empower people in addition to getting the word out.

Back to the present-day, where I've been a part of two digital storytelling workshops. The first digital storytelling workshop I attended was a partnership between PCM and CDS. One particular person's story was about her predicament as an illegal immigrant who grew up in the US and knows no other home than the States. She doesn't qualify for college scholarships (a heavy burden for any student, especially spotlighted now in our recent economic crisis) because she'd have to prove citizenship. She speaks of looking "American" and being Latina, of being a high-achieving high schooler in AP courses with other Americans who are blind to her ethnicity and asked why "they" don't just go "home" and immigrate legally. At worst (and it's quite a short step in the case of illegal immigrants everywhere) she risks deportation with slim chances of return. At best, she can hope for sanctuary and some financial alleviation if the Dream Act passes.

Our instructor for the second workshop played this person's story as an example of digital storytelling. Several participants mentioned how uncomfortable the story made them feel, how her voice was trembling so much they thought she'd shatter into tears at any moment over her situation. They didn't know what to make of the story. Aside: I love awkward movies (The Squid and the Whale is a fantastic one), the tension around the white elephant in the room; I'm certain that awkwardness is an art itself in the art of film and acting. But that day in the second digital storytelling workshop, as I listened to the person's story again and heard the comments after, I realized that story holders have a power that storytellers do not. Because they're not ideas represented by actors and polished words, story holders have the power of truth in the voiceover room through the emotions they can't mask. It would be a shame if they could remove themselves.

Check out:

The Oxford Project - A fantastic example of what storytellers and storyholders can do together.

Teen Digital Storymapping Workshop in Lower Roxbury

danielle martin — Thu, 05 Jul 2007 12:58:12 +0000

I just finished a digital storytelling and mapping workshop that included over 10 youth who stayed creative and excited to share their stories even in 90 degree heat without AC! It's a project I've been working on pretty much since the beginning of this VISTA year, by meeting with folks from the Lower Roxbury Empowerment Coalition, a group of housing developments and non-profit programs who are trying to create inter-neighborhood partnerships and tap into Northeastern University outreach programs. Jayme Bonds, who works tirelessly at Mandela Homes, participated in one of my train-the-trainers this spring and got pretty adamant about me working with youth leaders from her summer programs. We decided to open it up to as many local housing development summer programs as we could get together, and it worked out well. We even got a couple participants from Worcester!

I gathered some MassIMPACT folks and got Colleen Kelly, now former CTC VISTA and employee at Emerson College, to come help facilitate. The group of youth were all girls except for one, well spoken young man George, who all had interesting and personal stories to share. It was a big group for a digital storytelling workshop (over 15 folks working on stories at once) but it worked out fine to split the group into two story circles and we had enough experienced storytellers floating around to help with the one-on-one support. Several of the youth also really excelled at the technical side, so they were finished with their stories by the beginning of the third day. So we had them publish their stories on StoriesForChange.net and help build the Google Map...and then show others how to do it as well. We're hoping to do a few follow-up two-hour workshops over the summer to help support these youth in their quest to teach digital storytelling to other younger residents.

I also owe big thanks to Royal and Paulette at Camfield Estates for hosting, and for Jayme Bonds from Mandela Homes for providing the food. The final stories are posted at StoriesforChange.net http://storiesforchange.net/event/teen_digital_storymapping_bootcamp and all linked off the Google Map at http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&msa=0&msid=1015076548696853...
There's also more photos on Flickr.

Just finished one summer class

lauren bratslavsky — Fri, 29 Jun 2007 17:33:00 +0000

whoooo hoo. Just got done teaching my digital storytelling class. At Media Bridges, we have a series of youth classes lasting a week or two. Mine lasted one week, 3 hours a day. And the ages were 9 - 15. You would think that the 15 year old would have been bothered by the younger ones, but they all got along really well.

At first I was worried because I didn't think we would get done in time. But the opposite happened - most of them were done before. And of course these kids love to play on the internet. Games games games and videos on you tube and their myspace pages. So advanced and so little in the attention span department. One kid continually preferred to watch remix videos of happy feet, spongebob, and dora to music like ' party like a rock star' gggeeez.

Anyways. I didn't have much in the means of curriculum. I have found that kids in this age range don't pay attention to hand outs or class instruction. What worked well was me going around to each group (singles and doubles) and explain the steps as they approach them. Some needed more attention then others and it all balanced out pretty well.

Before the class started, I scoured through most of the material out there about the topic. All of it was useful information, but nothing was quite tailered to a youth class outside of school. I also kinda dreaded pulling personal stories out of these kids. Originally I was going to have them bring personal items from home like photos, toys, etc and make a digital story about themselves. BUT - the education coordinator here had a great idea- a field trip! I highly suggest this approach if you are working with a group of kids in a short amount of time.

We took a trip to the Contemporary Art Center in Cincinnati, just a few blocks away. They have a great children's floor called the UnMuseum, filled with interactive art. So we all went on Monday with video cameras that could also take photos (though I can see now, that the quality is not so great on video). They had two hours to play, explore and take pictures and even some video too. Before sending them off, I told them what I was looking for: a picture of their favorite piece, least favorite, the coolest part, and if you would come back again. And guess what? Only a few of them remembered to include these things on their own, while I had to remind some others, and some still did not include those parts.

I wanted to avoid the whole bit about pointing out unneccessary things like: "this is a crazy room" "this is a chalkboard". But I still got that. It's a challange to get some kids to talk more in depth about the pictures they took and how they feel about it. Everytime I asked them how they feeeeel about something, I felt rather cheesy and almost like a therapist.

So here are some logistics if anyone tries this in the future:
- 10 kids (that was our maximum)
- 5 computers (MACS) + the instructer's computer was also used
- 5 cameras (they shared, and that worked out!)
- I imported the pictures and the videos to save time
- used iPhoto to edit and adjust pictures
- iMovie
- on the 2nd day, I put all the pictures and all the videos on everyone's computer, then they worked at that computer all week.
- used our radio room to record the voice overs (kinda a luxury, any mic on a computer will do)
- when some kids were finished early, and if interested, I let them make their own music using Soundtrack, a companion to Final Cut. It's a loop based program that's easier than Garageband (i think)
- and voila! we had the screening party today

At first I tried to keep them off the internet. Especially the younger, less focused kids. They all have myspace pages and love the branded games of the disney channel. But by the third day, seeing how quickly they worked through, I gave in. It's not ideal. But at least it kept them occupied while the other kids were working. Also, those were also the kids that had those frickin roller shoes. Any moment I was not looking, a few would leave their computers and skate around every where. these crazy kids with their crazy shoes.

In the end, the class turned out quite well. They all finished their stories - 5 total. I'll post those up soon. I can't watch their videos right now, I've seen them too many times already. I am happy to say that some of them are really good and definitely qualified as well thought out digital stories.

Now it's off to prepare for next month's week long class- Ad Attack! (that exclamation point is part of the title).

Screenings, Workshops, Tutorials, oh my!

Jessica McCoy — Mon, 18 Jun 2007 22:34:22 +0000

Hello hello fellow VISTAs!
Time for a quick summer update. Mmmmm summer...it's a good thing!
So this week we have two digital storytelling workshops going on. The first one is focused specifically for educators, and though I'm not involved in teaching it, I have been working hard to get some new software quick guides put together. It seems like there's an infinite number of software tutorials you can write to support digital storytelling. I've helped with tutorials for Final Cut Express, Photoshop Elements, file management, iMovie, iDVD, iPhoto, Audacity, Premiere, and Sound Studio. And there's a still a few more in the works. All of them will be posted (eventually) to the Stories for Change web portal that Danielle and I have been working on. All y'all who are doing digital storytelling with your organization, check out the site and post your students' stories! And of course any resources you have. Since the site just launched, we're working to get more people signed on and posting.

Also this week we have community screenings for two workshops I helped facilitate. The first workshop was place-based digital storytelling with middle school students, and the second was with Latina high school girls in a leadership development program. I'm hoping to get the stories posted to the net soon...need to get all the releases signed first! I'm looking forward to the screenings, since it will be the first time the participants will show off their work to family and friends.

The other good news is that my organization finally hired two people to help with administrative and postproduction tasks, which is awesome because it frees me up to do work that's more inline with my original workplan. Yay! It's great because they are both basically doing more capacity building work too, just in different areas than I am. And as a small nonprofit, we can use all the capacity-building help we can get. :)

My Digital Story

Naomi Jimenez — Sat, 16 Jun 2007 00:43:47 +0000

Hi everyone,

We've started our digital storytelling workshops last week using Open Source software. The first group was from a boys juvenile detention camp. They were cool. They really got into their projects and enjoyed themselves in the process. This week we have a mixed group of kids ranging from 8 to 12 years old. I will post up some examples soon.

I also wanted to share my digital story with you all. I created this story back in April when I went to the Digital Storytelling Center in Berkeley. I had the source files and I revised it a bit. You can check out my revised story at:
http://www.otxwest.org/california_dreaming.html

The original is posted on the Stories For Change website.
http://storiesforchange.net/node/352

You can also check out the news report that was done on us last week. I'm in the first and lost shots.
http://cbs5.com/video/?id=23977@kpix.dayport.com

Well that's it for me. Until next time...

Naomi

Danielle on TV! on CCTV's Critical Focus

danielle martin — Wed, 30 May 2007 03:12:23 +0000

Check out my appearance on a panel about changing the media on Cambridge's cable access station, CCTV Critical Focus show. As it says on their blog, "Critical Focus: A Forum on Media Today is a series of six one-hour videos investigating how representations in the media affect culture, politics, and behavior. Each episode features a diverse panel of experts from academia, journalism, the broadcast industry, and social action agencies assessing the impact of media on our society." This episode focused on discussing some concrete ways citizens can learn about and change the media landscape. Of course, I plugged both the CTC VISTA Project and MassIMPACT's work doing digital storytelling with housing developments in the Boston area. I felt pretty privileged to sit next to fellow panelists like Nettrice Gaskins, Lauren-Glenn Davitian, and Steve Provizer, who've been working on community media, technology, and activism for YEARS, and have folks interested in what I had to add.

Click To Play

StoriesForChange.net is Launched!

danielle martin — Tue, 29 May 2007 15:37:00 +0000

Wondering what fellow VISTA Jessica McCoy and I have been collaborating on since September? Check out the launch of a new online project, StoriesForChange.net, sponsored by both of our host organizations!

We're excited to announce the launch of the online social networking portal for community digital storytelling, StoriesForChange.net. This site is sponsored by MassIMPACT, in collaboration with the Center for Digital Storytelling, to provide a meeting and sharing space for those interested in using digital storytelling for community advocacy or grassroots social change.

Here are some of the most exciting reasons to check out StoriesForChange.net (SFC):

NETWORK with other facilitators online anytime: SFC gives you a chance to meet others who are doing similar work in communities and post questions to the group in the Forums, without having to wait for a yearly conference.
DISTRIBUTE your stories online in a trusted place: We've put particular attention into the "meta data" or accompanying information that goes with digital stories shared on the site. Your posted stories not only have context, but they can be Creative Commons licensed so you can control how stories are used.
Tap into a new LIBRARY of stories: Most facilitators show at least one or two digital stories at the beginning of every digital storytelling workshop. SFC intends to become a great library of user contributed stories to help share examples across communities, cultures, languages, and contexts.
Add your RESOURCES, share your experience: Check out the Share Your Resource option, which allows you to share experience around the creation of stories in various community settings.
Post your EVENTS to reach a wider audience: Post your upcoming workshops, screenings, and meetings, so others who are geographically close to you can attend.

The best way to get involved with StoriesForChange.net is to signup for a membership on the site and start sharing stories and resources, as well as posting events. We're also hoping to start some great discussions in the Forums section < http://storiesforchange.net/forums >, especially in the topic "Get Involved with SFC Site Development" < http://storiesforchange.net/forum/603 >.

Major funding for building the site was provided by MassIMPACT, which along with the Center for Digital Storytelling and Creative Narrations also supported the first annual Gathering of Community Digital Storytelling (see blog at http://communitydigitalstorytellers.blogspot.com) at Massachusetts Institute of Technology in June 2006. The site was ably built by developers at Float Left and Vernal.

My first class at OTX-West

Naomi Jimenez — Mon, 07 May 2007 20:32:09 +0000

I taught my first class last week and it went great! I usually just teach the Internet section of the class but this time I taught the whole thing. Our classes at OTX-West are 3 hours long and we teach basic computer training, Internet, and the OpenOffice programs Writer (similar to Word) and Impress (similar to PowerPoint). It was fun and the students and parents enjoyed it as well. I received great evaluations from them on my performance so that's cool.

I also went to a 3 day digital storytelling workshop at the Center for Digital Storytelling in Berkeley a few weeks back. I created my first digital story and it was fun. I went with my coworker Domingo to get some pointers on how to do these classes. Jessica, the VISTA at CDS, invited us to attend. My story was good but I ran out of time and didn't get to do everything that I wanted. I am editing my story on my own since I have all the files and I am even going to try to create the same story using Flash (which is going to be challenging since still learning the software) and OpenOffice Impress. It was a great experience and I want to thank Jessica and the Center for Digital Storytelling for having us. :)

Later,

Naomi

Ending April with Showers in Chicago

danielle martin — Thu, 03 May 2007 16:45:28 +0000

I'm just recovering from April 2007, which will forever be known in my mind as "the month of excessive conferences." It started with WAM!, then NTEN in DC.

But then a couple weeks ago I stole Ben from Project HQ and we headed over to the newly renovated Yawkey Boys & Girls Club in Roxbury for the 7th annual Boys & Girls Club of Boston Cyber Summit. We did some digital storytelling and Google Mapping with 5 youth from Roxbury and Dorchester. The youth did great, taking lots of great photos outside the Club around Dudley but we struggled a bit with technical aspects of embedding videos in the new Google My Maps functionality.

You can check out the map but it keeps erasing the embed code so most of the videos won't play! We made DVDs and also put the videos on Blip.tv.

I also recruited former CTC VISTA Saul Baizman to do some web design, tag teaming with my pal Hope Roth who now works at Tufts University.

I enjoyed supporting my old co-workers and this great Club event. The projects the youth create in two short days (including one night of sleep-over that doesn't involve much sleep) always impresses me.

I had about 12 hours to do laundry, errand, and pack before I was flying off to Chicago, my first time in Chi-town. I jumped at a chance to attend at annual Intel Computer Clubhouse International Conference, to talk up CTC VISTA and help some Computer Clubhouses get VISTAs and present on using digital storytelling for community activism and outreach. After five years of running a Computer Clubhouse myself, I have a vested interest in how the Clubhouse theory is progressing and how these programs all over the world empower youth by giving them multimedia and independence skills.

This was my 7th Clubhouse conference, so I got to see many old skool folks like Mitch Resnik from the MIT Media Lab, Joyce & John from AZ, Gavin from Dublin, and my new friend Kane from New Zealand (who gave me kick-butt hat from his homeland and is still doing digital storytelling after I trained him last year at the conference).

I also got to see some VISTAs - my girl Shaneka from WYTEC presented and hosted with grace and I snuck Laura Mieczkowski in for free lunch so I could hear about her new outreach project with CTCNet Chicago. The crew of managers from the Boston Clubhouses were all still exhausted from Cyber Summit too, but it good to see all the old and new faces gathered to contemplate the next steps of the Clubhouse network.

Chicago was also an amazing trip because I got to chill with former CTC VISTA Nathan Biggs, who's now a fundraiser for The Association House and a damn fine tour guide.

I documented my tourist wanderings and impressions on Flickr. Overall, it was a good ending to an exhausting month of networking.

May looks lighter, both in work and weather, with facilitating just one adult digital storytelling train-the-trainer at the Boston Chinatown Neighborhood Center and helping out with a series of Saturday trainings with youth at the South End Technology Center. Oh and working hard on user testing for the new online community site (StoriesForChange.net) I'm project managing for MassIMPACT for community digital storytellers (due to soft launch at the end of May). Oh and recruiting and matching up some new VISTAs for the June round and planning the next PSO, that's at the Grassroots Use of Technology Conference in Lowell, MA.

Wait...that's not adding up to "lighter"...is it?