My family has always been a family of storytellers. When we gather for holidays, we talk with my aunts and uncles and cousins about where our parents and their parents grew up. We ask questions about who was related to who and where and how they lived. We are curious about the interesting and unusual names (Icy Myrtle!) they had. We have been to the cemetery to try to find them there. We look them up on the huge family tree that was made that goes back several hundred years. When our parents and their siblings are gone, so will be the stories, so we have to put all the pieces together while they are still with us.
My mother was a geneology librarian. She helped people put together the stories of their lives and their pasts every day. Her patrons came in so excited about the adventure they were embarking upon. This could be another wonderful way to use digital storytelling.
My dad has been gone almost three-and-a-half years. When I think about him one of the things that makes me the saddest is that I will never hear another one of his stories. He lived to be 82 years old and told us stories, sometimes more than once, about his childhood growing up in a small mid-western town, losing his mother at age 11, enlisting in WWII, his travels around the world in the Navy, and coming home to raise a family. His generation has so many wonderful stories to tell about how different their lives were from the ones we live right now. These stories are irreplaceable and ones that we can preserve through digital storytelling.
When my brother was in college he traveled from his college across the state to interview our great-aunt in her 80's with a cassette tape recorder. She had led a varied and interesting life up to that time, and eventually lived to be 104. She was so honored by my brother's interview. I don't think that our elders realize how much we value their stories. Their photos could be paired with their interviews to create beautiful keepsake digital stories of their lives.
I have heard over recent years about storytelling booths that are set up in large cities where a person can go with a relative or friend and interview them and save their story. I don't know who sponsors this but some lovely stories have been saved in this manner. I'm sure that students, parents and other members of the community have riveting stories about their lives to tell if we can allow them to tell them in our libraries.
I am not familiar with ebooks, but if this technology will encourage or allow students to "read" then I am all for it. I have always been in favor of anything that will get print into the hands of children. I figure it is only a matter of time before they are hooked on books!
When I volunteered in a media center several weeks ago, the SLMS showed her students a "movie" on Storylineonline.net. This is a website which shows streaming video of actors reading familiar children's books. That day we watched "Stellaluna" and "Sophie's Masterpiece." Another great site is Fablevision.com which has a variety of functions--students can create a story video, watch stories that other kids created. It sells books, has lessons and activities, and other things. Check it out.
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4 comments:
The idea of archiving your life or a student's experieces through digital storytelling gives this new technology some real relevance. Think if a student recorded at least one digital story from their life per school year for the entire time they were in public schools. They would have a digital timeline of their life. It would be incredible. I realize that this would be a huge undertaking with many problems and drawbacks, but technology can let us dream big. This type of project would hook most students.
Any way to get kids to read is a good thing. I have begun to see children downloading books onto their ipods, and they are reading them. This might turn off some traditionalists, but I agree with you that I will let them use any tool that will get them hooked on books.
I liked your idea about recording history through digital storytelling. This is something of which I had not thought. My Dad also grew up during the Great Depression and served in the the Navy during WWII. The stories he can tell about different events that occurred during this time are really interesting. When that generation passes on, all these stories will be lost forever. It's really sad to think about. However, in the classroom students could interview grandparents or great uncles and aunts and create a storytelling adventure about a historical event from their perspective. Thanks for the great idea.
I am the founder of Save Their Story, Inc. and I started offering a video biography service to people about 2 years ago. I travel all over the country for my clients to video their loved ones' stories. Over the past 2 years, I have conducted over 150 interviews and each one has been interesting and rich with experience, wisdom and history. I love that the concept is becoming more and more well known. I hear too many times from people that I speak with that they wish they had thought of this sooner while a particular loved one was still alive.
I hope all of you will consider doing this on your own if you don't want to employ a professional video biographer.
I got some great resources from your post. Storylineonline.net and fablevision.com sound like wonderful websites that I could use in my media center. Students would love to see famous people reading their favorite story.
I love digital storytelling and recording of history and stories from our families and from people of past generations. I read a book a few years ago that had letters from people that lived during World War II. The book was written by Tom Brokaw and as I read this book it had stories from a wide variety of people. Even though I was not related to any of these people, I could not put the book down. I hate that I missed the opportunity to digitally record my grandparents and great grandparents. Now I want to make sure that I record my parents, aunts,and uncles stories before it is to late. These recordings will mean so much to my children and their children in the future.
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