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A Master's in Digital Storytelling?
by Jon Orech

Friday I had the opportunity to present “Digital Storytelling NOT Digital Spectacle” at the ICE Conference in suburban Chicago. The premise of my presentation was to send the message that Digital Storytelling is not about fluff or flash, but instead is about thoughtful writing, imagistic synergy, and sharing to create community.  As I continue to explore the power of DST, I am continually in awe of the implications this medium has.

About the same time I was contacted by Susan Smith, a tech trainer in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, who was developing an idea of a graduate class in, well, Digital Storytelling, and whether I thought it should be a 2 or 3 hour class.  I had always toyed with the idea of a DST course in high school, but this idea intrigued me.  Following is the email I sent back to her with my initial ideas of how to make this work, and what might be included:

“The question between 2-3 credits is an interesting one.  If I were asked to put together a curriculum, I could definitely put together enough for 3 hours.  Off the top off my head, here's what I'm thinking:

• Explore the role of Story in cultures. Use Christina Baldwin's StoryCatcher. (The idea is start with story, NOT technology.)

• DEFINITELY get all participants blogging, sharing ideas about DST, but also to begin developing ideas for stories; participants need to respond to each other's posts.

• Look at the genre of Digital Storytelling, and how it differs from just "filmmaking." (See Joe Lambert)

• Look at elements of story in other parts of society: advertisements especially.

• Perhaps teach a short segment on visual literacy.

• Go to Storycircles.org to see lots of examples. Open an account.

• Start with a 1-minute single-image story.  Taking portions of a complex image and narrating a story.

• Do a story of only images, no narration or text.

• Review and implementation of the "Seven Elements" of Digital Storytelling."

• Develop an actual Digital Story from start to finish. Include lots of emphasis on narrative writing, sharing, image gathering, making the project, narrating, music, image manipulation. (This can REALLY be expanded...examining image composition, cropping, movement of pan and zoom, using text as art, transitions, creative editing, then there's the narration: pacing, volume, affectation, rhythm, tone...lots of room for expansion.)

• Share and critique stories to help build community. Publish on line (I would recommend a public location to increase chance for feedback outside of class.

• Take a metacognitive approach to ask: What did I learn? What would I do differently?

• Explore how to teach this in class.  What should be emphasized?  Where are the problem areas?  What are the possible applications? What about age appropriate?

• Perhaps another individual project geared toward the type of DST that teacher would be likely to use.

• Consider alternate tools to assist.  Where do we get additional pictures?  Royalty-free music?

• Include a section on attribution, safety, and Creative Commons.

• Consider another project exploring the use of video as an accent. Analyze the differences.

• Create a project and story of drawings or caricatures only...still a personal narrative, but drawings take on more of a "thematic" approach.

• Explore online resources and collect those that would help (Delicious? Google custom search engine?) OR create an online resource for class or others to use.

Who knows, maybe this will develop into a MDST program: Masters in Digital Storytelling.