Elspeth McLean: Shifting the Balance of Power: e-learning and digital storytelling. Slides from the University of Liverpool Learning and Teaching Conference 2009.
As it gets easier to make and share video and audio clips, more and more of us are doing it. Video clips and recordings of interviews are a good way for students to learn more about people’s lives and experiences. But who decides what gets left in the final version – and what ends up on the cutting room floor? The editing process usually puts the power firmly at the fingertips of the editor. Maybe this sometimes erodes the truth of the movie – and maybe its not that empowering for the person it’s about?
Digital storytelling shifts the balance of power by working with people to tell their own story – and to make it themselves into their own short movie. With the help of the Patient Voices team www.patientvoices.co.uk, the Get Involved 4 the Future project is working with local people with experience of using health and social services. They are making their own movies which will be used in a variety of ways to enhance student learning in the School of Health Sciences (and beyond) about being a professional. The digital stories themselves are still be ‘work in progress’ but the presentation will offer an insight into the process, the stories, and how it has been for storyteller and academic.
Elspeth McLean: Shifting the Balance of Power: e-learning and digital storytelling
1. Shifting the Balance of Power e-learning and digital storytelling Learning and Teaching Conference June 2009 Elspeth McLean Staff Development Officer School of Health Sciences emclean@liv.ac.uk
2. Why stories? Connection with audience Hold ambivalence and paradox Have their own truth – but don’t have to be true Have an emotional content and authenticity
3. Digital stories I believe the notion of story, transformative reflection and the capacities of the computing machine are being forged together into some sort of new life management process Joe Lambert, Center for Digital Storytelling
4. Why digital storytelling? Telling a story gets a point across about someone else’s life and experience Engages emotions Short Accessible The person who the story is about is in control Complements other ways that local people are involved in student learning
5. It was April and a group of people got together to tell stories with the people from Patient Voices….
8. Watch some stories To watch some of the stories we made, just go now to Patient Voices website www.patientvoices.org.uk , and click on ‘The stories’ and then on ‘Stories from the University of Liverpool’ At the workshop we watched ‘You only get one mum’ and heard from Sue about the experience of making it
9. Ways to use digital stories Show at a lecture - at the beginning to catch students interest, in the middle to illustrate a point , or at the end to sum up. Ask students to watch a story and apply theory to practice – individually or in group Use to assess understanding of how theory relates to practice Ask students to make their own – eg with photostory or Powerpoint (your will need ground rules and a clear policy on copyright and consent issues)
10. References BBC Capture Wales www.bbc.co.uk/wales/capturewales Center for Digital Storytelling www.storycenter.org Patient Voices www.patientvoices.org.uk
