Author: Mark Hahm

Digital Critique: “Clean Streets”

For the most part, I’ve been focusing on the theme of adversity in my critique of digital stories in my Learning With Digital Stories class (INTE5340) at the University of Colorado-Denver.  This week, however, I’m going to take a break from this theme.  At times, I like to hear stories about people discussing pride in their work.  The StoryCorps video “Clean Streets” is a perfect example.  For this critique, I judged this digital story on the following assessment traits (as established by Jason Ohler in his book Digital Storytelling in the Classroom):

Story – Sanitation workers Angelo Bruno and Eddie Nieves do an impressive job of telling their short story about working together in Manhattan’s West Village.  It’s very much a first-hand account of how both loved their job and enjoyed working together.  Bruno shares an interesting anecdote about his early days on the job when an old-timer showed him the value of a good day’s work.

Originality, Voice, Creativity – There’s an genuine earnestness in hearing Bruno and Nieves tell their story with their New York accents.  Their voices give the listener a definite sense of place.  Their camaraderie shines through when they mention requesting vacation time together and how Nieves misses “my partner” after working with him for nearly 10 years.

Media Grammar – Excellent.  The StoryCorps production team created a first-rate story.  In addition to the high-quality vocal recording that NPR is known for, the animation team, The Rauch Brothers, draws vivid animations that compliment the richness and tone of Bruno and Nieves’s narration.

This is the second digital story I have enjoyed on the StoryCorps site.  I look forward to delving into more stories.

Chapter Review: “Seven Steps of Digital Storytelling”

DS imageAfter reading Chapter 4 of Joe Lambert’s Digital Storytelling: Capturing Lives, Creating Community, I was tempted to jump to other readings mentioned by my peers in my Learning With Digital Stories (INTE 5340) class.  On the other hand, I realized that I was one of the few people writing responses to Lambert’s book. So, I decided to proceed to chapter 5 to discover what Lambert and his colleagues consider the important steps in creating a unique digital story.

First of all, Lambert and his StoryCenter team believe in the importance of the digital author expressing his or her viewpoints fully and expanding upon how certain events have changed the author’s life.  More importantly, Lambert focuses on the importance of the author writing without any concern for fame or publicity.  He comments, “If you burden the beginning of your process with the external expectations, you can easily interrupt or edit the little voice inside your head that is working through why the story has great personal meaning for you” (p. 55).  The second step is the author retaining ownership of his or her emotions.  The emotional undercurrent of the story is key in establishing a connection with the readers.  At times, however, the author may be hesitant to disclose certain pieces of information out of concerns of privacy.  Thirdly, the digital story must highlight a pivotal moment when things changed significantly in the author’s life.  The more details the digital author can produce, the better the reader will be able to “see” the significance of the moment.  This concept is key in the fourth step of gathering archived images or creating new ones to create a visual narrative.  Lambert brings up the concepts of “visual metaphor” and “juxtaposition” as clever methods to orchestrate images.  On the other hand, Lambert advises against quickly gathering random images from the Internet that “can take away from the integrity of the story” (p. 63).

After incorporating visual elements, the fifth step in digital storytelling is creating the audio elements.  Key to this is the author recording his or her own voice, since, as Lambert says, “voice not only tells a vital narrative but it also captures the essence of the narrator, their unique character, and their connection to the lived experience” (p.63).  Mixing in music and ambient sound (thunder, traffic noise, etc) can be useful, but only if it adds, rather than subtracts, from the overall emotional tone of the story.  Editing the visual and audio elements together is the sixth step, where the author determines what elements of the story will be included and when those elements will appear.  As a rule, Lambert’s team sets certain constraints regarding narration words (250 – 375) and visual images (less than 20).  The final step is sharing the story with the audience, where digital authors may need to make revisions based on who they want to share their stories with on the World Wide Web.

I found these steps very easy for a novice digital author to comprehend.   Perhaps the biggest challenge for most people would be the first two steps: “Owning Your Insights” and “Owning Your Emotions.”  As an introvert, I’m often reluctant to express myself openly to a group of people, much less the whole Internet.  Still, there’s something very therapeutic about telling a remarkable story to a large group strangers in cyberspace.

Digital Story Critique – “Opening Doors”

Immigration is a very hot topic.  From American politicians (or pseudo-politicians) advocating a ban on Muslims from entering the United States to European leaders closing their boarders to Middle Eastern refugees from war-torn countries, there is a lot of concern regarding immigrants.  Most of the soundbites come from influential people in power.  The immigrants, many of whom come legally for educational or employment reasons, rarely get an opportunity to give their perspective.  That’s why it’s refreshing to watch “Opening Doors“, a StoryCenter video created by Tahira Hussain, a student from Pakistan.  She carries the responsibility of being the first person in her family to go to college.  For this critique, I judged the digital story on the following assessment traits (as established by Jason Ohler in his book Digital Storytelling in the Classroom):

  • Story – Hussain draws the viewer in by telling her story first-hand.  She gives a glimpse into the cultural traditions of her community in Pakistan, including the staggering difference between how a family is treated when a daughter, rather than a son, leaves for college.  Even before she got accepted into a college, she admitted she was “too scared to apply.” She also comments that she could not go to the local doctor by herself because she was “not allowed to go out without a man.”  By the end of the story however, Hussain seems more confident after completing her studies.  In addition, she remarks how she has inspired other women in her Pakistani village to get an education.
  • Originality, voice and creativity –  If Hussain had told this story in her native language, there might have been a greater emotional undercurrent in her voice, but she does a solid job of unfolding the timeline of events in English.  She includes a number of personal photographs from her childhood in Pakistan as well as her schooling in the United States, including photos of her creating banners in support of environmental causes.  There are also a couple of images, including a video clip of rippling water, that add abstract emotional layers to the story.
  • Media grammar –  It’s fairly evident that this was Hussain’s first time creating a digital story.  Some of the photos were scanned at lower resolutions and the audio level of the narration varies throughout the video.  Still, it’s not bad for a first effort.

As a tutor at the Community College of Denver, I often work with students from far-off places in Asia, Africa and the Middle East.  I sometimes wonder if each of these students have their own story to tell about leaving the world they were born into then and the world they live in now.   Even loud-mouth politicians could learn a thing or two from them.

 

Scholarly Response: “Story Time”

Recently, I was skimming through On Wisconsin, the alumni magazine from my alma mater, the University of Wisconsin-Madison.  In addition to articles about noteworthy alumni, there are often stories about professors and students conducting innovating research projects on the Madison campus.  One such article, “Story Time”, detailed a unique storytelling project involving UW students and military veterans at a Madison-area Veterans Administration (VA) hospital.  The project, called “My Life, My Story“, was initiated in 2013 by a UW School of Medicine and Public Health psychiatry resident and has since been adopted by six other VA facilities across the country.  The program gives veterans an opportunity to tell their stories about what they have gone through in military and civilian life.  A volunteer, usually a medical or literature student, acts as an interviewer and writes a 1000-word story.  This personal testomony enables a health care provider, such as a VA doctor or nurse, to better understand the background of a patient.  The article gives some enlightening examples of patients telling their stories and students commenting on the significance of the project.

It’s a remarkable how storytelling can help people discuss about the adversity they have encountered in their lives.  In cases such as this, it enables medical professionals to look at something other than a chart to get a better picture of a patient’s history.  Especially if a patient has put his or her life in harm’s way.

DS106 Assignment Bank – Mashup: 10 Second Song Mashup

Actually, it’s an 11 second mashup, but it’s the best I could do to throw together four of my favorite songs.  This is a Mashup Assignment on the DS106 page.  See if you can figure them out by listening to the piano introductions!