Digital Storytelling in English Studies

“This has definitely been an invaluable experience in more than one way. I have gained useful and practical skills in video-making, and have also been exposed to a variety of different platforms that offer different skills and techniques for depicting my story. More than that, however, I have also gained the necessary confidence in self-expression and articulation; this workshop has definitely encouraged me to build on my capability to tell a personal and intimate story in a new, original, and authentic digital form.  […] this workshop has not only added pragmatic value to my self-development, but also some level of personal value. Furthermore, I have learnt to be more comfortable with sharing my story with others and receiving critical feedback, a necessary and important feature that I couldn’t quite come to terms with before. I have also found that the small group sizes have been especially beneficial in developing my confidence, and it helps that the instructors were so invested and enthusiastic about the whole programme, as this made me feel like what we were doing and what we had to say were worthwhile.”

As part of the course we learned about the copyright laws surrounding online images and how to identify the way an image is categorised. This is a skill which is very much relevant to many elements of English when it is considered logically – specifically journalism, or online content creating of any kind – but not something which easily fits into a general curriculum. Having the chance to learn about this and then put it into practise, then, was both interesting and useful.

“Personally, I found that the digital storytelling workshop was invaluable in developing my digital skills, as well as my skills as a writer. Though the software we used was simple, I was given a great understanding of the scope of digital film editing software and learned about the benefits and drawbacks of the major tools. This knowledge was exceptionally helpful for me as someone who is interested in film production. […] The writing and creative skills I developed will also doubtless prove useful for my future. In particular, I enjoyed learning about the size of the creative industry and the amazing advice given by the seminar leaders, particularly regarding breaking through into the field and finding success. A clearly-stated purpose for the course helped motivate me to make my story as good as possible.”

“The entire experience was new and surprising as I had never attempted doing something like this before. I felt the complete experience was refreshing and very interesting as I not only created a Digital Story but also introspected about my complete relationship with English Literature and had to focus in on the one transformative experience that I would create a story around for my video. […] The entire workshop was centred around ensuring participants had a comfortable and safe atmosphere to be able to share their personal experiences. The positive feedback and keen eye of the participants and Alistair and Teti helped me improve my Digital Story, probably edit it too in the future. The entire experience of the course and creating a digital story was definitely wonderful and very encouraging in making me think about creating more digital stories too.”

Dr Alistair Brown worked with Teti who supported him to train up to be a DS facilitator and they went on to co-develop the DS workshop prosepctus for English Studies. Following the first DS pilot workshop, his response to the question ‘how would you describe the experience in 3 adjectives?’ is as follows:

“It’s been confirmatory. Having four days of workshops confirmed some assumptions or thinking about digital and the student experience and different ways of working. So that’s a good one, but that’s a very practical one. So I’d definitely add enlightening having gone through the process. As I said just going through that video with X I was like ‘oh that’s a really reflective thing for me, as a teacher’. And also revelatory. I don’t want to come across as anything grand but I think revelatory of the fact that there’s often a gap between students and teachers at a professional level, that sometimes needs to be there, but that also can be a very impersonal experience. And this feeling of telling stories, and feeling confident in an environment to share and up about those stories, and I feel really, really privileged to have heard everyone’s stories. It’s been – at the jaded end of a year when you’re absolutely worn down it’s just been a very empowering reminder.”