Interesting to find this discussion from Barbara Ganley about Barbara Sawhill’s ways to assess multimedia compositions. Clearly digital stories are being incorporated into everyday learning. From Australia this report about the ‘tsunami’ of digital storytelling. And this from Harol Jarche which reports pyschologist Anne Irwin observing soldiers telling stories after battle (!). Jarche does make the point that telling stories in organisations can be beneficial to that organisation…..(and the soldiers too we expect).

Kineo - talks about the value of storytelling in learning and gives us a list of reasons for using stories. The list includes: they engage the heart before the mind, they stick and come back, if told right they can inspire.

Digital stories work because they have impact: Kerblog shows us that at times images are enough.

We attended part of the MEANZ conference this week in Rotorua, It was good to watch and hear Jon Hawkes tell his own story and discuss the things that he sees are important for museums - one of these being the ability to tell stories. You’ll find more here: The Fourth Pillar of Sustainability.

It’s not just about telling stories, it’s about allowing people to tell their own stories. He emphasises this and we agree. Digital storytelling is about the product (the story) and the process. The process helps us reflect and may be more personal; the product helps us share. When we share we build communities.

This digital story Letter from Gallipoli. tells a story of war. It’s based on the Auckland War Memorial and Museum collection (Clark Family. Papers 1907-1944. MS2006/16).

It’s alluring to use this medium for personal stories - the ones you always mean to tell but never get around to. There’s a personal story here. Its called Warrington.

The time spent poring over old photos, discovering new faces in those images, and the opportunity to reflect on who we are make this process valuable. This article by Marsha Rossiter outlines narrative theory in relation to teaching and learning and identifies the way development is about constructing and reconstructing stories.

“Every story we tell about ourselves can only be told in the past tense. It winds backwards from where we now stand, no longer the actors in the story but its spectators who have chosen to speak”. Siri HustvedtWhat I have loved, p. 364.