Shifting the Balance of Powere-learning and digital storytellingLearning and Teaching Conference June 2009Elspeth McLeanStaff Development OfficerSchool of Health Sciencesemclean@liv.ac.uk

Why stories?Connection with audienceHold ambivalence and paradoxHave their own truth – but don’t have to be trueHave an emotional content and authenticity

Digital storiesI 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 processJoe Lambert, Center for Digital Storytelling

Why digital storytelling?Telling a story gets a point across about someone else’s life and experienceEngages emotionsShortAccessibleThe person who the story is about is in control Complements other ways that local people are involved in student learning

It was April and a group of people got together to tell stories with the people from Patient Voices….

A laptop was waiting…..

Slowly but surely the digital stories got made…..

Watch some storiesTo 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

Ways to use digital storiesShow 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 groupUse to assess understanding of how theory relates to practiceAsk students to make their own – eg with photostory or Powerpoint (your will need ground rules and a clear policy on copyright and consent issues)

ReferencesBBC Capture Wales www.bbc.co.uk/wales/capturewalesCenter for Digital Storytelling www.storycenter.orgPatient Voices www.patientvoices.org.uk