These are the slides from a workshop I gave at the University of St. Michael's College, University of Toronto in January of 2017

1. Digital storytelling as faith formation: Part one
USMC in Toronto
24 January 2017
Mary E. Hess
Keenan Visiting Chair in Religious Education

2. I would like begin tonight with all of us acknowledging this sacred land upon which the University of St Michael’s College at the University of Toronto operates. It has
been a site of human activity for 15,000 years. This land is the territory of the Huron-Wendat and Petun First Nations, the Seneca, and most recently, the Mississaugas of
the Credit River. This territory was the subject of the Dish With One Spoon Wampum Belt Covenant, an agreement between the Iroquois Confederacy and Confederacy of
the Ojibwe and allied nations to peaceably share and care for the resources around the Great Lakes. May we be open to hearing the stories this land holds, both those
we grieve and those we celebrate.

3. outline
• brief introduction
• guidelines for our time together
• what is digital storytelling?
• three assertions
• two (or maybe three?)
exercises
• resources
• to do for next time

4. who am I? who are we here? raise your hand if you’ve been part of a digital storytelling workshop before, ryh if you are comfortable with digital editing tools, ryh if you’ve used animoto, ryh if you’ve
shared on Facebook, ryh if you’ve ever taken time to tell a story to someone you care about in person; note: this is part one of a two part workshop

5. covenants of presence
• be fully present, extending and
presuming welcome
• listen generously
• author your story
• we come as equals
• it is never “share or die”
• no fixing
• suspend judgment
• turn to wonder
• hold these stories with care
• be mindful and respectful of time
• practice confidentiality care
• welcome discomfort and
dislocation
• love the questions themselves
• believe that it is possible for us to
emerge from our time together
refreshed, surprised and less
burdened than when we came
FTE

6. digital storytelling is “a participatory media practice
focused on self representation”
Vivienne
note: there are also lots of ways to do theological reflection with commercially produced digital stories — but that’s a different workshop for another time!

10. three assertions
• human beings are “storying”
creatures
• God is the Weaver of our lives,
and so our stories have much
to tell us about who God is,
and who we are in relation to
God
• some of us may be familiar
with listening to God in terms
of biblical stories or liturgy, but
we have much less experience
with focused, careful listening
to our own personal stories
handout
explain handout

11. This first workshop is about attending to the first part of a process – what are our own stories? Before we ever try to talk about who we believe God is, and what we
believe God is doing with our lives, what can we say, descriptively, as richly as possible, about our own stories? Because we are moving towards Lent, the story prompts
I’ll give you have resonance with Lent, but you could use this process with many different kinds of prompts

12. This listening step cannot be done alone or in isolation, but far too much of what is familiar to us is done just that way – alone and in isolation, either in our heads, or in
self reinforcing circles (like self enclosing spaces in social media). Today we’re going to work on our own stories, letting them surface, and listening to each other
carefully; and then next week we’ll listen for theological themes in our stories, and work on embedding them in digital media so that they can be shared more widely.

13. your pictures
• an image that conveys a need
for forgiveness
• an image that evokes
vulnerability
• an image that conveys joy

14. exercise 1: scene and story

15. steps
• pick one of the images you
brought with you, and take
some time simply to ponder it
• then take a few moments to
write about what you can see
in the picture (stick with plain
description)
• next, take a little bit longer to
write about what you can’t see
in the picture

16. This was an exercise in description. It can be hard simply to describe, and let a reader glean something from your description, but it’s a pretty classic element of
storytelling. You want to draw your reader in by inviting them to make meaning with what you’re describing.

17. exercise 2: story listening circles

18. story elements
• enter the story
• encounter a moment where
something happens
• encounter a moment when
something changes
• respond to the moment
• leave the story

19. tasks for the storytellers
• Tell a story (no more than 2 minutes) about one of the
pictures you brought along, trying to connect it with the
journey of faith in Lent.
• Here’s the challenge: your story cannot include the words
“this is connected to my journey because…” or “faith
is…” etc. Just start telling us the story, and use it to
explore faith without explicitly using the word “faith.”

20. tasks for the story listeners
• One person listens for the facts in the story.
• One person listens for the feelings of the story.
• One person listens for the values in the story.

21. remember the timing
• storyteller shares a story for no more than 2 minutes
• person noting facts shares what they heard
• person noting feelings shares what they heard
• person noting values shares what they heard
• repeat this process for the next person in your group

22. responses — what “muscles” does this practice exercise?

23. exercise 3: story titling circles

24. the process
• tell a story (up to 2 minutes)
• pause for 5 seconds
• storyteller turns around
• listeners offer ideas for titles (up to 2 minutes)
• pause for 5 seconds
• storyteller accepts a title, or claims their own
• write the title on a sheet, repeat the process for each person

25. sharing the “table of contents” for each table

26. and what muscles does this one exercise?

27. for next week
• audio record your story in a
digital format and bring it with
you (your phone probably has
an app on it that will do this)
• bring along digital pictures that
add layers of meaning to your
story
• bring along digital music that
helps to evoke the feelings
you’d like to connect to your
story
• if you want to “look ahead,”
explore Animoto, and iMovie or
WeVideo

28. resources
• Creative Commons
• Storyingfaith.org
• Storycenter
• Storypath
• Animoto
• WeVideo

29. more info:
meh.religioused.org
storyingfaith.org
citations:
“Listening” video and “Listener” video: https://www.youtube.com/
playlist?list=PL97--bI38w6XG6Hlxrdxi1dZoTdlN8yRx
“Wonder Bread” video: Anabel Profitt, courtesy of REA
Digital Storytelling as Faith Formation poster: Emmaus
all other images by Mary Hess