1. Digital storytelling
at CPUT
Daniela Gachago &
Veronica Barnes

2. What Happens When You Turn Your
Back In A 21st Century Classroom…
http://www.teachthought.com/technology/what-happens-when-you-turn-your-back-in-a-21st-century-classroom/

3. • My computer is the nucleus of my workspace
• When I need information I go online
• Besides IM or email my cell phone is my primary method of
communication
• I’m usually juggling five things at once
• My attention span is very small
• I want instant gratification
• I get bored very easily
Oblinger 2008
New generation of students

4. Oblinger

5. Axel Bruns

6. Challenges

7. We want stories. We love stories. Stories keep us
alive. Stories that come from a place of deep
insight and with a knowing wink to their audience,
and stories that tease us into examining our own
feelings and beliefs, and stories that guide us on
our own path. But most importantly, stories told as
stories, that honor the simple idea that we want to
relive what the author experienced in time and
place.
Joe Lambert, 2013

8. Digital storytelling at CPUT

9. Course models of DST projects
Education

10. Definition – digital stories / narratives

11. • Digital literacies
• Alternative to research essay
• Authentic acquisition of content
• Flexibility
• Link to communities – transfer of academic
content to personal lives
• Student engagement
• Alternative assessment tool
Why digital narratives?

12. Student feedback
If you’re reading something and you get to watch it , so
you’re absorbing it, hearing it and you’re doing it
especially because part of you were doing the whole
thingy. So as you’re doing it, you’re learning from it and
it was fun like most videos it was fun.
So you kind of want to play the video over and over and
you know… it was the fun part like apply what you learnt
into the movie …
Thembani: I feel like the video it’s kind of good way of
learning like I will prefer the video like in anything.
Interviewer: Why?

13. Planning of DST projects
Intro
Research /
brainstorming
Scripting Storyboarding
Images
Photostory/
iMovie/
Moviemaker
Narration
Background
sounds &
Music
Screening
Visual literacy
Academic literacy,
Planning &
sequencing
Performance
Multimedia skills
Information literacy

14. Work in progress

15. • Focus on open source /
freely available software
on the web
• Audacity & MovieMaker
• Photostory
Software & media used

16. Creative commons

17. Digital Storytelling

18. Digital storytelling

19. Storytelling

20. Storytelling

21. Planning of DST projects (7 steps of DST)
Intro
PLA / Storycircle
Scripting Storyboarding
Images
Photostory Narration
Background
sounds
Screening
Owning your insights
Owning your emotions
Finding the moment
Seeing your story
Hearing your story
Assembling your story
Sharing your story

22. Visit to Kirstenbosch, reflect on the experience

24. DST Workshop 1
DST introduction, community map, title and statement of intent

25. Mobile learning and digital storiesParticipatory Learning and Action Techniques

26. • Aim: establishing needs of various groups in
communities in order to develop some form of action
on this need
• Important: critical self-consciousness on the part of the
researchers as well as a concern with social justice
• Characterized as process, not a one-off event which is
interactive, uses visual methods, is aimed at action and
reflection and is usually practiced in a group setting.
• Good for students with diverse academic literacy skills
• Examples: Community Mapping or River of Life
Participatory Learning & Action Techniques

27. Community mapping - urban

28. Community map - rural

29. River of Life

30. River of Life

31. • Social cohesion / social pedagogy
• From vulnerability to pride, pedagogy of
discomfort
• Social justice education
• Engagement with issues around diversity
• Critical reflection
• Student identity
Benefits of digital storytelling

32. So yes, if you get exposed to
another person’s culture,
surely you will respect that
culture eventually and you
will learn about that person
and you see that person
with more respect and in a
better light.
Real stories
Everybody has their own story to tell. So digital
story allows you to tell your specific story and
share it amongst everybody in your classroom.

33. • Technology
• Assessment
• Time
• Access
• Diverse literacy skills
• Adapting model to specific discipline
• Process vs product
• Dissemination of stories (access, copyright)
Challenges of DST projects

34. Examples of student stories
• Ferrania – Mild steel man (Industrial Design first years):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VFcrN_GeRzc&feature=c4-
overview&list=UUm3GeRbRnpn-pkOTtaHSyOg
• Sun by Angela Biko:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k6LoHFcOnPg&list=PLe5oHsfRWAnTgi
HhMeK35B9-Az-pYMMCu
• Education stories:
http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLe5oHsfRWAnRFpFOgFccYrdiNb4V
1KAB3

35. Any questions?
• www.cput.ac.za/blogs/edutech
• http://www.cput.ac.za/blogs/edutech/digital-
storytelling-resources/
• YouTube channel:
http://www.youtube.com/user/CPUTstories
• gachagod@cput.ac.za or barnesv@cput.ac.za
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