Digital Storytelling

Glynda A. Hull, "At Last: Youth Culture and Digital Media: New Literacies for New Times," in Research in the Teaching of English, 38 no. 2 (November 2003): 229-233.

In this article, Hull describes watching short 3-5 minute digital storytelling pieces put together by students about their lives. These stories (assisting students in creating them, documenting meanings and significance) "bring home to me," she argues, "a most urgent need: to expand our conceptions of what it means to be fully literate in new times" (229-230). Technology, multimedia, and creativity as well as an interconnected world creates a more aware identity, one that these students harnessed to explain to others. The Digital Underground Storytelling for Young (DUSTY) program enacted as a university-community project brings digital storytelling into everyday existence in the Oakland community through the University of California, Berkeley. Hull calls for alternative learning spaces "centered on youth culture and new media and new literacies, both inside school and out" (233) which is very interesting because that is what we are doing!

Glynda A. Hull and Mira-Lisa Katz, "Crafting an Agentive Self: Case Studies of Digital Storytelling," in Researching in the Teaching of English, 41 no. 1 (August 2006): 43-81.

This article, again by Hull, is a comparative study between a child and a young adult, Randy and Dara, who both used digital media to address specific and important moments in their lives. "These cases demonstrate how digital storytelling, in combination with supportive social relationships and opportunities for participation in a community-based organization, provided powerful means and motivation for forming and giving voice to agentive selves," Hull and Katz argue. The two again discuss DUSTY and the work they do with young people through digital storytelling. Through this program, community involvement and storytelling through digital means become powerful forces in their lives.

NOTE: If the links above do not work, these articles are available on JSTOR.

Real World Uses for Digital History

The three digital histories I chose to look at online included:


1. The Digital History projects of the University of Nebraska, Lincoln:
http://digitalhistory.unl.edu/


2. The Virginia Center for Digital History from the University of Virginia:
http://www.vcdh.virginia.edu/index.php?page=VCDH


3. The Pasadena Digital History Collaboration for the town of Pasadena, California:
http://pasadenadigitalhistory.com/about.php


These digital history sites all argue that their purpose is to educate both the public and scholars by giving access to certain historical information through the use of digital history. The Digital History site of UNL also gives its readers reviews and an opportunity to study the major online projects relating to digital histories online.


Another theme of these sites is the relevance of digital media at this time. The Virginia Center for Digital History claims that the "digital age" creates a need for resources to be available to a scholarly audience through "innovative applications of technology for digital history." The Pasadena Digital History Collection stresses the importance of being able to access vast amounts of information through one portal: their website.


These websites have different types of audiences. UVA's digital history page is structured for scholarly research, which may develop from their vast amounts of collections and their increasing need to open accessibility to the many scholars hoping to utilize their sources. UNL claims access for both researchers and the public (and their site is organized in such a way as to be helpful to both). The Pasadena site, however, seems to be set up generally for the public. I believe this is a result of their local study--the scope of their collection is quite small compared to the other two sites being surveyed.


All three of these sites are very authoritative on their subjects. UVA and UNL are institutions of higher learning and offer scholars and historians easy access to their sources. While the Pasadena collection is more directed to the public, it is a collaboration of all cultural institutions in Pasadena, CA. These local history focused organizations are reputable.


I read a few articles on the use of digital media to produce and present history, including a conversation by historians relating to the use and practicality of digital history as well as it's important qualities. One historian even claimed that now, scholars must struggle with abundance of resources, not scarcity. While I won't go so far as to agree whole-heartedly with this statement, my own work in researching digitized sources reveals a more abundant selection than I imagined.


Where digital history fails, articles agree, is in the amount of time and energy it takes to accurately present history via digital media. This is a slow process, slower than people in the "digital age" are used to and can hinder the quickness of pulling up a source from your own computer instead of traveling 1,000 miles to an archive for a few days. That being said, however, the sources that are digitized are such an amazing help and resource that the digitization process, in its infant stages, must continue.

Themes for Digital Histories

Since I am not originally from Texas, there are themes about UH and Houston in general that jump out at me as being special and worthy of study. A few that I have chosen are not as unique to the school per se and are present in many areas of the United States, but I feel have a special impact on UH. 




Themes:


1. Race - I know very little about the restructuring of UH's student body in the 1950s and 1960s apart from the bare minimum, but this is a school that was at the heart of this issue. There were gatherings, protests, and other forms of action to both facilitate and discourage the integration of UH. Currently UH is one of the most racially and ethnically diverse campuses in the nation--that is a vast change from 50-60 years ago and a theme worthy of study.


2. Gender - My own studies deal with the study of gender and since women in higher education is (much like an interracial student body) only decades old at UH, this is intriguing. As a woman in academia--and with over 50% of college students women these days--this is also a major shift worthy of study for digital history.


3. Hurricanes/Weather - Since I am a native of New York, I have instilled in me the fear of hurricanes as something unnatural and unknown. I check the National Hurricane Center almost every day to ensure that I won't be stuck in one. I studied the 1900 Galveston hurricane in an undergraduate class in New York and never thought I'd be down here where those things were a possibility. The role of hurricanes in UH's history is, therefore, an interesting and new topic for me. I think it would be interesting to see student's reactions to these disasters. Maybe they won't be too profound, but I am still very intrigued.