New literacies in practice: digital storytelling

What are "new literacies"?  It's a term -- to paraphrase Lankshear & Knoble (2006) -- that encompasses all the transformed social practices as well as the new forms of social practice brought about by the rise of digital and mobile technologies. These practices are significantly different from print-based literacies (pp. 24-25).

But what exactly does this transformation of social practices look like and sound like?

If someone were to ask me to explain new literacies, I would share my experience as a teacher/learner in TPTE 486, the course on technology integration that every preservice teacher must take at the University of Tennessee-Knoxville. In 486 we create "digital stories," and this summer I was absolutely blown away by the remarkable innovation demonstrated by our K-12 preservice teachers as they engaged in very new ways with the traditional print-based practice of storytelling using Apple's iMovie.

Digital storytelling is new literacies in action.

And, it's important to note that when digital storytelling is done right, the principles of traditional storytelling remain in tact.  The content, the message, and the overall impact upon the listener and viewer are enhanced, not subverted, by the bells and whistles of technology.  With all due respect to Mr. McLuhan, this is not to suggest that the medium and the message are not intertwined and symbiotic -- they are -- but from an instructional standpoint, the teacher/facilitator/coach must not make the mistake of letting the digital tool hijack the storytelling process. 

I say this because our TPTE 486 students struggle mightily with the iMovie application, and I fear this may derail their ambition to integrate digital stories in their future practice with young learners (if any ambition of the sort existed in the first place). To quote Alan Levine who has cleverly documented the numerous Web 2.0 ways to tell a story,

It was not long ago that producing multimedia digital content required expensive equipment and technical expertise; we are at the point now where we can do some very compelling content creation with nothing more complex than a web browser.

photo by Pilar Torres

The storytelling tool, or "medium" as it were, is not necessarily inconsequential, for it does come to bear upon the storyteller's choices and the overall impression he or she creates.  As any good storyteller knows, success depends first upon careful consideration of one's subject, audience, and purpose.  Even the ancient Greek rhapsodes, after all, modified their epic performances according to local laws and customs while at the same time modulating the emotional quality of their voices and carefully choosing attire that would grab their audience's attention.

In digital storytelling, the key is to avoid overreliance upon any one tool.  Careful consideration of subject, audience, and purpose should drive the storyteller's choice of medium. Levine has annotated and linked to more than 50 such mediums at his digital storytelling wiki.

In my next post, I will share links to some of the best digital stories produced by preservice teachers during the Summer 2010 session at UT-Knoxville.

New literacies in practice: digital storytelling