Creating a digital story was just like being a student again — with all the possibilities and pitfalls that entails.
- I was learning how to use new technology, find material to use, and create something worthwhile all at the same time. I felt the stress of having to create something interesting and meaningful under pressure — and yet making the final product like it was effortless and could be no other way. I sometimes forget when I am teaching students how to analyze policies, how to use SPSS, and how to write up their arguments that all of this can be very new and foreign to them. I forget that fluency with any media or language is built over time and with experience.
- Last night I was up at midnight, having written ten different drafts of the script and recorded the audio at least seven times (only to wake up inspired, change the script, and re-record this morning). My husband came downstairs, laughed at me, and said, “This isn’t even for a grade!” I realize how much I want something to look perfect (or as close to) when it is public. I remember too why students sometimes take their grades personally — There is something of ourselves in any creative endeavor.
- I forgot to do my “homework”! That’s right. I forgot to post my daily reflection yesterday because I was in such angst about the DST. And I’m only taking one “course”! (To make up, Profs. Warren and Scott, this post is longer than typically the case.)
On the other hand, I really enjoyed the creative freedom of the digital story. As a “scientist,” I am used to be detached and analytical, even when my papers have “my take” in them. I found it really hard to write the DST script this way. However, once I was able to “find my voice” and write “from the heart,” I found the process a lot easier, but it was like I had to think and speak in a different way. I also realized that I could create a two-level story, one told in the spoken narrative and one conveyed through the visual images. I could be ironic. I could leave a lot unsaid — and in fact, the story could be more effective that way.
When I was done, I had a great feeling of satisfaction in getting to flex creative muscles that I don’t normally use and to bring forth something so closely tied to me — as a person instead of me the political scientist.
I am still not sure how I will use digital stories for my courses. I’ll have to think about that some more. I ask students to use quantitative and qualitative data to analyze social and economic phenomena. I don’t know that digital stories would be effective for this. But I also want (and it is often more a wish than an outcome) students to write with an awareness of the human beings behind the data. I could see digital stories being a powerful medium for building that awareness.