Creating the future by empowering youth voices: digital storytelling

Barbara StriplingPresident, American Library AssociationAssistant Professor, Syracuse University, USA

Why empower youth voices?

Empowering youth voices

“It’s not as much a question of self-expression as a need of finding yourself.”

~ Pentti Saarikoski

• Counter invisibility• Develop sense of identity• Develop sense of cultural heritage• Share culture Build the future

Why storytelling?

Tell me a fact and I’ll learn

Tell me a truth and I’ll believe

Tell me a story and I’ll remember it forever

--Gail Matthews DeNatale

What is digital storytelling?

• Expresses personal narrative using multimedia --Modern expression of ancient art of storytelling –• Shares knowledge, wisdom, and values –

Reflection of personal culture• Involves process of meaning-making• Gives value to lived experiences• Connects experience and language

Why digital storytelling?

Why digital storytelling?

" Digital storytelling is exponentially more powerful than other forms of storytelling because the digital format immediately makes a student's knowledge available to a global audience. "

-Mark Standley

What is impact on our youth?

Strengthens literacy

Cultivates agency and voice

It’s like we all tell a story about ourselves inside our own head. Always. All the time. That story makes us what we are. We build

ourselves out of that story.~ Adapted from Patrick Rothfuss, The Name of the Wild

Agency and voice

“Ask them what’s on their mind and give them the tools to help them say what they have to say in a more powerful way.”

` Dr. Ernest Morrell

Real problems,

Authentic voices CONTROLSelf-esteem

Builds sense of identity

You can take my life, my mind

too.

You don’t have to take my

heart.

I’m giving it to you.

But the one thing you will never

get is my pen.

Because without it,

I am nothing.

Sets high expectations

You were not expected to

aspire to excellence;

You were expected to make

peace with mediocrity.

` James Baldwin

Builds cultural competence

Know whence you came. If you knowwhence you came, there is really no limit of where you can go.

~James Baldwin

Values lived experiences

“Telling personal stories

publicly celebrates our

life.“ Bernajean Porter

What processes & tools are used?

• A point of view• A dramatic question• Emotional content• Economy• Pacing• The gift of your voice• Soundtrack

Thinking about images

Seven Elements of Digital Stories:

Mentoring

Characteristics of digital stories

Open-ended Branching Hyperlinked Cross-media Participatory Exploratory Unpredictable

Posters

Photo essays

Music videos

Documentaries, Narratives

Dear Child

Impact -- Social action

What does the future hold?

"I know only one thing about the technologies that await us in the future: We will find ways to tell stories with them."

-Jason Ohler

" A story should be remembered for its soul, and not the bells and whistles."

-Bernajean Porter

Social change

“I think social change can come from any direction. Creative expression can be spread globally, which means it goes beyond culture, generation, gender, religion, and location.

Creative expression doesn’t say ‘you should do this’ but it makes people think ‘I can do something’—it leads to social change.”

—Saori Miyagawa, Adobe Youth Voices Facilitator

Thank you!Barbara Stripling

President, American Library Association

bstripli@syr.edu