Education: Digital Stories of Identity

The Berkeley, CA-based StoryCenter regards digital stories as narratives about pivotal moments or life events. Using this model, Dr. Sue Ellen Henry’s students created digital stories about aspects of their identities. This assignment invited students to select a feature of their identity and investigate a critical moment relating to that feature in a multimedia presentation meant for a public audience. While the content for such an investigation is rather typical for a multiculturalism course, the multi-modal element and the public nature of the performance were significant changes to the assignment. Typically, students write papers only the professor sees. In this case, the students got to produce a high-quality, multimedia video presentation for a public audience. -Sue Ellen Henry Digital stories are so important for the 21st century student. They are learning how media influences them to feel a certain way and how you can manipulate emotions with images, audio, and effects and when they discover that, they are ready to become producers of their own media. \u27I really enjoyed learning about this technology and it made me feel like I have more to say with regard to visual rhetoric and digital media literacy. -Sue Ellen Henry Below are 3 digital stories produced by students in Dr. Henry’s class