Digital storytelling is a big part of what I do. I help people to tell stories. I’m a non-executive director of Curiosity Creative, a social enterprise devoted to community storytelling.
There’s a picture of kids visiting the Rijksmuseum, absorbed in their phones amongst the priceless artworks that pops up on social media like whack-a-mole from time to time. The message that some take from it isn’t accurate but it’s a useful window in the power of narrative and what that means in the “post truth” society.
Watch this trailer. It’s for the upcoming film Morgan and it’s very interesting. How effective do you think it is? Does it feel like all the other trailers you watch or different somehow. HINT: Don’t rewind it as the preamble gives some spoilerific context. You probably picked up on the clues before you got the […]
This wasn’t an easy read, but it was an enjoyable one. It was the other half of a 2 for 1 from Waterstones (the other was Jon Ronson’s excellent book on shaming) so I got it on the strength of the blurb rather then reputation. It’s going to be hard to describe this book without […]
People choose to share certain things via social media mostly because they confirm something about their view of the world. Even if the story or image is “shocking” on one level it’s more likely it’s being shared because it fits with an existing narrative rather than disrupting one. Understanding our own narratives and those of the people around us is an important part of developing digital identities and digital wellbeing.
I think Steve Clayton has my dream job. I’m not Microsoft fanboi but he’s their Chief Storyteller. I recently watched his presentation about “the secret to telling awesome stories” which was fascinating, mostly from the point of view of how a company like Microsoft differentiates storytelling from marketing.
There is more than one way of creating digital stories. Prompted by a question during a conference presentation, here are some examples of interactive documentaries that show how powerful the web can be as a storytelling tool.
In the last week there has been quite a bit of interest on Twitter about Adobe’s latest mobile app, Voice, so I had a proper look at it. Here are my impressions.
Digital Storytelling for public engagement at #digifest14 This is a post from the Netskills Voices blog with a Storify’d breakdown of a presentation I delivered with my colleague Caroline Ingram at the Jisc Digital Festival in March.
I’m writing this as a contribution to BlappSnapp, a series of posts on mobile apps in the classroom for Julian Wood (@ideas_factory). You can see the previous post in the chain here. If you’ve done any work with digital video you’ll know that the results that learners achieve can be amazing. You’ll also know what […]
My latest post for Netskills on developing an approach to writing stories for educators and researchers.