Immediately I am drawn to how Sylvia Tolisano describes digital story telling because it is immediately apparent to me that this is another example of a great approach to teaching that has been redefined with technology. As Tolisano points out, stories are inherent in all cultures, and contain knowledge and wisdom that needs to be taught and passed on.
In my classroom when I teach Social Studies, I frame the content as a story, and we often discuss whose stories we are learning about, and who gets to tell them. It is a powerful exercise for students to learn how to shape a narrative, and to understand that once they have created and shared an event or idea through story, that it will become part of a bigger story. This is acutely more possible when we can teach learners to share their stories with digital storytelling tools. Most importantly are Tolisano’s three “Cs” of connect, communicate, and collaborate. Through interactions such as these three Cs learning can be designed using digital storytelling that can create authentic learning experiences that reflect Daniel Pink’s idea of mastery, autonomy and purpose that Alan November talks about in Who Owns the Learning? Learners can create a real world experience that demonstrates their learning and their interactions with others that made the learning happen. They can then continue to build on their knowledge through the ongoing connections that are made through sharing and collaboration. The learner will not have to be an elder to have their story passed on and learned from, but rather they will get to experience that “passing on’ of a narrative in the digital domain.