Digital Storytelling
Reflection #1
A Hero’s Journey
As we delved into the concept of the Hero’s Journey in unit one of Digital Storytelling I was ecstatic to have a path to follow. A story-circle, a template for understanding, planning, and creating an engaging story that draws people in. The thought of creating the sticky content that Chip and Dan Heath talk about in Making Your Presentation Stick isn’t quite as daunting with this tool in my tool belt. I did say not quite as daunting right… I still feel like I have a long way to go, living up to the likes of Cinderella, the Lord of the Rings, and Harry Potter is definitely daunting. The circle itself is straight forward, logical and easy to follow, but creating the story is all about imagination and grasping attention to draw the listener in. I feel like I’ve got the rocket ship, but am still gathering the tools needed to really be comfortable blasting off! With experience I might find a loophole in the story-circle, but right now I’m just glad to have the rocket ship that’s grounding me as I find my way to the next step.
Seeing the story-circle apply to learning seems natural when you approach it from the perspective of building a great story, or catch, to help the concepts stick. Then once you have their attention introduce the concepts and a call to action, before returning to the new revised learner with a wealth of new knowledge. The difficult part might be the call to action, even with a fantastic, sticky opening, your call to action and the ability to provide a compelling reason for the learner to jump into the challenge of engaging to understand, engage, and retain will certainly be more difficult in some subjects than others.
As we begin our journey through Digital Stories, and I ponder the hero’s journey and my current place in the story-circle, I feel the call to create engaging sticky learning content. I want to jump in, to know more, to get to the point where I can clearly see the options, make decisions, and start acting on them. I’ve heard the call to adventure, I have a supernatural aid in my corner, and I’m ready to absorb before jumping in to make it all happen. Well, maybe I’ll stick my toes in the water a bit before jumping straight into the deep end, but you get the picture, I’m excited and ready to go!I
So here, in my digital story land, this seeker is looking for more. I’m out there watching, trying, learning, and questioning. What other tools are there out there? How best can I utilize them? What will be most effective for different types of projects? I’m the one looking for the knowledge, learning as much as I can, finding every angle, and thinking it through before pursuing the next step.
Once upon a time there was a seeker, but she really didn’t know what that meant. Her life was full of everyone else’s priorities, not just once in a while, but everyday. One day she looked up and realized the years had flown by, her life had changed, and she had not yet accomplished the things that were most important to her. She knew she had vested time in some really important things like raising great kids, and helping others, but because she spent all of her time focused on other’s priorities she felt like she was missing something. Finally, when her children were all grown up, she set out on a quest to find her place in life, to pursue her passion, to invest in herself while trying to balance life and learning. Where the path will lead her, only time will tell.