When people talk about art, they normally think about a painting or sculpture of some sort. But, art comes in many forms, and allows for feelings and thoughts to be conveyed without the use of words. Digital storytelling allows for people to capture any moment in their lives and make it come alive for all to see. People can replay their memories over and over again in their heads like it happened yesterday, but it is difficult for everyone to convey exactly what they remember. Digital storytelling gives us the power to communicate our feelings and thoughts to others in the most detailed and exact way possible. We’ve had hieroglyphs, words on stone and papyrus, verbal stories, the paint brush, the pen, and now the computer. As stated by Kress, "there are now choices about how what is to be represented should be represented: in what mode, in what genre, in what ensembles of modes and genres on what ocassions"(Kress, 2003, p.117). And today, computers are becoming the mode of choice to share experiences and thoguths with one another. As said in Educational Uses of Digital Storytelling by the University of Houston, “Digital storytelling at its most basic core is the practice of using computer-based tools to tell stories”; computers are our modern day paint brush (University of Houston).

Digital storytelling allows “digital natives” to open up and share their thoughts, memories, and passions with the digital world that they have been nurtured in and prefer to reside in (Pensky, 2001). As Pensky pointed out and I have previously written, teachers need new tools to do their because the students they are teaching are changing, and always will change. Teaching is sensitive to the new wave of technology and the progression of society, and using digital storytelling is a great tool for “digital natives” to hone. It allows the “digital native” to feel at home with technology while the teacher is able to mold the student’s style and experiences into one cohesive piece of work.

As I have said in the past, “today’s online age is all about flash”; Digital storytelling, digital rhetoric, and the “old style” of rhetoric are about flash too. You want people to stick around to actually listen to what you’re saying or read what you’ve put to paper(or pixel). The audio and visual pizzazz that is woven in to each digital story aims to not only communicate the creator’s emotion and experience but also to grab and hold the audience’s attention.

Digital storytelling has an aspect of credibility to it. In our era, identity and affiliation are a huge part of how we look at things. And the same thing applies to telling a digital story. Every image and sound that is seen and heard has to be in some way, shape, or form original. Originality is key for anything digital. You don’t have to reinvent the wheel, but you do have to shed a bit of creative blood. You can grab something off Youtube, but you have to make it your own. Or else, the big bad backstabbing wolf(aka some random lawyer and their client) is going to come and get you. Originality protects you, and it brings a nice shine to your work.

Digital storytelling is a wonderful next step in the evolution of rhetoric. Rhetoric turned into digital rhetoric, and now that is turning into digital storytelling. Digital rhetoric still had the constraints of just words as tools, but now, with the evolution and jump into digital storytelling, the world has music, picture and video, and word of mouth under its belt to aid it in storytelling. Now, everyone is able to tell their story in a way that allows the experience to be full and encompassing. The world has billions of people with millions of stories to share. And now, its possible for people to share those stories in their genuine and full grace.

References

Pensky, Marc. (2001) Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants. Retrieved from: http://www.marcprensky.com/writing/Prensky%20-%20Digital%20Natives,%20Digital%20Immigrants%20-%20Part1.pdf

Univeristy of Houston. What is Digital Storytelling? Retrieved from: http://digitalstorytelling.coe.uh.edu/page.cfm?id=27&cid=27

Image 1 taken from: http://jkirbydigitalmedia.blogspot.com/2012/09/digital-natives-vs-digital-immigrants.html

Image 2 taken from: http://www.christabanister.com/for-writers/

Image 3 taken from: https://borchardtlibrary.edublogs.org/digital-storytelling/