Category: adversity

Digital Story Critique: Kindertransport

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Bundesarchiv, Bild 183-S69279 / CC-BY-SA 3.0 [CC BY-SA 3.0 de (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/de/deed.en)], via Wikimedia Commons

During most of my semester in the Learning With Digital Stories (INTE5430) class, I have been focusing on the theme of adversity.  The World Wide Web offers a wide variety of digital stories from people who have either experienced adversity first-hand or knew of someone close to them who experienced it.  On the University of Houston’s Educational Uses of Digital Storytelling site, there are several digital stories that relate to this theme of adapting and surviving from sudden change.  One such story is Kindertransport: The Unknown Children of the Holocaust by Eliz Markowitz.  Markowitz talks about how her grandmother and grandmother’s twin sister were rescued from the Nazi regime before the start of World War II.  As in previous critiques, I judged this digital story on the following assessment traits (as established by Jason Ohler in his book Digital Storytelling in the Classroom):

Research – Markowitz gives the viewer lots of historical and personal background information.  She includes details such as her relatives’ upbringing in Austria, the fallout of Kristallnacht and how both her grandmother and twin sister were able to leave for England.  Also, she incorporates an abundance of historical photographs, family pictures and Nazi propaganda posters.  Some of the images are disturbing, but she includes them to make the viewer understand the impact of the Holocaust.

Originality, Voice, Creativity – Markowitz gives a unique perspective of a person who has been impacted by the Kindertransport rescue.  Her images range from happy family portraits to horrific photos of concentration camp execution chambers.  At times, the juxtaposition of images feels sporadic and puzzling, but maybe that’s because it characterizes the insanity of war.  Markowitz’s narration is clear and calm, but at times, I wish she would slow down and give the viewer a moment to absorb the emotional subtext of the story.  I like how she used the song “Sunrise, Sunset” from Fiddler on the Roof as a music bed.  I just wish she used a second piece of music instead of repeating one song over again.

Citations – This is an assessment trait that is the weakest.  There are no citations to the archived photos in the video.  I would like to have known where she found them.  Plus, Markowitz does not cite the copyrighted music from Fiddler on the Roof.  In previous videos from this website, I’ve noticed other digital storytellers that have omitted citations as well.  I think the digital storytelling facilitators at the University of Houston should make citations a requirement.

Overall, Markowitz did an impressive job of telling how this major event of compassion saved many lives and preserved future generations of Jewish families, including her own.

Scholarly Response: Digital Storytelling and the Flint Water Crisis

um-water-research-540x360This week, I found an interesting article from the University of Michigan-Flint regarding the topic of digital storytelling. The community of Flint, Michigan received over $100,000 in seed money to fund various projects in the clean-up of Flint’s contaminated water supply. In addition to long-term projects aimed at solving the city’s infrastructure, there will be funding set aside to teaching journalism and digital storytelling skills to Flint-area students during a summer class on environmental issues. Instructors from UM-Flint, UM-Dearborn, UM-Ann Arbor, and Genesse Early College will collaborate on the project.  According to Jeremy Allen at UM Public Affairs, “teachers will assist the students in producing digital stories describing their own and others’ experiences in Flint during the past months.”

With much of the mainstream media covering the presidential race, it’s hard to find any coverage lately on the impact of civic disasters like the one going on in Flint. Lead poisoning by a careless corporation is one thing, but lead poisoning as a result of lazy government oversight is another. Getting the perspectives of Flint citizens who have been impacted by this health crisis could give digital storytelling some greater visibility and credibility.

Digital Story Critique – “Opening Doors”

Immigration is a very hot topic.  From American politicians (or pseudo-politicians) advocating a ban on Muslims from entering the United States to European leaders closing their boarders to Middle Eastern refugees from war-torn countries, there is a lot of concern regarding immigrants.  Most of the soundbites come from influential people in power.  The immigrants, many of whom come legally for educational or employment reasons, rarely get an opportunity to give their perspective.  That’s why it’s refreshing to watch “Opening Doors“, a StoryCenter video created by Tahira Hussain, a student from Pakistan.  She carries the responsibility of being the first person in her family to go to college.  For this critique, I judged the digital story on the following assessment traits (as established by Jason Ohler in his book Digital Storytelling in the Classroom):

  • Story – Hussain draws the viewer in by telling her story first-hand.  She gives a glimpse into the cultural traditions of her community in Pakistan, including the staggering difference between how a family is treated when a daughter, rather than a son, leaves for college.  Even before she got accepted into a college, she admitted she was “too scared to apply.” She also comments that she could not go to the local doctor by herself because she was “not allowed to go out without a man.”  By the end of the story however, Hussain seems more confident after completing her studies.  In addition, she remarks how she has inspired other women in her Pakistani village to get an education.
  • Originality, voice and creativity –  If Hussain had told this story in her native language, there might have been a greater emotional undercurrent in her voice, but she does a solid job of unfolding the timeline of events in English.  She includes a number of personal photographs from her childhood in Pakistan as well as her schooling in the United States, including photos of her creating banners in support of environmental causes.  There are also a couple of images, including a video clip of rippling water, that add abstract emotional layers to the story.
  • Media grammar –  It’s fairly evident that this was Hussain’s first time creating a digital story.  Some of the photos were scanned at lower resolutions and the audio level of the narration varies throughout the video.  Still, it’s not bad for a first effort.

As a tutor at the Community College of Denver, I often work with students from far-off places in Asia, Africa and the Middle East.  I sometimes wonder if each of these students have their own story to tell about leaving the world they were born into then and the world they live in now.   Even loud-mouth politicians could learn a thing or two from them.

 

Scholarly Response: “Story Time”

Recently, I was skimming through On Wisconsin, the alumni magazine from my alma mater, the University of Wisconsin-Madison.  In addition to articles about noteworthy alumni, there are often stories about professors and students conducting innovating research projects on the Madison campus.  One such article, “Story Time”, detailed a unique storytelling project involving UW students and military veterans at a Madison-area Veterans Administration (VA) hospital.  The project, called “My Life, My Story“, was initiated in 2013 by a UW School of Medicine and Public Health psychiatry resident and has since been adopted by six other VA facilities across the country.  The program gives veterans an opportunity to tell their stories about what they have gone through in military and civilian life.  A volunteer, usually a medical or literature student, acts as an interviewer and writes a 1000-word story.  This personal testomony enables a health care provider, such as a VA doctor or nurse, to better understand the background of a patient.  The article gives some enlightening examples of patients telling their stories and students commenting on the significance of the project.

It’s a remarkable how storytelling can help people discuss about the adversity they have encountered in their lives.  In cases such as this, it enables medical professionals to look at something other than a chart to get a better picture of a patient’s history.  Especially if a patient has put his or her life in harm’s way.

Weekly Reflection: Spring (Break) Has Sprung!

1280px-Daytona_Beach_Sunrise_from_La_Playa_MotelToday is the first day of spring in the Northern Hemisphere.  For students at the University of Colorado-Denver, tomorrow is the first (official) day of spring break.  A perfect time to get away from school work and rest the mind.  At the same time, students at several major universities will be thinking of their schools in the downtime as their basketball teams compete in the NCAA basketball tournament.  The men’s team of my alma mater, the University of Wisconsin-Madison, will be playing Xavier University tonight, so I’ll be heading to a sports bar later to cheer the Badgers on to victory!

So it’s fair to say right now that my mind is not occupied with my studies, but I did want to mention something about my Learning With Digital Stories (INTE 5340) class.  This past week, I explored a unique digital storytelling cite called StoryCorps.   If you’re an avid listener of NPR, you’ve probably heard these personal stories from time to time.  Many of them involve people discussing how an adverse event or situation has changed their lives.  In my previous blog post, I wrote a critique of a moving digital story entitled “1st Squad, 3rd Platoon.”  With StoryCorps, I was amazed how much emotional detail can come from an audio recording of a person.  This gives me some ideas of what I might be able to accomplish when I create my own digital story later in this semester for this class.  I’m glad Lori, our instructor, gave us some flexibility in submitting future assignments.  Routine can dull the mind.

So now it’s time to sit back and relax.  Granted, I won’t be going to a beach in Cozumel, but at least I’ll have time to get outside and enjoy the (mostly) sunny terrain of Colorado and cheer my team in the Big Dance.  Go Badgers!