Category: adversity

Chapter Critique – “The Work of Story”

Most of the time, change is good.  For our Learning with Digital Stories class (INTE5340), we were given the option of critiquing a different reading from the book Digital Storytelling: Capturing Lives, Creating Community.  The author is Joe Lambert, who founded the Center For Digital Storytelling in 1994.  The organization’s website, StoryCenter, showcases a variety of digital stories that include themes such as health, family, education and social justice.  I’ve already critiqued a couple of these videos on my blog.  After reading this chapter, I felt like I was having an “Ah Ha!” moment in realizing the purpose of humans to tell stories.

This first chapter, entitled “The Work of Story”, explored an interesting explanation on the origins of storytelling.  From Lambert’s point of view, much of it has to do with human survival and endurance.  I found this significant since a major focal theme I am concentrating on in this class is adversity.  Lambert nicely explains that:

“The memories associated with our most important life lessons are inevitably those with either strong emotional encoding at the moment, as in traumas or events involving those close to us” (p.8). 

After reading this sentence, I thought about not only the pivotal moments in my life, but also those moments in history that other people have witnessed and felt compelled to report to the rest of humanity.  The Nazi Holocaust is a perfect example.  Under the cover of war, millions of innocent civilians were systematically executed while the German people never suspected a thing under the Nazi propaganda system.  It wasn’t until years after World War II ended, when people began listening to the growing number of stories from the survivors, did the public become more aware of the horrific slaughter.

Lambert also discusses how 20th century popular culture tapped into myths to help explore a industrial age society that was feeling dislocated as people were moving from the country to the city.  For example, he cites how the Western genre of film “showed us how to bring frontier ethics into our chaotic urban experience, mapping the pastoral ideal of self-sufficiency and family integrity onto a suburban ideal of the single family dwelling” (p.9).  Director John Ford was masterful in this genre with films such as Stagecoach, The Searchers and The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance.  The author’s ideas of storytelling in American cinema got me thinking about another classic film: Jaws.

In the middle of the movie, the three main characters discus the origins of their tattoos.  Hooper (Richard Dreyfuss) asks the boat captain Quint (Robert Shaw) about an old tattoo on his arm.  Quint tells Hooper it’s the name of a U.S. Navy ship he served on during World War II: The U.S.S. Indianapolis.  Prodded on by local sheriff Brodie (Roy Scheider), Quint tells the tale of how he survived a massive shark attack after the U.S.S. Indianapolis was torpedo by a Japanese submarine.  It’s one of the most memorable moments in film history, but when reading this chapter, the scene got me thinking about Lambert’s idea of storytelling.

In reality, those actual crew members from the U.S.S. Indianapolis who survived that horrific ordeal felt a need to tell that story years later for several reasons.  First, because they were on a top-secret mission to deliver the atomic bomb to be dropped on Hiroshima, they could not discuss what happened for many years.  Secondly, there reached a point after the end of World War II that people didn’t want to hear “war stories”, especially ones that ended in disaster.  Due to the fact that for many years, even decades, had passed before the truth could finally be told about the U.S.S. Indianapolis, it was up to survivors to keep the story alive so that others would understand the many sacrifices made by soldiers, sailors and airmen in harm’s way.  These such stories need to be told for the benefit of future generations.  Lambert mentions the importance of storytelling when he adds, “Story… works biologically to insure the total recall of those events which define we have ingrained as of greatest emotional importance to us” (p.8).

I’m looking forward to the next reading from Joe Lambert’s book.

Digital Critique #5: “To Be or Not To Be”

The experience of adversity can come from different cultural perspectives at various times in history.  From StoryCenter comes a tale from Alan Fong entitled, “To Be or Not To Be.”   It tells the perspective of an Asian-American conscientious objector during the Vietnam War era.   The video was posted in April 2013.  For this analysis, I chose to judge the digital story on the following evaluation traits:

  1. Story – Fong has a very clear voice that guides the viewer through the series of images.  Most of the historical stills give the viewer a sense of the students discontent at the University of California-Berkley during that time.  Fong includes images of Asian-American students, protest buttons, and also archival footage of Chinese railroad workers and Japanese internment camps to give the viewer his cultural perspective.  One thing I wished to hear, however, was what Fong is doing today.   Perhaps seeing a present-day picture of him in Berkley.
  2. Project planning – Fong does a fair job of presenting the narration and images in chronological order.  Much of the emphasis was on his time at UC-Berkley in the 1960s and 70s, but he refers back to Asian-American history from the 19th and mid-20th century closer to the end.   It feels a bit out of order, but I can understand the logic.  If a digital storytelling creates the narration first, then the visuals will compliment the audio.
  3. Citations & permission – Fong cites the Ike & Tina Turner music playing in the background, but he fails to credit the historical images he included.  Even if this project is purely for educational purposes with public domain material, a storyteller must properly give credit to content creators like newspaper photographers, magazine artists and historical archive collections.

On a side note, I was hoping that Fong would have made a greater effort to personalize this story about Asian-American history.  He could have included pictures of himself or his family to give some more context.   I enjoy tales of cultural adversity like this, but I wish Fong could talked a little more from the heart.

Digital Story Critique #4: “Adapting To A New Culture”

It’s one thing to be challenged by adversity in your own country.  It’s entirely another to face obstacles, such as language, in a far away land.  As part of my job responsibilities at the Community College of Denver, I help our students whose primary language is not really English.  Just this afternoon, I was helping a student with grammar and mechanical issues on a composition paper.  She was born in Burma.  She was not only having issues with things like spelling, verb tense, and run-on sentences, but she also was struggling with how to express herself.   I offered her some suggestions on how she might add more details to her writing and include more perspective.

That experience made me think about adversity in terms of culture.   This evening, I found an interesting narrative from digital storytelling page at the University of Houston.   The video is entitled “Adapting To A New Culture” by Yukiko Nishimura.   For this video, I chose to focus on the following attributes:

  • STORY: Nishimura creates a simple story, through the use of narration, photos and images, about her learning experiences in Japan as well as in the United States.   Sometimes it’s difficult for students to express themselves fully in a language they are still learning, but in this context, she tells the story well.
  • MEDIA APPLICATION: Nishimura effectively utilizes the visual elements to simulate feelings of anxiety, sadness, joy, and hope.  She overdoes the movement of the photos (sometimes called the “Ken Burns” effect) a little bit.   A little music at a low volume would have been nice too hear as well.
  • CITATIONS: All the photographs and images have been properly cited.  Much of the content has been licensed for use under Creative Commons and Nishimura includes small, but legible text at the bottom.  At times, it’s hard to clearly read the text because the moment of the content.

Nishimura does a very good job at expressing her cultural challenges and accomplishments in the American culture.   I think many students who practice English as a second language might benefit from using digital storytelling as a learning tool.

Scholarship Response: “Getting Real With Student Bloggers”

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In my exploration of how digital storytelling can be used to elaborate on the theme of adversity, I found on online article from Inside Higher Ed entitled “Getting Real With Student Bloggers.”   The author, Eric Stoller, discusses the pros and cons of student bloggers being compensated by universities for telling their real stories.  Using the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) as an example, Stoller noted an example of a student who discussed both the challenge of being a successful student at the school as well as how those same challenges will benefit students after graduation.  On the other hand, the author mentioned how a number of blog entries seemed to benefit the image of MIT rather than give an opportunity for student to express themselves.

I’ve found that it’s very important for a digital author to express themselves fully without any pressure or influence from the organization or company that hosts or maintains a website.  Obviously, when an author is getting paid for their services, there will always be a certain level of editorializing.   If an educational institution truly wants its students to learn about digital storytelling and how to build a career, it must give them a fair opportunity (with just compensation) to express themselves regardless of public relations or marketing agendas.

Weekly Reflection #2: Big Game Adversity

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“It’s not whether you get knocked down, it’s whether you get up.”  – Vince Lombardi

Couldn’t resist mentioning something about the Super Bowl today.  Especially including a quote from the coach whose name is on the trophy the winning team will hoist later day: Vince Lombardi.  Before he become coach of the Green Bay Packers, he had to overcome years of anti-Italian prejudice by continually proving his leadership talent.   Fortunately, Lombardi learned from some great coaches, including Earl Blaik, the legendary coach at West Point.

As far as my learning, I’m gaining a great understanding about digital storytelling through not only the DS106 Daily Creates and Assignment Bank topics, but also the weekly digital story critiques.   The latter assignments have given me a better idea on how digital stories can give unique points-of-view regarding adversity.   The Columbia Digital Storytelling Lab and the Charlestown Digital Story Project are websites I hope to revisit when I’m trying to find inspiration.   On the other hand, the chapter readings from New Literacies: Everyday Practices and Social Learning have been a bit of a challenge for me to digest.   The concepts discussed are interesting, but I really have not seen a firm connection to the digital storytelling on the sites I have explored.

If I had to grade myself, I’d have to give me a 7 out of 10 because of my struggles understanding the textbook readings.  I certainly hope that the following chapters will shed more light onto digital storytelling, but it seems too early to make that assumption.

It’s about 1 hour until the start of the Super Bowl.  As a resident of Denver, I’m pulling for the Broncos.  If they are victorious, Peyton Manning will certainly have an adversity story to tell years from now.