Digital Storytelling is a process of using scraps of multimedia materials such as snapshots, music clips and other memorabilia from our lives, and combining them with our own words on a computer to create a unique story. Instead of listening to stories constructed and told by media professionals, everyday people can now tell their own story. Each digital story is a three to four minute media clip that is typically viewed on a computer screen, a television or movie screen.
Artists, teachers, ranchers and curanderas, are just some of the participants of the Digital Storytelling Project, that has taken place over the past eight years in New Mexico, Mexico and Spain and sponsored by the National Hispanic Cultural Center and the BLM. The project was based on the goal of collaborating with individuals and communities to find new ways to preserve linguistic and cultural diversity through education and awareness building. Each participant attends a three day workshop where they learn how to create a Digital Story. Some go on to teach classes on their own, inspiring others to create yet more powerful stories. The Digital Storytelling Project provides opportunities to exchange personal experiences based on culture, language and heritage.
We have found that the art of digital storytelling creates a profound shift from being externally directed by world media to an experience of empowerment that involves the sharing of stories using state-of-the-art technology. This process gives value and voice to personal experience as a microcosmic view of global experiences that we all share. We are all aware of the evolution of storytelling from oral cultures, to a world where the written word was the primary form of communication, and on to the current culture of media empires empowered with the role of telling the stories that define our lives.
