Creating the future by empowering youth voices: digital storytelling Barbara Stripling President, American Library Association Assistant Professor, Syracuse University, USA

Why empower youth voices?

“It’s not as much a question of self expression as a need of finding yourself.”

~ Pentti Saarikoski • • • • Counter invisibility Develop sense of identity Develop sense of cultural heritage Share culture  Build the future Empowering youth voices

Tell me a fact and I’ll learn Tell me a truth and I’ll believe Tell me a story and I’ll remember it forever --Gail Matthews DeNatale

Why storytelling?

• • • • • Expresses personal narrative using multimedia --Modern expression of ancient art of storytelling – Shares knowledge, wisdom, and values – Reflection of personal culture Involves process of meaning-making Gives value to lived experiences Connects experience and language What is digital storytelling?

Why digital storytelling?

" Digital storytelling is exponentially more powerful than other forms of storytelling because the digital format immediately makes a student's knowledge available to a global audience. "

-Mark Standley Why digital storytelling?

What is impact on our youth?

Strengthens literacy

It’s like we all tell a story about ourselves inside our own head. Always. All the time. That story makes us what we are. We build ourselves out of that story.

~ Adapted from Patrick Rothfuss,

The Name of the Wild

Cultivates agency and voice

“Ask them what’s on their mind and give them the tools to help them say what they have to say in a more powerful way.”

` Dr. Ernest Morrell Agency and voice

Builds sense of identity

Sets high expectations

Know whence you came. If you know whence you came, there is really no limit of where you can go.

~James Baldwin

Builds cultural competence

Values lived experiences

• • • • • • • A point of view A dramatic question Emotional content Economy Pacing The gift of your voice Soundtrack What processes & tools are used?

Open-ended Branching Hyperlinked Cross-media Participatory Exploratory Unpredictable Characteristics of digital stories

Posters

Photo essays

Music videos

Documentaries, Narratives

Impact -- Social action

"I know only one thing about the technologies that await us in the future: We will find ways to tell stories with them."

-Jason Ohler

" A story should be remembered for its soul, and not the bells and whistles."

-Bernajean Porter What does the future hold?

“I think social change can come from any direction. Creative expression can be spread globally, which means it goes beyond culture, generation, gender, religion, and location. Creative expression doesn’t say ‘you should do this’ but it makes people think ‘I can do something’—it leads to social change.” —Saori Miyagawa, Adobe Youth Voices Facilitator

Social change

Thank you!

Barbara Stripling President, American Library Association [email protected]