During the summer of 2009, UMBC’s New Media Studio teamed with the Center for History Education to offer a two-week workshop for Baltimore County K-12 teachers exploring the intersections of oral history and digital storytelling. The workshop was the culminating activity in CHE’s two-year “Making Master Teachers” program. Year One of the program focused on reading and research, while Year Two focused on incorporating primary sources in the classroom. The program was funded through the U.S. Department of Education's Teaching American History Grant Program. Teachers had an opportunity to learn classroom skills for creating their own work and developing student projects.

Projects from the workshop included "Hampton: A Revolutionary Place" .

Information for attendees : This summer workshop provides you with the opportunity to learn skills of digital storytelling that you will be able to use in your classrooms, both in delivering your own content and as a project option for your students' original work. In addition it will allow you to disseminate the work you did on Baltimore '68 and will provide UB with an innovative addition to its Baltimore '68 website. Since we are working under time constraints, we hope to come to the June sessions with a good idea of the form of the project, although the content can evolve over the course of the workshop. I propose that the Baltimore County high school group break into two teams and produce two digital stories about the uprising of April 1968 in Baltimore. I would suggest that each team takes a section of the UB Baltimore '68 driving tour (voted "Best Driving Tour for Visiting In-Laws" by City Paper and available at http://archives.ubalt.edu/bsr/timeline/index.html) and flesh it out with primary documents, excerpts from oral histories, music, images and anything else that would be illuminating. Before and after shots would be particularly effective in telling the story of the events. The finished products could find a home on the UB and CHE websites. This project would build on research you have already begun, could draw on the resources we have collected on the website, and would contribute greatly to UB's effort to make this time period understandable to the public. I hope you will consider it.

Recommended readings We recommend reviewing these first articles during the initial week and guide the discussion around the question: What makes an effective digital story? Other questions could be: What is a digital story? and How might I use digital storytelling in the classroom? The Educational Uses of Digital Storytelling The Art of Digital Storytelling These next two articles will be discussed in the second week. The discussion could may on: What are the barriers to implementing digital storytelling in the classroom? As an advocate, how could I overcome these hurdles? Implementation of Digital Storytelling in the Classroom Digital Storytelling: Moving from Promise to Practice ALSO, here is a link to the introductory chapters of the Digital Storytelling Cookbook: http://www.storycenter.org/cookbook.pdf

On May 25, 26 and 27, UMBC's New Media Studio conducted a three-day introductory level digital story workshop for faculty. In addition to producing a digital story of their own, those attending the workshop gained insight into digital storytelling as a pedagogical and research tool.

The workshop was facilitated by a team of faculty, staff and graduate assistants who have over the last few years have worked extensively with digital stories in a number of ways. These included Bev Bickel, Jason Loviglio, Steve Bradley, Paul Iwancio, Bill Shewbridge, Polina Vinogradova and Satarupa Joardar.

One of the highlights of the workshop was a session on audio conducted by Steve Bradley of Visual Arts. Steve covered recording techniques and sound effects with a hands-on demonstration of creative techniques for building soundtracks.

MLL 495 Intercultural Video Production
MLL 695 Intercultural Filmmaking

This course introduces the history and practices of the field of intercultural communication, including its diverse theoretical and conceptual approaches; its analytical and methodological tools of evaluation and assessment; basic principles of training and professional and career development opportunities in the various areas of the discipline, particularly as it is practiced at UMBC.

Since its beginning in 2004 this course has used digital storytelling as an introductory exercise, allowing students an opportunity to create personal reflective works. Telling their own story provides valuable insights into the filmmaking process as they prepare to tell the stories of others.

The Stories

In October 2008, the New Media Studio worked with members of the Somali Bantu community to create digital stories as part of the American Friends Service Commitee's Project Voice. The production workshop was facilitated by the Center for Digital Storytelling with a final production session at UMBC's International Media Center.

Baltimore's Somali Bantu's tell their stories of war, forced migration and resettlement to our city. In short digital videos, using original art, narration, and music, five young Somalis share powerful testimonies in English and their native Maay Maay, which they wrote and produced with the AFSC. Hand-drawn pictures of soldiers wielding automatic weapons and bulldozers decimating the countryside combine with moving narration, such as Mohamed Iftin whose farm was confiscated by the Somali Government.

The stories were released online on Dec. 10 to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

You can view the stories and learn more about Project Voice here.

The Workshop

UMBC faculty started the summer with a five-day workshop in using digital storytelling in their classes. Ten participants in the "Train the Trainers" experience received intensive training in the creative and technical aspects of teaching digital storytelling in a variety of contexts. Ten additional participants had an opportunity to create stories during a two-day mini workshop aided by their own "personal trainer." The Center for Digital Storytelling returned for the third year to conduct the workshop. Here are the stories produced during the week.

This short video tells the story of the workshop itself.

The project is organized by the New Media Studio with additional funding from OIT.

The Stories

The Project

The Charlestown Digital Story Project teams UMBC students with residents of Charlestown Retirement Community to create digital stories. Drawn from the life experiences of the residents, the stories combine narration, animation, photos and music in short movies to be shared with others. Residents work closely with student partners, acting as author and creative director of their individual story. Each student brings their own style and talents to the project, helping to create some unique examples of intergenerational storytelling.

Over thirty stories have been produced to date. In 2007, the project was recognized with a Bronze Telly Award.

The project is organized by the New Media Studio with funding from Retirement Living TV.

View a short feature on the project.

The Stories

On Friday, May 16 UMBC participated in the International Day for Sharing Life Stories, a day celebrated around the world through the sharing of stories in gatherings and virtual environments. UMBC students from classes in Media and Communications, the New Media Studio, Modern Languages & Linguistics and the English Language Center presented digital stories they produced this semester. This gathering is was held at Flat Tuesdays (Commons).

Stories from MLL, ELC and MCS students as well as stories from CCBC's Katrina writing project were shown. RL-TV and the New Media Studio's "Charlestown Digital Stories" project were also highlighted.

This event was sponsored by the Media and Communications Council of Majors, the English Language Center and the New Media Studio. For more information on the International Day for Sharing Life Stories visit: http://internationaldayblog.storycenter.org

Some of the stories presented are available for viewing at http://youtube.com/umbcmcs .

A pioneering and unique Digital Storytelling Project organized by UMBC's New Media Studio and funded by Retirement Living TV (RLTV) has won a Bronze Telly Award. The prestigious Telly Award cites the Digital Storytelling Project as being among the world's best in local, regional, and cable television commercials and programs, as well as among the finest in video and film production. This year's Telly Awards received over 13,000 entries from all 50 states and 5 continents.

The Digital Storytelling Project combines the efforts of RLTV, UMBC and Charlestown Retirement Community. It partners a UMBC undergraduate student (hands-on with the media technology) with a Charlestown resident (autobiographical story and narrative) to produce 2-3 minute video stories. Drawn from the life experiences of the residents, the stories combine narration, animation and photography. The award-winning digital stories can be viewed at:
www.umbc.edu/oit/newmedia/studio/digitalstories/ctds.php

The Digital Storytelling Project is the nation's first three-way partnership between a media company, a university and a retirement community. UMBC students team with Charlestown residents to create a series of 17 digital stories and music in short movies to be shared with others. Charlestown residents work closely with student partners, acting as author and creative director of their individual story. Each student brings their own style and talents to the project, helping to create some unique examples of intergenerational storytelling. The project is organized and supervised by UMBC's New Media Studio.

Student award winners Jorge Rios, An Nguyen-Gia, Samantha Duvall, Andrew Chang, Joanna Lit, and Cathryna Brown received their statues at a ceremony held on September 12 at Charlestown. Andrea Olivier, not pictured. also received a statue.

"We are honored that the television industry has recognized the hard work that went into producing these fascinating digital stories," said Brad Knight, president of RLTV. "The digital stories are reality TV at its finest. They provide a rich, intergenerational experience for Charlestown residents and UMBC students."Winning an award like the Telly is significant in that it acknowledges that stories drawn from the life experiences of retirees with a wider audience," said Knight. "It is also gratifying that the award recognizes the entire collection of work from the Charlestown project. It is very much a group process and every story enriched the experience."

Andrea Olivier with RL-TV president Brad Knight

This summer, nine UMBC faculty members participated in a three-day digital storytelling workshop at UMBC. For the second time in two years, OIT and the New Media Studio brought experts from the Center for Digital Storytelling in Berkely to campus, giving faculty members an opportunity to learn the basics of creating digital stories while exploring possibilities for integrating new media into their teaching.

Joe Lambert and Stephany Sesse led the group through the writing and production process as each participant created a digital movie relating a short personal story. Faculty members included: Beverly Bickel, ELC; Steve Bradley, Visual Arts; Jason Loviglio, Media & Communication Studies; Nicole King, American Studies; Doug Hamby, Dance; Pat Scully, Education; Jody Shipka, English; Joan Shin, LLC; and Joby Taylor, Shriver Center. The workshop was conducted in the International Media Center with assistance from New Media's Bill Shewbridge. Several of the stories produced in the workshop can be viewed here:

For more information visit Digital Storytelling @ UMBC.

The final project of the class was a production of individual digital stories on which the students worked during the eight weeks of class. In this process, the students chose the topics of their stories, wrote their narratives, collected photographic images, and chose the music to accompany their verbal narration. The students also discussed their stories in class, peer-reviewed their narratives, and made online journal entries twice a week which allowed them to reflect on their progress and express their doubts and concerns to their instructor. The students also intensively worked in the computer lab putting their stories together under their instructor's guidance. Several digital stories that were produced in this class can be viewed here.

My Family	SUN HEE (SUNNY) CHOI
My Friends	JONG YOON (KEVIN) HAN
Travel is my Breath	BO HYUNG KOH
Vietnam: My Country, My Family	THAO NGUYEN PHAM
Sweet Homesick	OUMOU HELENE SAADE
Dance is Very Important in my Life	JISUG (MELISA) SHIN
The Market in Vietnam	LUAN MINH TRUONG
Changing Me: My Life in the US	HYUN JU (JAMIE) KANG