Archive for April, 2012
Relate to Digital Storytelling Conference, Valencia
April 12th, 2012 by MarkRelate to Digital Storytelling provided the first opportunity to showcase initial findings from Extending Creative Practice. Mark presented a paper written jointly with Alison Rooke from CUCR describing the ambitions and the material coming through from the nearly completed evaluation. This was the first step in the journey to build on the evident success of the pilot and it was encouraging that a number of those present expressed an interest in working with us to take this work forward. Others were looking to develop their own projects with elderly people and the post presentation discussion threw up a number of interesting pointers, not least the contrasting conceptions of exactly what constitutes elderly across different societies. The unfortunate truth seems to be that although this simple fact varies, the elderly are consistently low users of the internet and Digital Storytelling can be one way to engage them. Copies of our paper can be downloaded from the site. This was also another moment to promote our own end of programme conference in Maribor on Friday 1st June.
It was great to catch up with Joe Lambert from the Center for Digital Storytelling who gave an inspiring key note and to meet new storytellers from across the globe – practitioners from countries as far away as Pakistan and New Zealand shared their stories at the conference. The agenda split between those projects using digital storytelling within an educational setting and others interested in pursuing directly social goals. Many projects overlapped and it was a welcome opportunity to explore different approaches to digital storytelling with like minded people. We all learn from each other, so coming together in this way is really important. Digital storytelling is a relatively new, dynamic practice. Bernard Robin’s opening address tackled this directly by moving beyond the notion of the digital story as a standalone entity to explore ways in which the methodology could be incorporated more directly into educational practice.
An excellent conference and thanks to Carmina and the hugely effective organisational team for pulling together such an impressive programme. Wonderful to visit Valencia, a fantastic city and the ideal host.
Call for papers. INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE 21st-23rd MARCH 2012 IULMA & DEPARTAMENT DE FILOLOGIA ANGLESA I ALEMANYA AT THE UNIVERSITAT DE VALÈNCIA, VALENCIA (SPAIN)