The DigiTales team ventured to Birmingham for the second time – this time to work with MBA students. Over the course of three weeks they worked in groups to create ‘Digi Essays’ on the theme of ‘Managing People’. This international bunch brought their rich experience and knowledge of their own countries and cultures together to create diverse, insightful films.

Camon is a great potential venue to run a full DigiTales workshop in, with it’s modern equipment and helpful staff on hand to help out in using the editing programmes.

The workshop explored various digital storytelling methods. The team worked on an individual basis to create new photographs, including the use of stop frame animation. One film was about growing up in the communist regime and the relevance of this to his life now. Another was about wanting to work with Roma kids, wanting to capture their stories, that would otherwise disappear. There were a couple of family stories, a couple of political stories and a story about a lady determined not to leave her house despite the bombing around her during the Lebanon war 2006.

The issue of the brief was discussed, and ways in which these new facilitators could gently guide the stories without being too prescriptive eg. using specific exercises with guiding questions. The skill is to be able to spot potential stories from the answers the group comes up with, to then nurture those stories further without telling people what to say.

This summer DigiTales travelled to Birmingham University to run an experimental workshop to create Digi Essays as part of the U21 international summer school with fifty students from around the world.

Local students were joined by people from universities within the U21 network: in China, New Zealand, Sweden, Australia, Singapore, Hong Kong, India and the US. They came from a broad range of disciplines such as political science, international relations, social sciences, medicine, law, journalism, physics, Chinese literature, sociology, urban and environmental planning, economics, education and architecture. The diversity of the students resulted in an eclectic mix of opinions and angles on the subject of diversity through creativity.

The Digi Essays workshop

The DigiTales team made the most of the sunny weather and beautiful grounds and ran the first session outside. Everyone got to know one another through name games and storytelling exercises. People had been asked to bring a favourite object to talk about.

There were masterclasses in photography, writing and visual art.The DigiTales team were there to encourage the students to gather material and to work in groups on creating a script about their experiences in Birmingham.

In the second week the task was to write about Embracing diversity through creativity, culture and innovation. The essays grew out of the themes and thoughts arising in the summerschool blog. They included an analysis on the English language and it’s position in the world, one talked about marriage and some chose to concentrate on Birmingham. www.u21summerschool2008.com (U21 Summer School blog)

There was time to gather more images and create new ones. Some took photographs and others made drawings and tried out animation techniques. This included creating a talking chicken! Through making around twenty drawings and using a simple digital camera on a tripod, a 2-minute animation was created.

After read-throughs and feedback sessions the scripts were finalised. Then the voiceovers could be recorded. Some chose to record the voiceover in a group, where everyone’s voice could be heard. Once the voiceover was done, the editing could start, and the pictures could be placed to fit the voiceovers.

One person was in charge of doing the editing, but the groups worked together to make the editing decisions. The edit software used was Windows Movie Maker, which comes free on a pc. After adding the pictures, transitions, effects and titles, the films were ready.

All the hard work paid off in the screening where everyone enjoyed each other’s Digi Essay films. Well done to the open-minded, hard-working students for creating such great Digi Essays!

I would like to bring your attention to the first digitales that we have produced under Living Together Imagine Your Future. They are the result of the training trainer workshops and although not all deal with the theme of migration and minorities, they will, I hope, give you a taste of things to come. Liliana Biglou (Romania).

This video has been produced within the British Council’s “Imagine Your Future” project. Author: Huseyin Karabey.

DigiTales is half way into the experimental workshop to create ‘Digi Essays’ at Birmingham University. Fifty students from around the world have enjoyed an intense first week at the U21 Summer School. Birmingham University have provided exciting lectures and visits to the East Side giving insights into the diverse population and regeneration going on in Birmingham. There have been masterclasses in photography, writing and visual art. The DigiTales team are here to encourage the students to gather material and to work in groups on creating a script about their experiences here.

In the second week their task is to come up with a coherent piece based on the theme ‘Embracing diversity through creativity, culture and innovation’. The essays will grow out of the themes and thoughts arising in the summerschool blog www.u21summerschool2008.com

Local students have been joined by people from universities within the U21 network around the world including China, New Zealand, Sweden, Australia, Singapore, Hong Kong, India and the US. They come from a broad range of disciplines such as political science, international relations, social sciences, medicine, law, journalism, physics, Chinese literature, sociology, urban and environmental planning, economics, education and architecture. The diversity of the students should in itself result in an eclectic mix of opinions and angles on the subject of ‘diversity through creativity’.

Imagine Your Future aims to empower and develop young leaders from minority and migrant communities across South East Europe, giving them the tools to articulate their ambitions, promote positive perceptions for their communities and contribute to social change. The DigiTales workshop covered the whole DigiTales process, from taking the participants through Story Circle exercises and games, to developing their own powerful, personal stories. What participants said:

The whole programme was a comprehensive, intelligent and thoughtful guide to facilitating DigiTales.

really inspiring facilitators!

DigiTales will be running a second workshop in Israel in September 2008, in which 12 more trainers will be trained, from Armenia, Slovenia, Israel and Macedonia.