Digital storytelling functions as a vehicle of empowerment and gives students a way to narrate and visualize their own story that is reflective of their time abroad. Despite questions of ethics, authority, and scaleability, Jean Burgess finds that digital storytelling is designed to amplify the ordinary voice and that “narrative accessibility, warmth, and presence are prioritized over formal experimentation or innovative new uses for technology” (Burgess, 7). In that students use digital storytelling to highlight their own individual experiences, the connection that the student has to their study abroad experience shows through in their video. A piece of powerful communication is made because students are able to construct a more intimate contact with the viewer and bring out voices that would elsewise not be heard. Digital storytelling serves as a form of academia because it allows students to engage in media literacy and begin to analyze their experiences abroad as being more then fun. Digital storytelling ultimately changes the ways stories are produced, consumed, and distributed (Lundby, 2008). Digital storytelling opens a way for students to insert their own voices into academic discourse and to inject personal testimonials into their work. Within study abroad, digital storytelling provides opportunities for students to express stories of their encounters with people and places. As a cultural practice, “it is a dynamic site of relations between textual arrangements and symbolic conventions, technologies for production and conventions for their use and collaborative social interaction (workshops) that take place in local and specific contexts” (Burgess,6)
I conclude this website, with my very own digital storytelling attempt of my own study abroad experience.
Adler, P.S. (1975). "The Transitional Experience: An alternative View of Culture Shock" Journal of Humanistic Psychology 15(4) 13–23.
Allen, Heather W. (2010). "What shapes short-term study abroad experiences? A comparative case study of students' motives and goals" Journal of Studies in International Education 14.5 452-470.
Burgess, Jean (2006). “Hearing Ordinary Voices: Cultural Studies, Vernacular Creativity and Digital Storytelling” Continuum: Journal of Media & Cultural studies 20(2) 201-214
Lundby, Knut. Digital Storytelling, Mediatized Stories. New York: Peter Lang Publishing, 2008.
Reilly, Doug and Senders, Stefan (2009). "Becoming the Change We Want to See: Critical Study Abroad for a Tumultuous World" The Interdisciplinary Journal of Study Abroad 18(1) 241-267
Rodriguez, Karen (2010). “Digital Storytelling in Study Abroad: Toward a Counter-Catalogic Experience” International Journal of Media, Technology and Lifelong Learning 6(2)
Allen, Heather W. (2010). "What shapes short-term study abroad experiences? A comparative case study of students' motives and goals" Journal of Studies in International Education 14.5 452-470.
Burgess, Jean (2006). “Hearing Ordinary Voices: Cultural Studies, Vernacular Creativity and Digital Storytelling” Continuum: Journal of Media & Cultural studies 20(2) 201-214
Lundby, Knut. Digital Storytelling, Mediatized Stories. New York: Peter Lang Publishing, 2008.
Reilly, Doug and Senders, Stefan (2009). "Becoming the Change We Want to See: Critical Study Abroad for a Tumultuous World" The Interdisciplinary Journal of Study Abroad 18(1) 241-267
Rodriguez, Karen (2010). “Digital Storytelling in Study Abroad: Toward a Counter-Catalogic Experience” International Journal of Media, Technology and Lifelong Learning 6(2)