Digital Storytelling; a Team Effort!

Digital Storytelling--It's a Team Effort! by Debra Orellana

Having worked with team members Ashlie and Stephan was a great experience.
We collaborated from the onset in creating our first Digital Storytelling project
using i-Movie for Mac. Agreeing on a topic focused on library programming and promotion,
we chose to tell a story about the different kinds of collections made available at
The Chicago Public Library-Harold Washington Library Center--Special Collections.

The process of creating a Digital Storytelling project within a team provided a great opportunity for

members to learn collaboration, time management, collective agreement or disagreement and
member contribution efforts in order to reach the team's goals and outcomes. Through i-movie's design, team members can work in a platform open for exploration, suggestion, dialogue and the experience of creating and manipulating images, sound and video on a computer screen. Our team shared ideas and received helpful tips from our Professor in learning how to save and access an audio clip. Having a nice Digital Storytelling project at the end was a bonus! 

Using i-movie to create a "visual short" is a great promotional tool for libraries to
utilize in order to project during a class or program or post their finished program on
social media or a local cable community channel. Libraries may want to provide this kind
of software on their library computers and offer workshops for patrons wanting to learn
how to create their own Digital Stories.

 

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I must admit, there was a period in my life (circa fifth grade to college) where having to do a class project within a team environment caused disdain and sometimes downright panic. My headstrong inner child "I-don't-play-well-with-others" always surfaced, but now I understand why. 

 

I was a creative child and visual thinker and I felt compelled to either not share my ideas or need others to accept them. If there was a group project in class, it bothered me to have to accept other ideas and if it wasn't my way, forget it, I would not participate or contribute. This behavior of defending my ideas stuck with me through art school at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Instead of having an opportunity to grow out of this immaturity, the behavior became a prerequisite in the art environment I was in at the time. It was an artsy, introspective environment which tolerated this kind of behavior since it was actually important to be able to critique and justify one's own creative work and to defend one's ideas. So there I was in front of my art class, still a headstrong "I-don't-play-well-with-others" type person, defending my work. But it was ok, because nearly every other art student channeled their inner "I-don't-play-well-with-others" too. It was a highly competitive environment, cat-y, with an air of snootiness. It would be a long time before I realized this about myself and accept to change. 

 

Now years later, how sad this was, to have missed out in sharing with other students. It would have been a much more creative environment if all the art students collaborated on team projects as well, and shared their ideas instead of competitively keeping them secret. I admit, it was very selfish. 

The classes in art school did not promote collaborative team effort. Most of the projects did not require to work creatively with team members, and now that I think back, it was a big loss to the students and the school itself. Students (especially those creative ones) truly missed out in being able to develop the skills needed to work with others in team environments, necessary in a good work environment. To be able to contribute collectively and feel happy about it, creates something special.