“typically a grandparent or someone of their grandparents’ generation. This assignment helps my students to develop historical empathy , understand how historical event shaped their own family’s personal history” Chantal, Julie de. “A Beneficial Tool for Large Survey Courses in History.” Digital Storytelling, pg. 711
This changes the game for how a student could observe historical events because it allows them to hear about events that happened from someone they’re close to. Often we do not consider that our relatives are a part of history and could have experienced significant parts of it that led to them having a good story to tell afterward. This is such a fun way to set up an assignment because students do not just learn the history they are being told they are learning about their relatives as well and this can lead them to be more passionate about the assignment as a whole.
“One year, I presented a documentary from a previous class that showed how humor could serve as a vehicle for more serious questions. In a project titled “The Origins of the Masshole,” the students used snippets of a Saturday Night Live mock-Dunkin’ Donuts commercial featuring Casey Affleck” Chantal, Julie de. “A Beneficial Tool for Large Survey Courses in History.” Digital Storytelling, pg. 715.
Laughter is such a strong tool to use when assigning assignments like the creation of a documentary. This gives the students more freedom to have fun with their work and enjoy the way that they get to tell a story. This is another way that we are able to change the game for storytelling in history because this makes it fun to learn about and fun to create, this makes the whole learning process more memorable.
“Digital storytelling has been described as “encapsulat[ing] the important pedagogical principles of restatement and translation that are central to helping students engage difficult material.” Chantal, Julie de. “A Beneficial Tool for Large Survey Courses in History.” Digital Storytelling, pg. 715.
This quote encapsulates the whole idea behind this article. The whole idea is to help make hard and difficult topics easier to discuss and to do it in a fun and interesting way that is captivating to both the learner and the teacher. Both the quotes before this one show how a project so simple can be informative and fun for a student inside and outside of the classroom.
