Yesterday I had the pleasure of making the (cross town) trip to Ivy Tech Community College here in Bloomington and working with Professor Jerry Hansen’s Alternative Spring Break (ASB) students. The group had gone on an ASB trip to France (Paris and Calais, I believe) and were in the process of turning their experiences, images, and journal entries into a digital deliverable. So we spent a couple hours talking about the basics of digital storytelling, discussing the different types of narratives that can fit their experiences and situations, and covering some techniques and strategies for crafting different stories. Additionally, I provided a crash-course orientation to Adobe Spark and then functioned as an on-demand resource as the students used the time to work on drafting exercises, design attempts, idea development, and the like.

It was a such a rewarding experience as the students had great experiences to share and were really engaged in the process (from content construction to learning the technology). I cannot wait to see what they create, as I have a feeling they will share rich, transformative stories about their alternative (and experience-based) learning opportunity. [If they do share them, I’ll be sure to link them to this post.]

“[The workshop] really was great fun and [it is] exciting to think about what it could mean for the students and program.” – Professor Jerry Hansen III

This particular workshop was customized for the ASB and Ivy Tech (as all workshops are/should be to a certain extent), but it does have me thinking about creating a more general set of activities or assets, discussions and deliverables that might help others in similar circumstances.