ACMI (formerly Australian Centre for the Moving Image) is a museum that provides free educational content and experiences surrounding film, TV, video games, and art. On this website, teachers and students can explore elements of pre-production, production, and post production as beginners or more experienced filmmakers through set modules. This includes screenwriting, storyboarding, camera angles, editing, audio recording, and more. For those creating their first video game or those with some experience, they also have modules that divide this process into three levels that collectively cover coding, 2D designs, narrative design, graphics, and soundscapes.

Their content is organized by Australian grade levels, which are from Foundation to those who’ve received their Victorian Certificate of Education. Displayed up front below the range of intended grade levels of participants are the learning subject areas the module covers and capabilities that are required in order to complete the exercises. As the learner navigates through these modules, they are taken through a sequence of steps to develop new game design or filmmaking skills with text, links to creative platforms, and video breakdowns.

This primary resource is rife with examples of digital storytelling in the real world for students to access, helping us establish both compelling examples and necessary tools/elements (RQ2, RQ4).

• • “Schools & Teachers.” ACMI. Retrieved from www.acmi.net.au/education

Mariela Nuñez-Janes and Dave Franco's case study on IamWe, a collaborative digital storytelling workshop between high school aged youth and college communities, highlights the methodologies behind successful digital storytelling workshops (RQ5), as well as key aspects of digital storytelling (RQ6).

They outline the pedagogical theories rooted into IamWe's successful workshops, such as Latina/Chicana Feminist pedagogy which practices "culturally relevant educational tools with an ethnically diverse group of youth." As for the technicalities of IamWe's curriculum: Nuñez-Janes and Franco describe workshop participant's completion of interpersonal "story circles." Participants responded to prompts such as "What was the happiest moment in your life? The saddest?" and they shared highly personal, emotionally charged memories that not only connect narratives to the "heart" of digital storytelling, but also serve as a "brainstorming" for the workshop participants.

This technique helps tackle several of the seven elements of digital storytelling: the dramatic question, emotional content, and gift of your voice. These three are some of the more abstract and difficult "slow skills" that take time to develop, but story circles aided students' grappling of these concepts. Other, more technical elements of digital storytelling that were mentioned include point of view, power of soundtrack, economy, and pace.

• Nuñez-Janes, M., & Franco, D. (2017). IamWe: Digital Storytelling, Personal Journeys, and Praxis. In Nuñez-Janes M., Thornburg A., Booker A., Penier I., Pack S., & Leverton A. (Eds.), Deep Stories: Practicing, Teaching, and Learning Anthropology with Digital Storytelling (pp. 99-112). Berlin/Boston: De Gruyter. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctvbkjvdr.11

Having access to free resources outside of the library is important to student participation in our digital storytelling modules. These resources contribute to their ability to work on activities and projects for the course without being confined to one setting and gives them the option to continue their learning after they complete our learning experience.

Provided by Shelley Wolfe, the executive director of PSTV in Philadelphia, there is an online webpage that links students to free apps and sites for royalty free music, photo/video editing software, articles for lighting tips, illustration and animation software, DJ software trials, music production platforms, video and audio file converters, subtitle editors, AR/VR/3D modeling support, voice manipulators, podcasting software, tutorials and other pre and post production tools. Internet, a computer, or a mobile device is required (RQ2).

• Wolfe, Shelley. “PSTV Office of Information Technology and Data Management.” The School District of Philadelphia, www.philasd.org/pstv/mt/.

• Image

  • Hackastory. “Mapping: The Best Free Tools for Your Digital Story.” Hackastory, 17 Jan. 2018, hackastory.com/best-free-mapping-tools-digital-story/.

For 52 minutes, I (Kyra) conducted an interview with Shelley Wolfe of PSTV to inquire about her experience as a digital media educator for middle and high schoolers in Philadelphia, PA. In our time together, she provided insight to which digital storytelling mediums have been most popular for students, the history and present landscape of digital storytelling, which methods she's employed to measure success, how she assesses student needs, the different activities she thinks are important for students, what she considers when creating learning experiences across varied ages, how she's connected with students on a personal level in her programs, and how she promotes the learning experiences she's created to potential participants.

As a TV station, video is PSTV's main focus but music and photography have been the most popular mediums for students. She expressed that this divergence from video is due to the intimidation associated with being on screen and using equipment on that level. However, she has implemented work arounds to get them more engaged with video which include avatars and finding actors to get them more comfortable with creating in this medium.

When asked about the history of digital storytelling, Shelley immediately mentioned roots of communication in hieroglyphics that told stories of that time. In today's short form content landscape, it's important to understand the old fashioned techniques in mediums such as film to know how to connect people and what benefits they afforded. In her opinion, you have to understand storytelling beyond the digital landscape in order to create stories in digital mediums.

Students of today live in an "app world," as Shelley puts it, and work with their mobile phones more than computers. So when assessing accessibility to resources and teaching digital storytelling mediums, doing so through the lens of phone capabilities is essential, especially for beginners. How do you use your phone to tell stories intentionally and do you really know how to tell those stories although you've been doing so by default? Approaching instruction by answering these questions and teaching the features of their phones and apps is her recommended introductory tool for digital storytelling.

When measuring success of her educational experiences, she doesn't consider herself the judge of art so she doesn't grade in that way. Instead, she looks for the light bulbs that go off and the connections that students make when they reach an understanding of a new medium. To help facilitate success in this way, she works to understand her students. She gets to know them through their creative interests, their fears and excitements, what are they passionate about and what they want to tell stories about. She pushes past barriers to learning digital storytelling skills and makes things accessible by giving them small tasks to break down content that's meaningful to them; they find a creative piece they can relate to and work to understand all of the storytelling components at play. For those who struggle in certain areas, she partners them with other students who have different strengths to help them improve. She also pushes students by grouping them outside of their friend groups. If at any point she reads the room and what she has planned for their session isn't landing on the students, she asks "Why are they not engaging? What do they want to talk about?" and weaves their experiences into media for investment. Overall, for Shelley it's not about them walking away with a finished product necessarily but a personal achievement.

In terms of activities and assessing the needs of the learner, the assignments she assigns reflect weekly lessons. Students determine their own projects within guidelines and deadlines to meet. She encourages them to use their surrounding to tell stories and to see their projects through to meet those requirements but is flexible if they fall short. And in that case, she has one-on-ones to address the reason they're falling behind and provide specific support. One specific activity she has all students do is pitch themselves or a business idea in thirty seconds to one minute. This gives them a sense of who they are, telling their own stories and helping them build themselves up by pinpointing language and confidence.

One major element of Shelley's learning experiences is that she prioritizes the development of critical thinking skills. She doesn't give students a lot of tools and information for their projects in the beginning, allowing them to make mistakes and learn from them. They conduct projects twice to correct those mistakes with more information and resources instead of just giving them the answers to perfecting them on the first try.

Another extremely important element for Shelley is fostering a safe space for students that differs from traditional learning experiences. She makes rooms for conversation, expresses interest in getting to know them, and gives them the floor first. In her words, “this is for them and it's not about me.” She never sits them in a traditional class style, usually forming a half circle to foster community and connection. She asks them how they are, how their week’s been, and engages them in things they want to talk about first. Students are allowed to find a commonality in the room, making new connections with each other across ages, schools, and backgrounds. Community agreements for this environment are led by students. As the instructor, Shelley further nurtures this student-led dynamic by being vulnerable enough to say what she doesn’t know so that learners can share information with her as instructors in a sense. She jokes and is honest with them. She cares about them and even has tools in place where students can mark how they feel for the day so she knows how to better support them at any given moment.

When asked how she promotes her educational experiences, she noted that students who want the resources and opportunities will find them. Her focus is more on accessing the kids who don't have the exposure to know what opportunities to look for. In that case, she relies on educators, students and schools to spread the word and share information. She prompts students already involved in her programs to invite their peers, taking a word of mouth approach. Her programs are typically rooted in a physical space, the tv station at the school district building, but she also acknowledges the importance of meeting students where they are, whether that means bringing programs to schools or offering virtual opportunities during COVID-19 and beyond.

You can listen to our interview below.

• Wolfe, S. (Executive Director of PSTV). (n.d.). Interview.