Digital Storytelling

Our definition and use of Digital Storytelling

Digital storytelling is a short production (usually 2-10 minutes) using digital media (for example video, photos, audio, online text) for people to share their “story or present an idea” (Wikipedia, 2021). As explained on the University of Houston website about Digital Storytelling (compiled by Bernard Robin), the act of creating a “personal narrative” using “computer-based tools” (University of Houston, 2021) can illuminate context in engaging ways and contribute to a broader understanding of content. Paul has noted in his Design Pattern “Is it the digital storytelling or the process that counts?” that the process of story creation can be more beneficial than the message of the story because engaging in the process of creating, presenting and sharing a narrative helped participants identify and frame their own “truth”.

In our project, the CPD we propose creating does not explore in detail how the digital story resources which the CPD will use might be created (though it is likely to be done in facilitated workshops with prisoner patients), nor does it specifically encourage those using the CPD to create their own digital stories in response, though we did contemplate this as an optional follow-up activity to the mandatory CPD. Such an optional activity would require some supporting guidance on how to create a digital story and the ethical issues which might arise from sharing it. Many examples of digital storytelling in educational settings have utilised facilitated workshops which provide “creative support and technical assistance” (University of Brighton, n.d.) to novice storytellers, however an online CPD resource could offer activities and online guidance resources (short videos and checklists) to provide some support without running a workshop.

While choosing our topic and context, we talked about the prisoners whose stories might be used in the CPD. What security risk they might have? Or would it be all prisoners generally? Would this include juvenile prisoners? We concluded the stories created would partly depend upon the prisoners who might be given permission to participate in a digital storytelling workshop for the CPD and the type of healthcare they would be receiving in their hospital visits.

We also discussed ethical issues involved in creating and using the digital stories for CPD. The code of conduct for healthcare professionals, Healthcare Trust values and person-centred care are important topics for staff training. The CPD could expand on equality and diversity training by using experiences of prisoner patients to illuminate these topics.

The CPD learning resource we propose would be hosted on the hospital Virtual Learning Environment (VLE), which is Moodle-based and be mobile responsive. Potentially it could be an Open Educational Resource (OER) which other Healthcare Trusts could use via a SCORM compliant package (excluding quizzes) or a Moodle backup (including quizzes) exported and uploaded to their VLEs.

References

University of Brighton (n.d.) What is digital storytelling, Digital storytelling at the University of Brighton [blog]. Available at https://blogs.brighton.ac.uk/digitalstorytelling/what-is-digital-storytelling/ (accessed 15 June 2021)

University of Houston (2021) What is digital storytelling? About digital storytelling, on Educational Uses of Digital storytelling. Available at https://digitalstorytelling.coe.uh.edu/page.cfm?id=27&cid=27 (accessed 15 June 2021)

Wikipedia (2021) Digital storytelling. Available at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_storytelling (accessed 15 June 2021)