"Everyone has a story."
-Neil LaBute

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Digital Storytelling

Storytelling is one of humanity's oldest communication tools that has allowed humans to transmit their culture and traditions since the dawn of time. From the hieroglyphic drawings found on cave walls to the stories told over campfires, humans have long held a connection to their stories as a form of entertainment and as a tool for teaching life’s lessons.  Digital Storytelling blends the time-honored tradition of storytelling with digital technology providing a rich multimedia experience. Digital storytelling is a powerful communication tool that allows anyone with a computer, a scanner and a digital camera to tell their story. Digital storytelling is a great tool for classroom teaching, marketing and advertisement or even genealogy in fun and interesting way.

Digital Storytelling is a broad term that refers to making short digital stories using a computer and digital technology. A man named Dana Atchley, who premiered a digital storytelling workshop in 1993, at the America Film Institute, coined the term digital storytelling.  Atchley who was based in the San Francisco Bay area benefited from the advancements in the Silicon Valley as digital video began to emerge and become affordable and possible.  With the advent of digital video and photography, Atchley took his bus on the road and began to make short narratives of anything he found along the way.  This evolved into a show he called the Next Exit, where he would sit around a fire and discuss his travels and then show his digital stories.  Atchley died of cancer in 2000, his protégé Joe Lambert has spearheaded Atchley’s idea into a Digital Storytelling phenomenon with workshops held around the world and develping the Center for Digital Storytelling in San Francisco.  Digital Storytelling has even become a part of the World of Coca Cola in Las Vegas, Nevada, with its own Digital Storytelling theater

The Learning Technologies Center at Mercer University supports several classes in the creation of their digital stories, which include a wide range of students in their FYS classes, Business, Women Gender Studies and various other courses. For further assistance in developing your Digital Story or for implementing digital storytelling into your curriculum contact New Media Instructional Specialist Jerome Gratigny.