What do you care about and why?
That was the assignment for about 20 students in one first-year writing class at Duke. The challenge: to tell their story in 100 words through a video that included their own recorded voice, digital images and music.
The resulting digital stories, according to instructor Jennifer Ahern-Dodson, reveal the passion and diversity of Duke undergraduates. They also illustrate how technology can be used to inspire and share powerful reflections.
Ahern-Dodson challenged students in two sections of Writing 20 -- a required first-year course -- to reflect on a semester's worth of conversations about civic engagement by focusing on developing their own personal story about something that mattered to them.
Some students chose personal events, such as a grandparent's death, or experiences like volunteering abroad. All of them struggled to refine their narrative and answer tough questions: What makes a good story? How do you avoid the obvious and get an audience to pay attention?
"I'd never had to do anything like that before, in terms of media," said Arden Kreeger, a first-year student from New York City. "The biggest challenge was consolidating my thoughts into 100 words and creating a meaningful message. It was just as time-consuming as writing a six-page paper."
The stories provide a good representative example of the potential for digital storytelling, the lives of Duke first-year students, and reflective thinking about one's life, cares and motivations, Ahern-Dodson said.
"We're not in a print world. If you want to make your mark, you have to write, present and persuade in more than a print context," she said.
Kreeger, whose story focused on her experiences volunteering in Senegal, Nepal and India, said she appreciated the opportunity to learn new technology skills as part of the story development process.
"I don't plan to (work) in media, but the skills you need to employ to create a compelling message are skills you can use in almost anything," she said. "I'm on my computer all day, TV is a huge part of our society. Technology is a prevalent part of society, and those tools need to be part of any interdisciplinary education."
Ahern-Dodson is teaching the course again this spring.