The Woodland Trust has launched a new civic campaigning tool called MyView that will be of interest if you feel your neighborhood could benefit from having some trees planted there. Step 1 take a photo of an area near you which you feel would benefit from some trees Step 2 upload it to the site and drap-and-drop some virtual trees to the view to make it look nicer. Caption your work by maybe adding a story about why this is a place that’s special to you. Personal stories are a powerful tool in getting things implemented, as we learn from Patients’ Voices’ health-related stories. Step 3 send a link to…
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PS for Teachers. New site mixes personal storytelling with active citizenship learning.
I’ve written about BBC Cymru Wales’s PS site before. PS now has a brand new sister site for teachers. As producer Nia M Davies says PS for Teachers is all about using personal stories to “engage young people aged 14-19 in Personal and Social Education.” It’s a bilingual site, in English and Welsh. Topics tackled include: Active citizenship Health and emotional well-being Moral and spiritual development Preparing for lifelong learning Sustainable development and global citizenship There are personal videos to watch and show, lesson plans and an invitation for students to upload their own digital stories, video diaries and other experience-based videos. Class discussion topics are suggested and there are…
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How storytelling is saving hundreds of lives in Welsh hospitals
“I was back in the hospital having my dressing changed after an operation. I’d had a lot of stitches. The nurse arrived with a pen in her mouth. She took off my old dressing and ran the pen which had been in her mouth along my chest to check all the stitches. After changing my dressing she walked on to the next patient tapping the pen against her teeth.” This is the kind of patient story that’s been used in re-training staff to be aware of ways in which hospital bugs are spread. Hearing a short account like this has proved effective in changing hospital staff’s ways of working. The…
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“What has been important for you in your life?”
That’s the question Hanne Jones and Eli Lea from Flimmer Film asked as they went from door to door at old people’s homes in Norway. The answers they were given were as different as the people they met. ‘My Days’ is a collection of 37 memories told by people between the ages of 79 and 104. These digital stories are in Norwegian with English subtitles and they’re each around three minutes long. The music’s beautiful and the storytellers’ voices have such warmth and, at the same time, gravitas that they took me by suprise and brought a tear to my eye. Watch, for example, Alf telling the story of his…
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India-UK grants
Here’s some news of funding that may benefit digital storytellers in the UK. A pilot grant scheme for Connections though Culture: India – UK is now open and arts producers or representatives from an arts organisations in the UK are eligible to apply. Connections through Culture is the British Council’s new programme for collaborative exchanges between the UK and India in the arts, aimed at generating long-term partnerships between arts organisations and producers in the UK and their counterparts in India. The funding may be for bespoke visits, development support and showcasing collaborative work. Information about the scheme and how to apply is here in English and in Welsh. There’s…
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Community Voices digital media grants
Digital storytellers will be interested to hear that one £500 award per week is available between now and March 2010. That’s what Community Voices has to offer those in England using digital media to help empower disadvantaged communities: “Media Trust is always looking to celebrate the varied and inspiring ways you are using digital media to help empower disadvantaged communities. And now Community Voices has 20 x £500 awards to give away before the end of March 2010 – that’s one every week. If you’re helping to give your community a voice through digital media we’d like to hear from you, and so would many other communities seeking help. Projects…
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BBC – understand, participate in and influence
Inform, educate and entertain was the old Reithian view of the BBC. Whilst continuing to be a worthwhile mission, it does sound a little ‘paternal’ or top-down for today’s world. It was refreshing to hear a new personal view of what the BBC needs to do today from Seetha Kumar – online access champion and controller BBC Online – in a presentation at BBC Wales I attended yesterday. In response to a question, she repeated this paragraph from her presentation to the Skills for Life conference on 3 November: “The Reithian tradition of inform, educate and entertain is as true today as it was over 80 years ago. In the…
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PS
This is a site by BBC Wales with personal stories by 14-25 year olds. In PS, you can submit and watch videos categorized Health, Entertainment, Education, Religion, News & Politics, Environment, Love & Sex, Animals, Race & Culture, Crime & Violence, Business & Economy, Sports, Life, Drugs & Alcohol, Science & Technology, Community & Society and Other. There’s an embeddable widget on the site with the latest comments and stories, so I thought I’d embed it here on the Aberth Digital Storytelling blog.