• citizenship,  digital storytelling,  education,  empowerment,  inclusion,  media literacy,  people

    Premila Gamage, Sri Lankan Digital Storyteller

    It’s International Women’s Day today. This year’s theme centres on Empowering Rural Women. So today’s the day I want to talk about a digital storyteller I met in Colombo, Sri Lanka, in December 2011. Premila Gamage works at the Institute of Policy Studies, Colombo; in her spare time she’s taking the tools of digital storytelling to rural areas of Sri Lanka, encouraging people to tell their stories, publishing them online and helping people realise the dreams they outline in their stories. I’d been was introduced to Premila via email by Sarah Copeland who’d met Premila because they were both studying at Leeds Metropolitan University. So Premila and I made arrangements…

  • digital storytelling,  DS Cymru,  empowerment,  inclusion,  media literacy,  people,  Wales

    Daniel Meadows – early photographic works (video)

    Many readers of this blog will be familiar with the work of Daniel Meadows. He was founder and creative director of BBC Capture Wales and teaches digital storytelling module at Cardiff University. Before this, he was a well-known documentary photographer. There are retrospective views of his work coming soon: 1. in the form of a new book called “Daniel Meadows: Edited Photographs from the 70s and 80s” by Val Williams. Published by Photoworks. 2. in an exhibition at the National Media Museum, Bradford, called “Daniel Meadows: Early Photographic Works” curated by Val Williams. It runs from 30th September 2011 – 19th February 2012. Daniel has just published a video setting…

  • citizenship,  digital storytelling,  empowerment,  inclusion,  people,  story,  Wales

    Digital Stories may be ideal for Welsh TV channel S4C

    This sounds like an interesting opportunity for someone who wants to pitch an idea for a series of Welsh-language digital stories to S4C. It’s from the Content section of S4C’s Vision for 2012 and Beyond (PDF). “We will establish a new brand, Calon Cenedl (heart of the nation), a series of short programmes approximately three-minutes long to be broadcast at 20.25. The content will offer us the opportunity to exhibit the full range of Welsh life in a series of portrayals about areas, communities and people. This new brand can be extended to include half-hour programmes at other times during peak hours when the editorial strength of the idea merits…

  • digital storytelling,  education,  people,  story

    Cheryl Colan – Trust Your Story

    It’s thanks to Twitter that I met Cheryl Colan. I’d been following her tweets about #digitalstorytelling for a couple of years via @cherylcolan When I heard she was coming to teach digital storytelling in the UK with Study Abroad Britain, I invited her to Cardiff. I was impressed by Cheryl’s commitment to and love of digital stories. Here’s an audio clip of Cheryl describing a digital storytelling trip to Australia and New Zealand: Cheryl Colan (mp3) I recorded more audio with Cheryl. In the future, I’ll share a clip of Cheryl’s philosophy regarding seeking storytellers’ consents. I like her approach because it’s a beautifully nuanced one. Cheryl often travels with…