Once upon a time...
"What's your email address? Let me send you a copy of the digital photos I took. Look on Facebook. Find us at web page www. This is the world we live in and as an individual not able to understand or apply these terms I felt like a dinosaur."
Frederick Briggs, Race Online 2012 People’s Taskforce
Gone are the days when stories were synonymous with ‘once upon a time’ or ‘they all lived happily ever after.’ Our world is changing and for many people, actions are documented via social media. Digital stories are created every day and are often far more interesting than fairy tales.
Cambridge Online, an educational charity based in Cambridge which provides free access to computers and the internet, has developed a new website which aims to capture these tales. They have developed a process of telling a story through a combination of digital images, text, narration, video and music. It has four chapters, starting with a script, either written, recorded using voice recognition software or from a video. This is then collated into a storyboard and is followed by the collection of media, including images and audio files which are then assembled into the final product. These can then be viewed on the new Digital Storytelling website.
Let us take you back to where it all began. Earlier this year, Vodafone started their World of Difference programme with the aim of recruiting 500 charity workers for placements in their chosen charity. There were 1100 applications for 500 places and winners would take part for 2 months.
Rozaliia Vagizova applied to work with Cambridge Online to develop the Digital Storytelling project. For the past 2 months she has been helping people within the community become more digitally included, skilled in computer literacy and able to use social media. Her work and the collection of stories from everyone involved can now be seen on the new community website.
Cambridge Online aims to encourage everyone, particularly those who are disabled or disadvantaged, to share their local memories, stories and photographs using social media. It’s not only a fantastic means of documenting the present but is also a means of collating memories.
Rozaliia has found listening to these stories is often like ‘listening to history lessons.’ For her, its been fascinating to learn ‘how much disabled and elderly people can help each other and bring something back to community.’ The internet really can bridge a divide for those suffering from loneliness and isolation. These are often people whose stories are not documented. However, for many, particularly the elderly and those with disabilities, access to social media and the interaction it brings can open up a whole new world of possibilities.
Although Rozaliia’s chapter in this project has now closed, this is not the end, it's merely the beginning. The project is continuing with the help of volunteers. We hope it will be a story which continues for years to come. It's one which will only get better with age.
- Take a look at some of the Digital Stories on the Digital Storytelling website.
- Find out more about Vodafone's World of Difference Project
- If you've got a Promise in Action you'd like to share, why not get in touch?
