As a history major, I came to terms with the fact that I love a good story a long time ago.  A story doesn’t have to be factual for someone to gain valuable advice, incites, and entertainment value.  The problem with the word “story” is that some people believe that it implies that it’s fiction, and don’t allow it to serve the purpose of educating that it could.  To me, storytelling (like Aesop Fables) could just serve the purpose of teaching life values.  Others can just simply inform.  My grandfather, a World War II veteran, always would tell me stories of comradeship, bravery, and heroics.  Whether or not he told these stories to educate me, or just to entertain me, I remember these stories and they did both.  To me, the word “story” does not imply that it has to be fictional or non-fictional by the way.  It just has to be someone reciting literature with some sort of structure as my English professors would call “plot” and “characters,” and all that other fun stuff that gives a story structure.  Everything else is what someone makes of it.

Digital storytelling however, does not change at all in what the word “storytelling” to me.  In fact, I would consider the “digital” in digital storytelling as more like a “storytelling enhancer.”  Or some sort of metamorphosis where you have more than just a few options to tell a story.  With pictures, video, sound, text, film, music, etc., people have nearly infinite options to choose how to tell their stories.  For this week’s assignment, I plan on using eggs to tell my story.  That’s right, eggs.  Someone else may choose bread, Popsicle sticks, whatever they can think of.  And with the infinite possibilities, I’m still technically  narrowed down, because I have to tell my story in photos.   Digital storytelling vastly evolves storytelling further that it has been evolved in all the years of man, and digital technology is relatively new.