When I hear the word “storytelling”, I immediately think back to elementary school. I think of a plot, characters, setting, theme, beginning, middle, and an end, because in order to tell a story you need all of those elements. For example: I don’t think a story would be classified as a “story” if it didn’t have an ending to it. All of those elements are important in their own way.

Storytelling also elicits a historical context. We wouldn’t have history if the people never told their stories about it. Right now I am picturing a bunch of old men grouped together around a fire telling stories. Although, this might be more of a traditional “idea” of storytelling.

The word “digital” has more of a new-age meaning to me than the word “storytelling” does. When I hear the word “digital”, I think of computers, cameras, radios, digital clocks, iPods, iPhones, iPads, iAnything… I believe that if you asked kids 100 years from now what the word “digital” means to them, it will be a lot different than what it means to me. Same as if you asked my grandparents now. The meaning of “digital” is constantly changing as our advances in technology change.

When I think of the word “digital storytelling”, I think of the telling of stories through technology, whether it be pictures, videos, computers, even blogging! I think that digital storytelling can occur in numerous formats. When I signed up for this class, I pictured me making videos and pictures to tell my stories and share them {and I am excited to start :)}