Storytelling and digital filmmaking in the classroom (2 Weeks)

Storytelling is a human need that occurred since our ancestors used to live in caves. While storytelling is a way of communication it is also a way of cultivating creativity, transforming ideas, discovering things and transmitting knowledge. Creativewriting consists of all the needed techniques in order for a story to be created and is one of the best ways to engagestudents in knowledgeas it helps students to make ideas their own. Storytelling has always played a vital role in history, but the manner in which it has been done have changed with every culture. Personal narrative has been utilized to convey historical events since the oral histories spoken by bards in ancient courts, through the works of scribes during the Renaissance, through newspapers, CNN, and now the Internet. Students and teachers may now narrate stories using voice, text, graphics, audio, and video thanks to digital storytelling, which mixes tradition with technology. 

“The teaching of writing,” Wallace Stegner could not say often enough, “is Socratic.” By this he seems to have meant that, like Socrates, the writing teacher is a midwife,assisting at the birth of a student’s creation and checking it for signs of life. The method behind such teaching—what is now called the workshop method, was described by Plato 2,300 years ago as “benevolent disputation by the use of question and answer withoutjealousy.” The teaching of writing, in other words, is Socratic in being an invitation to participate in a conversation. The writing workshop can further the kind of critical thinking skills that students are already being encouraged to use in other aspects of their learning.

Making up theirown stories helpsstudents learn materialin fresh ways.By being activelyinvolved with, and actively interrogating their involvement with the elements that make up our written and oral communication,these young writers of fiction will gain an intuitive and intellectual understanding of its operations. Simply put, one can best understand how something is constructed by attempting to put it together yourself. 

Video art is a modern art genre that primarily examines human existence and experience and deals with commonplace issues, challenges, and wishes. With the use of video as a medium, artists can create works of art that connect identities, experiences, and knowledge through the organization and control of pictures, text, and sound. Given that video is already an important part of their lives in many different ways (such as through television, the internet, video games, and mobile phones), as a technology tool it has the potential to pique learners’ interests and tie school life to the outside world. 

A linear set of events can be transformed into a multidimensional experience by using digital storytelling, which are accessible to students. All of this motivates them to converse, work together, conduct research, and incorporate media into the process. These projects may be made with a variety of tools and apps, and using them all enables students to learn more about history while figuring out the best way to retell it. 

The course aims to combine the art of storytelling with the art of digital filmmaking in order to increase student learning, encourage creative expression, foster critical thinking, and promote contemplation on societal concerns. 

• Understand the importance of creativity in education. 
• Discover ways of developing studentscreativity and self confidence. 
• Get familiar with the philosophy of creative writing.
• Train in the “Socratic workshopmethod”. 
• Become able to design a creative writingworkshop. 
• Enhance participant’s abilityto recognize the essential elementsneeded to constructcompelling and meaningful stories. 
• Raise participant’s awareness oftechnological development in teaching and learning.
• Strengthen the participant’s capacity for structuring and creating compelling tales, including those in style, genre, and digital media.