How does my story connect to my research topic?

Several years ago, I was asked to serve on my intitution's Leadership Team during our process of SACS/COC reaffirmation. I considered this an honor and a priveledge because it gave me an opportunity to learn from and dialogue with senior administrators at the college. As we were trying to muddle through the new requirements of SACS/COS, we learned that the institution would be required to develop a campus-wide quality enhancement plan (QEP). After a lengthy discussion, it was decided that the school's focus would be digital storytelling. It was during these discussions that I actually learned about the concept of "digital storytelling."

As the QEP developed, faculty were offered the opportunity to attend digital storytelling workshops. I was chosen to participate. It was a whirlwind professional development in the sense that the digital storytelling required hours of my time. Time, that I did not have while teaching a full load and serving as department chair of Foreign Languages. I did attend the sessions and developed my narrative and gathered my pictures, but I am still in the process of putting it all together. However, I did complete enough of the project to experience the power of personal narrative. I think it is so ironic that we are taking a class on the power of the personal voice because this is exactly what is needed and most valued in digital storytelling. The technology is a secondary component. The emphasis of digital storytelling is on the writing process in general.... carefully crafting your story to contain only a specific number ofwords, revision, peer readings, editing, etc. Since it is writing intensive, CVCC has chosen to incorporate digital storytelling in our ENG 111 classes. However, it is our hope that personal narrative/digital storytelling will find its way into other disciplines.

If I can discover how to post a digital story, I will try to do that so everyone can see what a powerful teaching tool it is. I have watched several digital stories developed by my students. They truly help you know the "story" of the student.