Digital Story Telling- Blog 1

    我是谁？wǒ shì shéi (Who am I?)

My name is Michael Heumann. I was placed into a Fine Arts Program in public school since elementary school and my aunt, a career violinist and teacher, was a major influence on my career projection as she would constantly remind me, “Michael, never give up your Art.”

 

    I completed my BFA at Louisiana State University in 2012. After a foreign exchange program to Jingdezhen, JiangXi province to study ceramics during my undergraduate, I found work in Mainland China and would remain living there for the next 14 years. Fascinated by the language and cultural aspects such a filial piety, I spent many years to learn and become fluent in Mandarin Chinese. This endeavor of language learning indirectly led to obtaining a TESL certification and transitioning from Art to ESL. Due to the Ministry of Education’s double-reduction policy in recent years, which has massively reduced the English learning market in China and feeling stagnant in my duties as a teacher in Elementary and Middle School, my family and I decided to travel to the U.S. in November 2024. 

 我的故事 wǒdegùshi (My story)

    For my story in this course, I think this is a perfect time to explore identity and citizenship. As an American born citizen living my entire adult life in Mainland China as a student, having a professional career, getting married, and having children there, my identity and concept of ‘home’ has shifted. Living in China has provided my youth with rich life experiences and beautiful memories, but underwhelmed by the lack of professional development and educational opportunities have traveled back to the U.S.  For students’, Digital Story Telling (DST) may provide opportunity to affirm culture and identity (Staley and Freeman 2017). While my family and I have moved to the United States with an initial plan for short-term residence, the long-term vision of raising a family is uncertain.  

    It is important to include that my parents-in-law own a cherry orchard in Dalian, China, where my wife plays a irreplaceable role in sales and logistics for the family business.Over the past few years, our responsibility to the family business requires that we be on-site in China every year. This social tie to the land and community strengthen the narrative and responsibility I feel towards the people and the city of Dalian. This DST project may allow me to investigate and make sense of the complexities, inner turmoil involved with immigration, societal value and self-worth (Guzzetti and Lesley 2016). 

   知识点 zhīshidiǎn  (Learning Points) 

Social media and the use of vlogs and short video have been increasingly popular in China through the past years. For university English Foreign Language students, I have previously assigned Digital Storytelling projects from portraying stories from Greek Mythology to personalized stories capturing students culture and identity. Now knowing that DST has extensive evidence on the increased participation and ability of students to research through this learning process is encouraging (Kubravi, Shah, and Jan n.d.). Even in my last role at Middle and Elementary Schools, a large majority of students are proficient at video and image editing. With this readily available tool in conjunction with guidance in a curriculum, lends for powerful teaching and learning opportunities. 

    I have always been attracted to those who are exceptional story tellers, which may be refectory that I sometimes struggle to convey engaging stories. Lambert’s Digital Story Telling Cookbook (2010) succinctly identifies that many people in modern society lack the practice of orally conveying stories, as well as being overloaded with bits and fragments of information every day, that make it impossible to reproduce enough times to transform into meaningful data. DST can be a powerful tool in improving a wide range of competencies including refection, literacy, and retention (Kubravi, Shah, and Jan n.d.).  

  

References: 

  

Guzzetti, Barbara, and Mellinee Lesley, eds. 2016. Handbook of Research on the Societal Impact of Digital Media: IGI Global. doi:10.4018/978-1-4666-8310-5. 

  

Kubravi, Syed Uzma, Seeret Omar Shah, and Khushboo Jan. “Digital Story Telling: The Impact on Student Academic Achievement, Critical Thinking and Learning Motivation.” 1(12). 

  

Lambert, Joe. 2010. Digital Storytelling Cookbook: January 2010. Berkeley, Calif.: Digital Diner Press. 

  

Staley, Bea, and Leonard A. Freeman. 2017. “Digital Storytelling as Student-Centred Pedagogy: Empowering High School Students to Frame Their Futures.” Research and Practice in Technology Enhanced Learning 12(1): 21. doi:10.1186/s41039-017-0061-9.