Not A Single Story: Digital Storytelling Project

Our students have great stories to tell. Our faculty have expertise in narrative writing, oral histories, and preserving local, cultural knowledge. Our campus library has experience partnering with our faculty researchers to support the collection, preservation, and access to local histories. But thus far, we have not been able to join these forces together to create a digital storytelling infrastructure that gives our students the opportunity to develop their stories and our faculty the opportunity to incorporate digital storytelling and preservation into the curriculum. As librarians and scholars of experiential learning, we know the multiple benefits of a strong digital storytelling infrastructure. ​Digital storytelling provides students with the means to develop important skills, from social-emotional capacities to critical speaking, thinking, listening, to narrative transformation and empowerment. ​Digital storytelling literacy is a means for students to discover and articulate their values and make the connection between their values and career readiness. In addition, our students, the majority of whom stay in Southeastern Michigan after graduation, can serve as digital storytelling mentors to local community college students and high schoolers thus making UM-Dearborn a hub for gathering local epistemologies and using these to collectively empower our citizen-leaders. Storytelling is an obligation to the next generation. If all we are doing is marketing, we are doing a disservice, and not only to the university, but to future generations. The ​Not A Single Story: Digital Storytelling Project​ will provide something of meaning to storytellers and listeners by inspiring, engaging, and educating them with story. Our message to future leaders will be: “Stop marketing. Start storytelling.”