Abstract:

Under the assumption that in the era of the Internet students construct their identities navigating their social surroundings, Jenkins [1] proposes that one fruitful way for teachers to address “the participation gap” between the isolate classroom teaching and the larger learning ecology around schools, is to assume the responsibility to integrate DIY (Do-It-Yourself) practices into their pedagogies, particularly by means of portfolios of experience. For Jenkins, in communities of practices, DIY is not an isolated activity. It occurs through collaboration between members. Accordingly, a second assumption postulates that teachers cannot fully understand the value and significance of DIY practices without working, themselves, with the tools and platforms fundamental to the new forms of cultural production and circulation. Teachers “need to get their hands dirty”, he says [1, p. 232]; meaning that in communities of practice, learning is looked at as apprenticeship and portfolios as a reflexive expression of the group’s expertise, development and growth. With these basic assumptions in mind, this paper presents and discusses #FollowTheStoryteller, a short video campaign intended to encourage groups committed to practices of digital storytelling to create their portfolios of experience – whether in schools, research institutions, or start-ups (e.g., groups creating stories as part of a game; groups using storytelling in advertisement; groups remixing sampled digital material for fanfiction; groups transcreating short-stories to the digital format; and so on); and introduces a platform for giving visibility to the portfolios. Methodologically, the storytelling structure of the campaign uses Campbell’s universal motif of adventure and transformation known in the literature of storytelling as The Hero’s Journey [2]. We conclude by suggesting ways to enrich the platform.

Keywords:

#FollowTheStoryteller, communities of practice, digital storytelling, portfolios of experience, The Hero’s Journey.