The Digital Exchange Society: The Stories We Tell

• In Event: 52.012 - High School Students as Social Justice Researchers, Connecting Praxis and Theory: A New Generation Emerging

Abstract

The Stories We Tell is a cross-cultural international virtual exchange program connecting a diverse population of high school aged students from Chicago, Illinois and Casablanca, Morocco. Through the course of the summer, Moroccan and American youth engage in a series of synchronous and asynchronous virtual exchange experiences so as to share their cultures, their communities and their stories. The objective of this summer program is to not only foster cultural understanding and awareness between students in the United States and Morocco, but to understand how cross-cultural digital story exchange can motivate the cultivation of the digital media literacy skills necessary for the 21st century world through the awarding of digital badges.

The Digital Exchange Society guides youth through a series of activities and dialogues allowing them to explore and share around the guiding question, ‘How do I interact with my community?’ To explore this question, youth participate in three virtual videoconference dialogues with their peers as well as engage in online collaboration throughout the summer on the iRemix platform. In addition to conversations, youth are guided through a series of activities allowing them to explore the role of oral and digital storytelling, teaching them the skills necessary to tell their own narrative and ultimately how to tell their peers’ stories using a variety of digital online platforms. Artifacts produced by students include:

* Digital Storytelling for sharing Individual Stories-Journaling and Online Blogging
* Photography-Google Maps City Tour
* Videography-Heart of My City Video Blog
* StoryXChange Digital Narrative
* Sharing your Partner’s Story Multimedia Presentation

For the presentation, youth from both Chicago and Morocco will present final digital story artifact and discuss the impact on program participation on the similarities and dissimilarities of youth culture in Chicago and Morocco, and reflect upon their development as digital storytellers.

Authors

• Nichole D. Pinkard, DePaul University

• Mike Hawkins, DePaul University

• Janeen Lee, Digital Youth Network