This is my digital story.
Why is this story worth telling?
This story is (one of many of) my own critical incidents. A critical incident includes a story about a cross-cultural miscommunication followed by a question about the reasoning behind the miscommunication and set of possible answers. After reading the ‘story’, the student must choose the best interpretation (answer) of the characters’ actions based on his/her knowledge of the characters’ cultures. As in real life situations there might be more than one explanation that can be considered appropriate or correct so students are asked to mark their choices with such words as “the best choice”, “satisfactory”, “less than satisfactory”, and “the worst choice” (Cushner & Brislin, 1996) and explain why they designated them as such. I often use critical incidents when teaching international business students as a way to generate discussion about miscommunications, both cultural and (inter)personal. This particular incident revolves around a job interview I had for a teaching position in Japan and it is pertinent to the course I am currently developing, both for ETEC565 and my teachings in the real world. While I normally ask students to work on these stories individually and share their responses in a forum as well as come up with their own ‘incidents’ and ‘interpretations’ to share with the class I am leaning towards creating a group writing response to this digital story.
Why was this the right tool for you to use to tell your story?
Because I am teaching a business course, I was leaning towards using a presentation tool. However, I did peruse the Slideshow Tools (as I thought these might offer something similar to Powerpoint) as well as the Comic/Sketch Tools (as I have viewed a number of impressive presentations that use flash, and it is on my ‘wish list’ of IT things to learn) because they might have been a better fit for the story I was trying to tell. I ended up choosing Prezi because for me, the final product (the samples I had viewed) not only fell in between the Slideshow Tool I looked at (http://www.ourstory.com/) and the Comic Sketch tools I reviewed (http://www.toondo.com, http://comiqs.com/editor/) visually, but professionally (read: business) as well – to say nothing of the skill set that would be required to compose a professional looking ‘product’ had I chosen one of these other tools (which is why I did not dare to review Mixer, Audio or Video tools).
And, this takes me to my next point: while their website was very easy to navigate from the start, one of the most compelling reasons for my choosing Prezi (over, say, http://docs.google.com) was the first lesson in their Learn Center: Lesson 1: Prezi in 3 minutes. The ease of use I experienced with this tool was very impressive and exceeded my expectations. In addition, Prezi not only made the story I am telling both dynamic and flowing, my use of it in teaching will serve as an introduction of the tool to my students for their own (potential) future use (read: value add). Going forward, I may include this tool for the telling of ‘critical incidents’ in my regular business courses, as well. I think using this tool this could really benefit my students’ ability to express themselves in English as much of what they will be composing could/would be visual, rather than textual – which many international students both struggle with and disdain. This could be combined with an oral presentation – which works well for both high fluency/low accuracy students as well as students who are less comfortable speaking in public (its always helpful to have something other than YOU for the audience to focus on) and could definitely help with organization, as well as presentation skills.
What are the strengths of a story telling approach? What are the limitations?
I initially found it a challenge to come up with a story that would work in the course I am developing. I had not thought to include a ‘critical incident’ in this particular course, but once I had everything just ‘fell in to place’. There are a lot of benefits to using (in my work, non-fiction) storytelling – structure, comparing and contrasting cultural structures (linear vs. circular) – and these software tools allow for great reflection and creativity and an opportunity to archive their experiences and learning. The only reservation I have to this, particularly with the use of ‘storytelling tools’, is the shift away from written text.