New Ideas in eLearning Education: Storytelling and Gaming

This week was an interesting study in which direction educators are heading in.  Telling a story, especially a personal story in a digital media for public consumption is a powerful tool.  Not only can you tell a story using digital media, but gaming industries are working very hard to develop games that tell a story.  The following video is a bit long.  My suggestion is to move to the storytelling part if you find the dialogue too boring.

We all have stories to tell.  The most intriguing part of digital storytelling is the fact that finally we can tell them in a way that stimulates others to listen.  I can relate to the story told in the video, because I was a high school dropout.  I left school after my tenth grade year.  A few years later I took a GED test and received the equivalent of a high school diploma.  After two failed marriages and mothering five children, I went to a local state employment agency where I was given a series of tests.  At the end, of this skills testing program, I was told, “…you can be anything you want to be…”  There is a tremendous power in those words.  I was thirty three years old with 6 children to bring up; but I had the one thing that gave me the power to continue for the next nine years…hope.

I managed to get funding at my local college, St Cloud State University, through a government program and began my educational journey for the next nine years.  I earned my Associates Degree there.  I moved to Salt Lake City, Utah and was accepted into a Sociology program at the University of Utah.  I entered the Honors Program; finally, I earned my Bachelor’s of Science degree, with scholastic honors.  After completing my sociology degree with a focus of study in Criminology, I changed my major to Political Science and two years later earned my Master of Science degree, with honors.   I applied to the University of Wisconsin-Madison and was rejected for a doctoral candidacy.

I moved to Wisconsin and entered a program of personalized special studies at the University of Wisconsin-Lacrosse, in order to write a research paper.  It took me one year to complete my study of my research topic and to write that paper.  Once it was written, I presented it to a three professor committee at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and was accepted into their doctoral program in the Political Science Department.  Unfortunately, life happened and while I completed my course work, I never finished my oral testing and doctoral thesis.  However, in spite of all that hardship and not being able to complete my studies for my doctorate, I still had one thing left…hope.  One kernel of insight and wisdom by a state educator, years ago, prompted me to continue my life seeking to be educated.  But, I had found education boring in my early years in high school…and did not want to teach.  One day I walked into a class in eLearning and found my passion.

I could not end this blog until I introduced a video on storytelling and gaming.  The gaming industry is beginning to find that storytelling in games has its purpose. Today educators can incorporate this digital media into the classroom in a new and innovative way to stimulate the minds of the digital learners of today.  I hope you enjoy these presentations.