Creatively Connecting Curriculum to the Digital Learner
Message From the Executive Director
…on the phrase, Digital Resiliency
Hello Colleagues, Collaborators and Friends,
There is a new phrase out there – or at least, new to me. It’s Digital Resiliency. Here is one definition:
“Digital Resilience is having the awareness, skills, agility, and confidence to be empowered users of new technologies and adapt to changing digital skill demands. Digital resilience improves capacity to problem-solve and upskill, navigate digital transformations, and be active participants in society and the economy.” ( Digital US)
This isn’t a trend. It’s a reality. The Markle Foundation’s 2019 report entitled,Digital Blindspot: How Digital Literacy Can Create a More Resilient American Workforce emphatically “highlights the importance of digital literacy in enabling digital resilience by providing workers with the foundational skills and confidence to tackle new technologies.”
This report points to the need to start building Digital Resilience in the secondary schools. This report points to the fact that “8 in 10 middle-skill jobs now require basic technology skills.” This report is based on data and discussions with companies such as Microsoft, Walmart, Boeing and AT&T.
It’s short and poignant. Check it out.
Meridian Stories helps students build ‘digital resilience’ while creatively addressing traditional curricular content. It’s an opportunity – not a holistic program or proposed way of educating: a project-based opportunity – to help students in the present and near future.
Meridian Stories is a Now proposition. Check it out.
– Brett Pierce [email protected]
Featured 2020-21 Competitive Digital Storytelling Challenge
“The Lottery” – Reimagined
Since 1948, Shirley Jackson’s short story, “The Lottery,” has resonated with students and educators. Why? That is what this challenge asks you to examine. Read and study the story; create a 12-frame visual storyboard of the story, BUT, change a few things – the setting, the order of the scenes, and …add a new scene – without changing the ending. The Lottery Reimagined challenges you to both probe the meaning of the original story; visualize it; and enhance it.
[To see all the Competitions, click here.]
Featured Support from The Digital Storytelling Resource Center
“Creating a Storyboard/Framing a Shot”
A storyboard is a series of panels of rough sketches – simple drawings – outlining the sequence of scenes or major changes of action in a digital story. Storyboards help the creators ‘visualize’ the story, scene by scene or shot by shot. And they assist in the logistical planning of the shoot. But in order to create a really useful storyboard, you need to know something about the different ways to frame a shot.
Check out this guide to learn more about the three basic shot structures and how they will help craft an effective storyboard
Featured Submission from Narrative Flashpoint
“What’s on your Mind? A Poem Reflecting My Thoughts in Quarantine”
Narrative Flashpoint is a Meridian Stories pandemic initiative that provides students with a variety of narrative prompts that seek to creatively elicit their perspectives on the world during these challenging times. It began last spring and will continue through the school year. The initiative is free and submissions are accepted – and commented upon by Meridian Mentors – on a rolling basis.
Check out this thoughtful prose poem from a Pennsylvania high school student, submitted in April, 2020.