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Learning the ancient art of storytelling, the modern way
Storytelling, one of the oldest art forms known to man, is getting a modern makeover thanks to a new generation of storytellers who are breathing new life into an ancient art form through technology.
The primary goal of the digital storytelling workshop conducted last month at various places within Davao by digital artists (and twins) Glorypearl Dy and Gloryrose Dy and visual artist Angely Chi was simply to reintroduce the concept of storytelling to kids. They hoped that storytelling would be an avenue for kids to explore their creativity and gain self-confidence.
The kids preparing for their story presentations
Introducing the kids to software and tools was secondary, a means to make the storytelling process more engaging and relatable. What they didn’t anticipate was how the kids fully engaged themselves into using technology to greatly improve their storytelling skills.
The process
The workshop begins with the teachers showing the kids the different elements of a story—characters, plot, conflict, resolution—to help them come up with their stories. They are taught the importance of timing and phrasing, and how to find inspiration from their life stories and their environment.
The children then are taught how to create a storyboard to help break up their stories into parts.
The stories are created according to the child's preferences: they could draw the images on paper which are then scanned, or they could draw their images directly into the computer, or they can compile photos. The finished stories (either powerpoint or short mp4 movies) are posted on the Dy twins' website, Switotwins.com.
The kids, the youngest aged 7, took to the workshop like ducks to water, creating surprisingly complex and thoughtful stories—a 10-year-old boy wrote an alternate creation myth, and an 11-year-old girl wrote an epic horror story in three parts.
From the children's storyboards, you coud already see the seeds of creativity sprouting. But as they were given free rein to use tools like Adobe, Powerpoint and Windows Movie Maker, their ideas were able to take flight.
The process
The workshop begins with the teachers showing the kids the different elements of a story—characters, plot, conflict, resolution—to help them come up with their stories. They are taught the importance of timing and phrasing, and how to find inspiration from their life stories and their environment.
The children then are taught how to create a storyboard to help break up their stories into parts.
The stories are created according to the child's preferences: they could draw the images on paper which are then scanned, or they could draw their images directly into the computer, or they can compile photos. The finished stories (either powerpoint or short mp4 movies) are posted on the Dy twins' website, Switotwins.com.
The kids, the youngest aged 7, took to the workshop like ducks to water, creating surprisingly complex and thoughtful stories—a 10-year-old boy wrote an alternate creation myth, and an 11-year-old girl wrote an epic horror story in three parts.
From the children's storyboards, you coud already see the seeds of creativity sprouting. But as they were given free rein to use tools like Adobe, Powerpoint and Windows Movie Maker, their ideas were able to take flight.
One of the storyboards created by the kids
At the workshop there were 7-year-olds experimenting with animation, asking their mentors about transitions, timing and editing. The simple, six-frame storyboards became short films that talked about love, adventure, friendship and growing up.
The teachers
Glorypearl and Gloryrose Dy started out teaching digital storytelling to adults, authors who needed a new avenue for their work and for traditional storytellers who wanted to find a way to preserve oral tales and traditions in Mindanao.
Glorypearl, a fellow of the Davao Writers' Guild, is mainly the storyteller of the two. Gloryrose, an architect and freelance web manager, is the more technical and visual twin.
They started the digital storytelling workshop for children three years ago when they saw how well the kids responded to these stories and wanted to tell their own.
“The great thing about teaching kids is that you never get tired,” says Glorypearl. “Their creativity just drives you…When you look at their work, you see that they understand more than we give them credit for and they learn a lot faster than we have the time to teach them. We just let their creativity guide us to what we should teach them.”
Bambit Gaerlan chose to enrol her daughter Himaya in the program over the usual summer classes because she saw it as a means for her daughter to learn something new. “This is something she won’t learn inside the school. And once she started doing it, she became really involved and passionate. She came out of her shell and started learning things on her own,” she says.
The teachers
Glorypearl and Gloryrose Dy started out teaching digital storytelling to adults, authors who needed a new avenue for their work and for traditional storytellers who wanted to find a way to preserve oral tales and traditions in Mindanao.
Glorypearl, a fellow of the Davao Writers' Guild, is mainly the storyteller of the two. Gloryrose, an architect and freelance web manager, is the more technical and visual twin.
They started the digital storytelling workshop for children three years ago when they saw how well the kids responded to these stories and wanted to tell their own.
“The great thing about teaching kids is that you never get tired,” says Glorypearl. “Their creativity just drives you…When you look at their work, you see that they understand more than we give them credit for and they learn a lot faster than we have the time to teach them. We just let their creativity guide us to what we should teach them.”
Bambit Gaerlan chose to enrol her daughter Himaya in the program over the usual summer classes because she saw it as a means for her daughter to learn something new. “This is something she won’t learn inside the school. And once she started doing it, she became really involved and passionate. She came out of her shell and started learning things on her own,” she says.
Himaya doing some last-minute editing
For the most part, the workshop doesn’t have most of the trappings you would expect from the usual summer programs. The class size is extremely small (they only take 10 kids per workshop) to ensure one-on-one instruction and to encourage camaraderie between students.
There’s no permanent classroom—the kids, with their teachers and guardians, were encouraged to roam around the city to find art and inspiration from their environment. It’s unconventional at best and might be described as reckless by some. But for the students, it was liberating to discover that they could learn outside the classroom and a revelation to see that art truly exists everywhere.
The Swito twins and Chi hope to have another workshop in a few months, still keeping the class small. They also hope to teach more kids, especially from the urban poor and the provinces, to tell their own stories in their own words. They want to encourage more storytellers to share their stories in their native dialects so that more kids can discover the deep and diverse roots of Filipino storytelling.
Says Glorypearl, “For now, most of the digital stories we have on our site is in English. We want to reach out to more storytellers to help preserve Filipino and Mindanaoan stories through digital storytelling. It’s a beautiful art form, it’s one of the first art forms we learn and practice and something we should save.” — BM, GMA News
There’s no permanent classroom—the kids, with their teachers and guardians, were encouraged to roam around the city to find art and inspiration from their environment. It’s unconventional at best and might be described as reckless by some. But for the students, it was liberating to discover that they could learn outside the classroom and a revelation to see that art truly exists everywhere.
The Swito twins and Chi hope to have another workshop in a few months, still keeping the class small. They also hope to teach more kids, especially from the urban poor and the provinces, to tell their own stories in their own words. They want to encourage more storytellers to share their stories in their native dialects so that more kids can discover the deep and diverse roots of Filipino storytelling.
Says Glorypearl, “For now, most of the digital stories we have on our site is in English. We want to reach out to more storytellers to help preserve Filipino and Mindanaoan stories through digital storytelling. It’s a beautiful art form, it’s one of the first art forms we learn and practice and something we should save.” — BM, GMA News
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