Edge-u-cator

Letters to my digital media students to think big and then to think bigger

February 2, 2020

To my students: In case you missed my early morning email on Saturday, here is a repeat of it today -

Good morning!

Today would be a good day to slow down - or try to - take a deep breath, put down the phone - or try to - and just take in the world around you. Use your senses. See, feel, hear, taste, touch, observe. Write. Keep it simple or let it flow.

A reminder not to leave the pages of your journal empty but to fill it with the details that will open your eyes and mind to things you might not otherwise see if you don't give yourself the time to take it all in. Try it. Don't think of this as a chore or assignment. Think of it as a way that you will become a trained observer, a better journalist, a more insightful filmmaker, a keen YouTuber, a deeper storyteller, a more knowledgeable person in the community that is yours.

Linda

It's a sentiment, I think, that bears worth repeating. Stop. Slow down. Observe. Write. Take it all in. This is a digital media class but before we begin to explore the technology, the platforms, all of the software at our fingertips to gather and share stories, I want you to start with the basics and fuel your senses.

Author Seth Gitner in our text “Multimedia Storytelling for Digital Communicators in a Multiplatform World” - Chapter 1 – tells us, you might recall, a moment “is the instant when an event is crystallized, when its significance is packed into a fleeting incident, expression, or gesture.”

Only when you allow yourself that time to capture the “moments,” as we discussed in class this week, will you begin to realize all that you may be missing. Now let me stop myself right here because I cannot assume or generalize that as digital natives, that you never put down your gadgets. To assume, as my 8th grade science teacher, John Prinz, used to say is to make an "ass" out of "u" and "me." So, I won’t assume. Maybe you already are in the habit of building your power of observation and taking it all in. And I hope you do.

But if you don’t, again, give it a try. Hopefully you have already started to fill the pages of your journal, as we discussed, by simply observing. See. Hear. Smell. Taste. Touch. So simple yet so rich in the details and depth of what you might gather on the blank pages opened before you.

For all of the wealth that technology affords us to connect and communicate, there is still something so amazing and valuable by just using your senses to observe all that is happening around you – off screen. In the streets. At a café. Within the simple conversations that can be had just sitting on a couch and chatting with a friend – eye to eye – phones down and engaged.

After I started this blog today – about slowing down – I had to rush off. Going slow is easier said than done. There are still responsibilities. Weekend work to be done. Floors to be washed. Groceries to buy. Strangely – or maybe not so strangely because maybe we’re on to something here – on my way back from grocery shopping there came to me the Ted Radio Hour featuring a 2016 broadcast about, yes, slowing down.

And as you’ll find, we all have a different definition of slowing down for the benefits of self-care, mindfulness, clarity, creativity. All good. I’m asking you to also consider the benefits of becoming a better storyteller because when you stop, slow down, observe, and gain more understanding of the world around you, then will you be able to better capture the next moment when it comes.