Web 2.0 Storytelling

Have you seen the article, “Web 2.0 Storytelling: Emergence of a New Genre” by Bryan Alexander and Alan Levine?I’m working with active learning in the large lecture classrooms. It’s a challenge, since the large lecture rooms are not designed for active learning and small group discussions. Web 2.0 Storytelling…I’m thinking, “Why not?” The students have their laptops in the large lecture halls and they send IMs and emails throughout the lecture. The article cites Web 2.0 technologies that can be used for storytelling.  Do you think the physical sciences can use storytelling techniques as well as the social sciences?  Is this a useful active learning method for the large lecture classroom, as well as the smaller classroom settings? Comment or send me a message and let me know what you think. I need your input. How would you use this technique in your classroom? I’ll post your thoughts and suggestions on the Web 2.0 blog. http://connect.educause.edu/Library/EDUCAUSE+Review/Web20StorytellingEmergenc/47444?time=1226587109 PDF Version – http://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ERM0865.pdf Definition from article – “A story has a beginning, a middle, and a cleanly wrapped-up ending. Whether told around a campfire, read from a book, or played on a DVD, a story goes from point A to B and then C. It follows a trajectory, a Freytag Pyramid—perhaps the line of a human life or the stages of the hero’s journey. A story is told by one person or by a creative team to an audience that is usually quiet, even receptive. Or at least that’s what a story used to be, and that’s how a story used to be told. Today, with digital networks and social media, this pattern is changing. Stories now are open-ended, branching, hyperlinked, cross-media, participatory, exploratory, and unpredictable. And they are told in new ways: Web 2.0 storytelling picks up these new types of stories and runs with them, accelerating the pace of creation and participation while revealing new directions for narratives to flow.”