Digital

Common

Wealth

Professor David McGillivray, Chair

in Event & Digital Cultures,

University of the West of Scotland

Jennifer Jones, Project coordinator

Digital Commonwealth

www.digitalcommonwealth.co.uk

@digCW2014@dgmcgillivray@jennifermjones

Digital

Common

Wealth

Professor David Mc

Project Lead

Digital

Common

Wealth

Creative response to the Commonwealth

(Games) from across Scotland, involving

diverse range of individuals/communities

Community media clusters-community media cafes and digital storytelling workshops

Schools programme - in-school digital storytelling workshops with primary and secondary learners in Scotland’s 32 local authorities

Creative voices- documentary film, creative writing and community songwriting around UWS campuses

Digital

Common

Wealth

Themes

Place - local, national, international, virtual

People- diversity, migration, participation

Culture- language, art, music, film, literature, sport

-Exchange- common-weal, values, learning

-‘common-weal’- Common (s) purpose – Ownership - Collaboration

- Sharing- Accessibility- Archiving

Schools Programme

• 57 schools, 23 out of 32 local authorities, 585 participated

• transition initiatives (primary & secondary working together)

• cascading skills (learners becoming digital leaders)

• 'creative citizenship' responding to the themes of project

‘Owned’ stories• Schools proposed how they would

respond to the project themes

• Focused on 'ownership' of stories and relation to curriculum activity

• Also enabling creative practitioners to plan their delivery

Open Resources

• Provided a ‘framework’ for expert practitioners to work w/ schools on:

– Blogging

– Audio

– Video

– Social media

What worked

• Collaborative blogs between trainers, teachers and learners

• Connections between participants across Scotland

What worked

• Wider reporting through learning communities

• Project working with external partners and inter-generationally

What worked

• International links were created and sustained

• Transition and cluster projects helped join schools

What worked

• Use of the #DigCW2014 to link and discuss on twitter

• Continued use of skills post-DigCW2014

Challenges

• Securing access to LAs to ‘champion’ the project

• Communicating benefits of the project when intended output unknown

• 'Initiative-overload’ in schools around Glasgow 2014 (sport emphasis)

• Continuity of attendees (e.g. not attending all workshops, or different attendees at subsequent workshops)

Challenges

• Lack of available equipment, software and functioning IT infrastructure

• Blocked sites for staff and pupils within and across authorities

• Different engagement and teaching styles

• Assessing ‘level’ of competence pre-delivery

Lessons

• Communicating expectations

• Technology

• Flexibility

• Relationships

• Empowerment

Communicating Expectations

• “Digital” can mean many things to many people

• Clear about purpose of workshop, what you can and can’t do in the session

• 'Practice' rather than technology

Technology

• Pre-workshop tech audits essential

• Anticipate time to remove 'blocks' & gain access

• Use what groups have already, rather than purchase special equipment

Flexibility

• Expect the unexpected, especially when working with ICTs

• Universal skills such as interview, research and writing for a public audience

• Work & adapt between 4 sessions

Relationships

• Anticipate the amount of face to face time required

• Several layers of communications before identifying school/teacher to work with

• Reliant on connections for good content/stories

Empowerment

• Demystify risk through developing good practice

• Widening discussions relating to new media and education

• Building confidence in teachers & pupils to try new things

More information:

Project website: http://www.digitalcommonwealth.co.uk

Project twitter: @DigCW2014

Handbook of Digital Storytelling: http://www.bit.ly/digCW2014_HB

Email: david.mcgillivray@uws.ac.uk,jennifer.jones@uws.ac.uk

QUESTIONS?