Copyright © 2010 Natalie M. Underberg
Puerto Ricans in Central Florida 1940s-1980s: A History
Curriculum
A Project of the Digital Ethnography Lab
University of Central Florida School of Visual Arts and Design
www.digitalethnography.dm.ucf.edu
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Copyright © 2010 Natalie M. Underberg
Puerto Ricans in Central Florida 1940s-1980s: A History: A
Project of the Digital Ethnography Lab
Drs. Patricia Silver and Natalie Underberg received a $22,236 grant from the
Florida Humanities Council to create a public exhibit and program based in visual
memories and oral narratives from 40 years of Puerto Rican movement to and
life in Central Florida. The exhibit included 4 digital stories, relating targeted
portions of the history best told using visual digital media. To make the exhibit
adaptable for a variety of venues, the digital stories were loaded on mobile video
players for individual viewing and on DVD for streaming to a monitor.
During March 2009, the exhibit was on display in Orange and Osceola counties,
where the majority of Puerto Ricans in Central Florida reside. Following March
2009, the exhibit has been kept available for travel from the Orange County
Regional History Center. The stories contributed laid the foundation for a
community history of Puerto Ricans in Central Florida. With the permission of
participants, these digitally recorded oral histories are being archived in the
Orange County Regional History Center, available to future generations.
The project was comprised of a combination of oral history and digital
storytelling. Oral history is composed of the stories and memories of people who
have been able to preserve their stories through passing them down to family
members and friends. Since the 1940s, people such as anthropologists,
folklorists, and historians have been able to preserve these oral histories through
the use of tape recorders. Now through the use of digital recorders it is much
easier to capture oral history and preserve it for future generations. For more
information, visit http://alpha.dickinson.edu/oha/about.html.
Digital storytelling is a way for people to create what are essentially 2-3 minute
films using editing software. Digital stories use audio, video, photography, music,
and other elements to convey narrative in a format that can be preserved for
future generations.
The digital stories that formed part of this project were drawn from the oral history
research in one of two ways. Certain stories were identified for their story quality
from the interviews themselves, so that the recorded interview becomes the
voiceover track of the digital tale. Others resulted from first identifying the
potential for a particularly compelling individual tale and then inviting the
interviewee to participate in the creation of a digital story with the guidance of an
experienced digital story creator. This involved follow-up interviews or meetings
with the storyteller to ask him or her to find pictures that would best illustrate
certain portions of the story.
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Copyright © 2010 Natalie M. Underberg
In the digital stories produced for this project, Underberg and CREATE staff
member and video editor Victor Randle focused on personal narratives that
highlighted several key themes introduced in the two-dimensional exhibit, such
as: Puerto Rican migration history and diversity in Central Florida; Puerto Rican
engineers at the Kennedy Space Center; making a cultural home; and putting
down roots. For example, Lilly Carrasquillo, an artist and teacher from Puerto
Rico tells a story of bringing her art and culture to Central Florida, while Ernesto
Peña Roque relates his experience of making a cultural home in Central Florida
through transplanting the tradition of paso fino horses to the area.
This curriculum packet adapts ideas from the Digital Storytelling Cookbook
(available from the Center for Digital Storytelling at www.storycenter.org) and
applies them to the process of working collaboratively with oral history and
cultural heritage project participants to co-produce digital stories.
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Copyright © 2010 Natalie M. Underberg
Understanding Joe Lambert’s “Seven Techniques for Effective Digital
Storytelling”
In recent years, the usefulness of digital storytelling as a pedagogical tool has
emerged in the educational literature (see, for example, Tom Banaszewki’s
article “Digital Storytelling Finds Its Place in the Classroom.” Multimedia Schools,
v9 (2002): pp. 32-36; Dusti Howell and Deanne Howell’s article “What’s Your
Digital Story?” Library Media Connection v22 (2003): pp. 40-42; and Sara
Kadjer’s article “Enter Here: Personal Narrative and Digital Storytelling.” English
Journal v93 (2004): pp. 64-69). The most well-known model in the United States
is probably that developed by the Center for Digital Storytelling (CDS). CDS,
located in Berkeley, CA, conducts digital storytelling workshops around the
country. At these workshops participants learn how to create their own digital
stories. They begin by assessing their skills in several areas (including
storytelling and technical expertise), and then learn about seven elements of
effective digital storytelling (including such aspects as point of view and
economy). They then engage in a “story circle” during which participants share
story ideas and offer each other feedback. A brief introduction to digitizing
photographs and other materials is offered as well as an overview of iMovie, a
user-friendly video editing software. Participants then finalize their “script” (the
words they will record as a voiceover) and digitize and arrange the photographs,
video, and other media they will use in the digital story. Recording voiceovers
and editing the story in iMovie are the final steps in the digital storytelling
process.
Lambert (2002) outlines seven elements of effective digital storytelling: point (of
view), dramatic question, emotional content, voice (of the storyteller on the
voiceover), the soundtrack (effective use of music), economy (effectively using a
small amount of images and video and a short text), and pacing (combining such
elements as quick edits with slow pans to maximum effect).
Digital stories need a clear point of view and to raise a basic dramatic question.
You need to make clear whose story you are telling, from what perspective, and
to make the audience wonder what will happen next. I made a digital story at a
Digital Storytelling workshop a year or so ago about my reaction to the death of a
favorite aunt. The story begins by showing a picture of a flowery pillow on a chair
and the image stays on the screen so the viewer can ruminate on it while my
narration explains that this is a pillow my aunt gave me. The sequence ends with
the words “But what most people don’t know is the real reason I keep the pillow
in my office,” while the screen fades to black. This sets up the following question
for the audience: “What’s the story behind the pillow?” The rest of the story is
designed to answer that basic question, and it becomes the hook for a story
about a funeral, an obituary, and a meditation on why the things that are
recorded about us in the official record don’t really capture the meaning of a life.
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Copyright © 2010 Natalie M. Underberg
Other techniques Lambert outlines include economy and pacing. Economy in
digital storytelling means keeping in mind that the story can be effectively
illustrated with a small number of images and video and a relatively short text.
The story also needs proper pacing, meaning that it effectively alternates
between fast-paced and slow-paced editing (slow paced: slow-panning on a still
image, using calmer music; fast-paced: using quick edits—a rapid-fire
succession of images to suggest energy, using upbeat music). In the example
discussed above, slow-paced editing was used in the opening sequence of the
story to encourage the audience to stay with and maintain in their minds that
image and of the pillow and the thought that accompanied it. Montage (a quick
succession of images, often involving a repeated showing of images that
appeared earlier in the story) is a common technique in digital storytelling that
can convey a sense of summing up (the visual equivalent of “so, you can see
that” or “in conclusion”). This can set up the end of your story and prepare the
audience for a kind of rationale or moral for the tale.
Finally, according to Lambert, two other important elements of digital storytelling
in addition to the visual element (finding just the right image to help create the
mood) are necessary: voice (recording the audio track) and utilizing the power of
the soundtrack (using music to help create the mood). The voice of the narrator
can play a significant role in establishing the context—your voice can convey the
mood of the story, whether it be low and deliberate or light and bubbly (and it
may vary throughout for emphasis). The soundtrack, like the pictures, raises the
question of copyright, which is complex. In general, if you plan to use your story
outside of a strictly classroom or personal context, you will need to find music
which is not copyrighted (the same applies to images).
Assignment: Digital Story Analysis
Evaluate the one of the digital stories from the Puerto Ricans in Central Florida
1940s-1980s: A History project (available at www.digitalethnography.dm.ucf.
edu/pr/community.html) according to the seven elements of effective digital
storytelling outlined by Joe Lambert in the Digital Storytelling Cookbook. Note
the use of each of these elements in the story and discuss whether and how
effectively the digital story uses them:
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Point
Dramatic Question
Emotional Content
Voice
Soundtrack
Economy
Pacing
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Copyright © 2010 Natalie M. Underberg
Developing Digital Stories from Oral History Materials
With heritage preservation projects, it helps to be aware of the kinds of stories
that would be likely to make compelling digital stories, and to use these
guidelines to help identify and develop narratives. Look for:
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stories that highlight major themes that relate to the heritage project at
hand, which may include work, leisure, identity, struggle and success,
historical events, and traditional culture.
stories that have appropriate pictures and other visual elements (digital
stories are stories in two registers—the visual and the aural)
stories that have compelling emotional content (resonate with universal
human themes) and have a basic dramatic question (makes the audience
want to find out how the initial situation will be resolved)
To develop digital stories for heritage preservation projects, the following steps
serve as a helpful guide:
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identify compelling stories or story kernels that are accompanied by
images
work with the storyteller to develop a storyboard
edit the storyboard and consult with the storyteller for approval
For example, the story about bringing paso fino horses to Orlando on a plane
(see project Website for story by Ernesto Peña Roque) had potential to become
a compelling digital story for the oral history exhibit because it was:
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from a man who came to Orlando in 1950s
a funny and poignant story
about a popular past-time in Puerto Rico that has been
transplanted to Central Florida
narrator has excellent pictures, documents, video
Assignment: Identify and develop a story idea for a digital story based on oral
history materials. Follow the above guidelines and include the following in your
assignment: one sentence description of story; rationale for choosing and
shaping the particular story (can include as a bullet-point list as in the above
example); and timeline and plan for completing the project in consultation with
the storyteller.
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Copyright © 2010 Natalie M. Underberg
Creating a Digital Storytelling Script
Now that you have an idea for the story from the last assignment, the next step is
to try to create or storyboard the story. To accomplish the thought process
necessary to create a digital story, consider the following visual storytelling
questions:
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Where do I want to show a literal visual representation of what is being
told?
Where do I want to show a figurative visual representation of what is being
told?
Where do I want a slow pan to encourage the viewer to linger on an
image?
Where do I want a quick edit (montage of many images in quick
succession or very brief presentation of image) to convey movement or
excitement?
What kind of music (style) best accompanies your story?
Assignment: create a script for a digital story using the Digital Storytelling
Script Worksheet below in consultation with the storyteller:
Image
Effects
Transitions
Voiceover
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Copyright © 2010 Natalie M. Underberg
Soundtrack
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