Tell us a story.

For this capstone project, you will work in small groups to create digital stories of Fairbanks for a Fairbanks audience. We will work as a class and with members of the Fairbanks community to choose the stories we’ll tell. What stories need to be told? What stories could we tell and have an impact? How can we tell stories to make an impact?

We will work (play?) as a class to explore the many possible ways to tell a story digitally. Your group will be responsible for choosing an impactful story form.

The first step in this project, and your first micro-writing assignment for this unit, is to create a proposal for the digital story that YOU think we should tell. You will present your proposal to the class on Tuesday, April 7th, and we as a class will choose 5 stories to pursue. More about proposals here.

These stories are research-based …

which means that you should not start the project with a complete story in mind (what’s left to research?). In fact, it may be better to start with a question. Given climate change projections, what will Fairbanks’s environment and society look like in 2115? What impact could a community gardening program have on hunger and community in Fairbanks?

These stories are both about and for Fairbanks.

Your audience is a Fairbanks one, meaning that as you think about the story you’ll propose, you need to think about what will be engaging and relevant to the Fairbanks community. Note that you have some insider info here, as you ARE the Fairbanks community. What do YOU want to learn about? What stories do you want to experience?

Some dates to keep in mind:  

Micro-writing 4: Proposals due: Tuesday, 4/7 in class; more details to come
Micro-writing 5 due: Thursday, 4/16
Micro-writing 6 due: Thursday, 4/23
Digital Story Capstones due: Tuesday, 4/28 in class