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On Monday December 7th, I attended a wonderful workshop with the rest of the Stories of the Second World War team. We met with nurses from Toronto Public Health and Sunnybrook Health Sciences. We also had a workshop with Dr. Steven High, professor and oral historian at Concordia University’s Centre for Oral History and Digital Storytelling. Dr. High oversees the “Montreal Life Stories” project, where he and a large team interviews genocide survivors from Cambodia, Rwanda, and also Holocaust survivors from across Europe.

The session covered many interesting and applicable topics, from dementia to peer support among the interviewers. We also discussed the editing process used to condense an hour long interview into the 7-10 minute clip that ends up on our website. The choice of what to include in the final clips can be challenging. This editing process, Dr. High explained, is called digital storytelling.

Dr. High describes digital storytelling as an art, and discussed how the editing process can put a great deal of the interviewer’s personality and perspective into each online audio clip. We also discussed the difference between using audio or video as a medium. We watched a digital story which used video of a poor quality which had a grainy appearance. Dr. High noted that this lack of quality can distract from the immediacy of the story. I agree that audio is the best medium for our general use, as someone can simply close their eyes and focus on the veteran sharing their experiences.

I do believe there is an art to the work that we do. And I’m proud to share these ‘digital stories’ with Canadians.