Storycenter.org strives to “preserve and share humanity’s stories” through multiple modalities. After reading an article about the importance of teaching children to be aware of a global “us” rather than a foreign “them”, Story Center was the perfect landing spot to discover how moving a digital story can be. There are stories about loss, love, and everyday life. Q&A is a gentle, yet touching glimpse into a mother and son relationship.
The narrators of the piece feature Joshua Littman, a 7th grade boy with Asperger’s Syndrome, and his mother. Joshua fires off questions in rapid succession to his mother. Mama Littman answers his questions directly and openly. The exchange is so sweet and touching that I was left wanting to know more about this beautiful relationship.
Borrowing from a fellow student’s blog, my analysis of the digital story is displayed in the pretty table below. I focused on the story elements, sense of audience, and media application:
| Story | The story was beautifully and succinctly told. Background information was given at the beginning of the piece to fill in the blanks for the audience. The story elicited an emotional connection to the family and left the audience feeling satisfied with the glimpse into their life. |
| Sense of Audience | Viewers of the StoryCenter.org series are those interested in learning about other people. The sense of audience was successfully executed with the narration between mother and son, as well as the integration of the animation. The audience was able to absorb themselves into the narrative because the animation did not distract from the dialogue. This purposeful planning showed the author’s sense of what the audience wanted to gain from the story. |
| Media Application | Can I just saw how much I love viewing a digital story with coupled animation? I mean, come on! Not only do I find animators to be extremely talented, but the finished piece really allows for the writing to come to life. There is certainly a place for filmed perspectives of reality, yet the animation allows for the audience to connect with verbal communication. This piece was the perfect example of being able to simply listen to the story to connect with the family. |
Padilash 
This is an awesome resource! Thank you so much for sharing. I agree that animations can truly make a story pop. I am compelled by the human story, so I very much enjoyed perusing the site. It’s helpful that it’s organized in a way that allows us to search by the topics that may be speaking to us at this time.
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