Digital Storytelling at MC
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During the fall and spring semesters, the Digital Storytelling Interns host virtual office hours in Zoom. Any Montgomery College student working on a digital story assignment can schedule an appointment to meet with an intern. Students can now make APPOINTMENTS for Digital Stories Support through our Bookings page.
Schedule OnlineDigital Storytelling at MC is a thriving network. We are proud to host the first of its kind on-campus student internship opportunity. We also have a robust Community of Practice with over 100 Montgomery College faculty, staff, and administrator members. Our Community of Practice is embedding digital story work both in classrooms and other areas of student life. This work has spurred collaborations across the MC community as well as the local, regional, and even international community of digital storytellers. We are excited to share our integrated approach to digital storytelling!
If you would like to learn more about our pilot academic year and how we navigated the pandemic to innovate new opportunities for our interns and the broader MC community, please read our Montgomery College Innovation Journal article, “Fostering Opportunity in a Time of Uncertainty: Taking the Digital Storytelling Internship Virtual.new window”
Internship Activities
The Digital Storytelling Internship is the first of its kind as an on-campus student leadership opportunity. It is supported by multiple MC Innovation Grants as well as the Paul Peck Humanities Institute. Professors Matthew Decker and Jamie Gillan are the co-coordinators of the internship. Since its inaugural Fall 2019 semester, the internship has thrived thanks to the efforts of those involved. Multiple cohorts of Montgomery College students representing the Germantown, Rockville, and TPSS campuses have participated in this rigorous internship experience designed around three branches: Development/Training, Service and Support, and Leadership, and 70% of that work pivots on service to the college community.
Level One Digital Storytelling interns are responsible for
- Completing 80 hours of service in the role,
- Attending an opening orientation as well as biweekly professional development seminars and a Saturday Tech Day,
- Supporting faculty and students in their classrooms as well as the TPSS and Rockville Digital Learning Centers and the Germantown WRLC,
- Participating in a field trip to the University of Maryland, Baltimore County as well as Humanities Days presentations and special projects with the International Digital Storytelling Conference,
- Composing a new digital story to be shared in a final showcase open to the Montgomery College community,
- Contributing to other opportunities as they arise.
Level Two Digital Storytelling Interns Are Responsible For
- Engaging with special projects (that are unique to the intern and the community’s needs) both on- and off- campus as well as virtually, leveraging their expertise gained from the Level One experience,
- Collaborating with faculty and frequent MC partners, such as the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC), Smithsonian Center for Learning and Digital Access (SCLDA), MCPS, and more,
- Participating in monthly “Reflective Reunions."
The typical application process begins with Montgomery College’s Community of Practice in Digital Storytelling, for we ask faculty, staff, and administrator members to share the application with students they believe would be interested in the internship as well as students who have some experience with the technology involved.
If you are a student who has not learned about the internship or the application process, though, and are interested in applying, please follow this procedure:
- Complete the Digital Storytelling Internship Application and upload the required documentation.
Digital Storytelling Internship Application Form - Ask a professor to write a recommendation on your behalf as well. The professor you
identify should complete this fillable internship-specific recommendation form. This is required and applications will not be considered without a recommendation.
Faculty Recommendation Form
If you are a student who values storytelling, writing, video editing, meaning-making, and opportunities for collaboration and professional development, this may be the internship for you! The Digital Storytelling Internship is open to any student who has already made a digital story or received further guidance from coordinators Matt Decker or Jamie Gillan.
For more information about the internship, please do not hesitate to contact Prof. Matthew Decker at matthew.decker@montgomerycollege.edu or Prof. Jamie Gillan at jamie.gillan@montgomerycollege.edu.
The capstone event of each semester of the Digital Storytelling Internship is a showcase where members of the Montgomery College community, our internship partners, and family members and friends of the interns are invited to a formal screening of the interns’ new digital stories. This is a celebratory event where we share major takeaways from the semester’s learning experience, screen each story, and participate in a Q and A panel. To see an example of the digital stories offered in a previous showcase, please view this YouTube playlistnew window.
Community of Practice and More
The Digital Storytelling Internship at Montgomery College is strengthened by the constant support of our Community of Practice as well as numerous collaborations with on- and off-campus partners. You can learn more about the Community of Practice, our partners, and the International Digital Storytelling Conference below as well as see samples of this great work:
With the success of the Digital Storytelling Internship’s pilot 2019-2020 academic year, the Community of Practice (faculty, staff, and interested parties) in Digital Storytelling at Montgomery College is growing. Between early adopters, like WDCE, and faculty and student support staff from the STEM, Humanities, Social Sciences, and Community Engagement fields, many Montgomery College representatives are actively engaged in this community of practice and have learned how storytelling, on a broad scale, increases value in our contemporary society because it enhances communication, one of the most valuable skills in the professional sphere.
To continue to enhance service to Montgomery College and the Digital Storytelling Community of Practice, we have established the Digital Storytelling Community of Practice Blackboard Community, which houses relevant sources, recent news, notes from previous workshops, technology resources, samples of student work and faculty assignment prompts, and recommended scholarly articles.
For more information on how to self-enroll in this Blackboard Community or be added to the Community of Practice mailing list, please contact Matthew Decker at matthew.decker@montgomerycollege.edu.
The Digital Storytelling Internship is benefitted by the guidance, support, and partnership of multiple allies, including representatives of the Smithsonian Institute, the International Digital Storytelling Conference committee, Loughborough University, and The University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC). Each new semester of the internship has brought new and rewarding collaborations with these partners, allowing the interns to meet storytelling experts across the globe, to physically and virtually tour UMBC, and to engage in special projects. Last year, the Spring 2019 intern cohort participated in the UMBC-hosted Digital Decameron, which was modeled after Boccaccio’s original concept. The Digital Decameron emerged as the International Digital Storytelling Conference committee’s creative response to the postponement of the DST2020 Conference. While that opportunity was delayed, the interns’ work was absolutely on display in Week 5new window of the Digital Decameron.
Montgomery College is co-hosting the 11th International Digital Storytelling Conference along with UMBC, the Smithsonian Institution, and StoryCenter June 20-23, 2023. The MC day is June 21st. Find more information here: DST2023.org.
The Digital Storytelling Internship leadership team at MC is thrilled to be active members of the International Digital Storytelling Conference Committee, which includes representatives from Loughborough University (UK), StoryCenter (US), UMBC – University of Maryland Baltimore County (US), SCLDA – Smithsonian Center for Learning and Digital Access (US), and Patient Voices (UK). Since 2019, we have contributed to a three year process and program designed to host a 24-hour digital storytelling online marathon to be followed by a face-to-face event in Loughborough in 2022 and then another conference in the Washington metropolitan area in 2023.
During the 2021 summer solstice, the International Digital Storytelling Conference Committee hosted the online marathon, and you can find the proceedings, presentations, and recordings carefully curated in this Smithsonian Learning Lab collection: DST Conference 2021: Storytelling for a Just Future.
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