"[...] new digital formats require people to craft their stories in new ways while capturing the emotion, nuance, and themes of what they remember and what they believe to be significant. They must learn through reflection, questioning, consideration, trial, revision, and feedback—and chapters in ... the book highlight efforts like workshopping at Berkeley’s StoryCenter, the Smithsonian’s Learning Lab, and elsewhere to give people a facility with digital technology to enable them to tell their stories. This is quite a transformation when one considers that for most of recent history the ability to disseminate stories was in the hands of those who controlled the means of story production—publishers, radio stations, and music, television, and movie companies. Now, with widespread digital access, anyone can, at least theoretically, become their own publisher, their own media company, their own distribution center. The locus of creativity and production does not have to be a Hollywood lot or a music studio—it can be, as illustrated herein, a community center, kitchen table, shelter, clinic, library, or school. The democratization of the production process means access to and participation in a much larger civic space. The purpose of Digital Storytelling exemplified in this collection of case studies and examples is not propagandistic or about spreading misinformation and distrust that nefariously aim to destabilize and even undermine societies. Nor is it about somehow imitating human storytelling by using artificial intelligence to entertain and intrigue audiences. Rather it is about encouraging people to tell their story and thus participate in the civic life of their community, group, nation, and the world. It is about their active, vital role in contributing to a larger good that they may enhance, enlarge, or elucidate by fashioning their experiences and lessons into a receivable format. As is apparent throughout the volume’s project descriptions and free-flowing conversations, Digital Storytelling is young enough that it retains an emergent quality characteristic of a growing form of cultural creativity and expression. Given that digital media will be with us for a long time, one would expect Digital Storytelling to branch out in an increasing diversity of ways, forms, and contexts. And as it grows and diversifies, one would expect its challenges—matters of storyteller privacy and discretion, thresholds of individual and community participation in securing resources and facilities, the underpreparation of participants and the overfacilitation of guides and mentors, limits of copyright and the fair use of digital components, the ethics of dissemination and reactions to reception—to also be addressed in a variety of ways." (Foreword, pages vii-viii) more

"What is transdisciplinarity - and what are its methods? How does a living lab work? What is the purpose of citizen science, student-organized teaching and cooperative education? This handbook unpacks key terms and concepts to describe the range of transdisciplinary learning in the context of academ ... ic education. Transdisciplinary learning turns out to be a comprehensive innovation process in response to the major global challenges such as climate change, urbanization or migration. A reference work for students, lecturers, scientists, and anyone wanting to understand the profound changes in higher education." (Publisher description) more