I thought about how ds106 is not just a headless open learning experience. It’s also a digital story. There are key players, like Talky Tina, for one. Each of the ds106 participants plays a role, some more loudly than others, but we all contribute to this ongoing narrative through our blogs, G+ posts, our tweets, our daily creates, and Flickr accounts, Soundclouds, the ds106 radio station. The ds106 narrative unfolds on daily basis, and we compose it together and individually.  The digital story works because we engage all of our senses; we create an experience where participants have various outlets to express creativity, to quench the thirst for life long learning, and perhaps a way to make life long friends as Talky Tina would probably say. Like a good digital story, ds106 has purpose, meaning and soul. When we participate, we feel we belong. There’s a sense of community so we feel safe to take creative risks.

There’s intellectual stimulation because we are teaching and learning with like minded individuals who welcome challenge, feedback, and want to actively engage in a global learning community. DS106 is a living, breathing story, evolving just as its members do each time they master particular forms of digital expressions. The story of ds106 works both on its own and as part of the larger narrative of what it means to be a connected life long learner and educator, a digital global citizen. 

• Social networks – who you know
• Cognitive social networks – who they think you know
• Knowledge networks – what they think you know
• Cognitive Knowledge networks – what who you know knows 

I was not surprised in learning what I have always observed and experienced that our networks are often a bit homogeneous. Yes, social media helps us connect with our global peers, but therein lies the problem, they often tend to be people just like ourselves so our narratives echo each other.  The presenter mentioned in the post suggested the best way to silence this “echo effect” is by analyzing our networks and looking at “the bridges and brokers”.  If we closely examine the narratives shared by those in our networks, and we notice a one sided perspective, then we should seek ways to listen to stories expressing other views. Obviously, the internet can make this happen easily if we are willing to listen to that other point of view and consider all the angles.   

I chose Ray Bradbury’s short story “The Veldt” because Ray Bradbury like Vonnegut was a master storyteller who influenced people to think about our technology and conveniences in the modern world. This short story packs quite a message about our society’s relationship with technology, our parenting skills, the deterioration of the nuclear family, how technology can alienate us, even make us lose our grip on reality. We had to outline the shape of the story we chose in a descriptive and creative manner so I failed at this a bit. I can’t draw very well and found Simple Diagram. This is what I managed to do without any tutorials. (Sorry.) 

From the get go, it’s bad news in “The Veldt”. Bradbury introduces us to mother/father archetypes, and we also recognize a familiar conflict often blamed on modernity and progress: the children are out of control, what do we do? Who’s to blame? Can we fix it? Let’s call the shrink and see if he can fix the problems we have brought upon ourselves! So Vonnegut said that Hamlet was a masterpiece because Shakespeare told us the truth, and people so often tell us the truth in the rise and fall of a story. In “The Veldt”, Ray Bradbury tells us nothing but brutal truths about how technology has the potential to dehumanize us, and how technology has affected child rearing and our own psyches. Although, it’s bad news from the onset, and the reader is on a downward spiral we never recover from, we enjoy this type of story because it is a cautionary tale, “the Man in Hole” as Vonnegut puts it! Ironically, human beings enjoy hearing what idiots we can be at times. It’s heeding the advice we learn from these cautionary tales that is more difficult to strive for everyday.  

I have also come to know Talky Tina in ds106, the doll formerly known as creepy. She has undergone extensive rehabilitation, so she says, to become a high functioning member of the ds106 cyberinfrastructure. She is its mascot, and the personal cyberinfrastructure she has created epitomizes for me what digital storytelling is all about. As an audience, we feel more engaged when we hear a narrative about events where we experience distress and empathy. “Metaphors work well because when we hear a story we want to relate it to our one of our experiences.” The emotional and cognitive effect of the Talky Tina narrative creates a fun, creative, childlike environment. Talky Tina is ds106’s metaphor. Her persona shows what it means to create a digital identity, and how cyberspace allows us to role play and explore aspects of our own identity that will help us be more creative, reflective, connected and engaged. Talky teaches us it’s ok to return to our inner child because this mindset frees us from the constraints that we often unnecessarily impose on ourselves as adults. The Talky Tina persona in the ds106 narrative establishes a fun, authentic, unique and unexpected tone and mood. There’s not a megalomaniacal bone in Tina’s body! She’s not plastic! She’s got a real soul, and is extremely real! (And, we need more authenticity in the world, if you ask me!) 

1.) “The story is Unique and Unexpected- unexpected content is what makes things go viral.”  Talky is a perfect example of the unexpected. Our daily creates challenge us to be original and express our unique brand of creativity. The more we engage with each other, the more we recognize everyone’s style and signature talents.