Storytelling as an Effective Tool for Safety Training

The National Institute for Occupational and Safety and Health (NIOSH) has released a report on a sever-year research project entitled "Tell Me a Story: Why Stories are Essential to Effective Safety Training." NIOSH needed new training materials for miners, in a manner that was culturally appropriate.

Miners are storytellers. One need only spend time with them to observe that they interact with each other through the telling of stories. Such stories may be about close calls they have had, about other master miners they have known and worked with (and in many cases, learned from), about someone they knew who made an error in judgment and paid dearly for it, or about things they have seen and experienced as they have gone through their careers. The role of miners’ stories is complex and includes the sharing and strengthening of their occupational culture as well as the bonding that must exist to survive in a dangerous environment.

Of course, they didn't hire storytellers to come in and share folk tales. They brought in camera crews and had the miners tell their stories. Full evaluation report from Elaine T. Cullen, Ph.D., and Albert H. Fein, Ph.D available as PDF file (and it's in the public domain!).

Blogger Sneaks Camera into Jonesborough

The National Storytelling Festival has very strict rules about cameras in the performing areas.

Most folks just take pictures of the scenic streets. Here's one by storyteller Gwyn Calvetti:

Although, sometimes, you can stumble upon a spontaneous performance, as Gwyn Calvetti documents with her collages of street performances led by Ed Stivender:
Jonesborough Fringe
Fringe, 2
Or perennial fixture Doc McConnell

But somehow Angela, a knitting blogger, managed to get her camera into the tents and get storytellers to pose with her socks-in-progress.

Storytelling from the Internet Archive

I've used the Internet Archive for a while to search for old web pages that have vanished from the Web. Now, I understand, they are also allowing folks to upload audio and video, becoming a public distribution channel for homemade media and music released into the public domain or under a creative commons license.

Just for the heck of it I did a search for "storyteller." A surprising number of Grateful Dead bootlegs show up. Still, I found these:

A short demo recording from the audio stories of C gurkin

Childhood Matters: Music, dance and theater are all great ways to help children learn to express themselves, communicate their feelings and interact with the world. Guests: Andrea Temkin of Arts Council Silicon Valley and Asheba, beloved Bay Area musician and storyteller

Oh my! Many of the Fray Day events are here!

Now if I can only figure out how to download these files and play them...

Tags: storytelling, frayday, internet archive

Platform Storytelling

Tim Ereneta tries to explain what "platform telling" is to a general audience.

By and large, I think he gets it right, but if "platform storytelling" does not involve a ladder and diving board under a circus big top-- what is the name you give to that form of storytelling? Hmmm?




tags: storytelling

Teahouse tellers stage China comeback

via The Telegraph (Calcutta)

The storytellers who survived Mao's re-education camps bring back their art form.

More info on Chinese storytelling at Tim Sheppard's site here


Tags: storytelling

They're back! Storytelling Concert Online

The Advanced Storytelling Class from the University of North Texas's School of Library and Information Sciences has another online storytelling concert available, if you've got Real Player.

Mystery storyteller blog

Hope's Blog is a humble blog of a woman named Hope who teaches storytelling in Indiana.
There's barely any identifying information on the blog-- no email, no blogroll, no "about me." Reading the blog, we know she teaches storytelling, works in a library, loves to read.

Cross referencing the Storytelling Directory of Indiana I'm guessing this is the work of Hope Baugh, who teaches storytelling at the Indiana University School of Library and Information Science.