Breaking Boundaries
New Media Academy
It’s Our Story is proud to have played an integral role in the development and execution of “Breaking Boundaries,” a thrilling 8-week, 20-hour instructional seminar in the art of digital storytelling.
Launched in Reseda, California, the pilot program of “Breaking Boundaries” enabled high school students with and without disabilities to script, shoot, edit, and share their personal stories, regardless of previous media experience and irrespective of physical, learning, or behavioral disabilities.
With an expert focus on the development of an inclusive and productive filmmaking environment, the “Breaking Boundaries” program incorporated Universal Design for Learning (UDL) principles and was made fully accessible to all learning levels. Thanks in no small part to the It’s Our Story team, “Breaking Boundaries” stands as the first inclusive, UDL, and standards-based digital storytelling and media production curriculum within California schools.
Now, it’s poised to take the world—and its aspiring filmmakers—by storm.
Following completion of the “Breaking Boundaries” program, students with and without disabilities reported more favorable perceptions of disability along all three factors measured:
~ comfort with persons with disabilities,
~ understanding of persons with disabilities
~ preference for an inclusive classroom.
Moreover, “Breaking Boundaries” students were actively engaged throughout the program and reported an increased interest in learning and in having careers in film and media.
Such outcomes could have a positive, long-term impact upon societal understanding of, and engagement with, people with disabilities.
The It’s Our Story initiative and the “Breaking Boundaries” program fully illustrate that—whether student, teacher, or somewhere in between—each of us learns best through a wide a variety instructional, educational, and storytelling methods.
