In my computers in education (ECMP355) course we have been going over storytelling. I wanted to explore the uses and benefits of storytelling, what makes a good story, and how could we nurture the skill of storytelling in our students? I strongly believe in story telling for a couple reasons…
Whether it is a written story and a spoken one, they both have one thing in common: they allow the story teller to take a piece of their mind, a piece of their though and imagination, and transfer it to another persons head. I believe we take this for granted sometimes, but I think it is truly amazing.
Some may be asking, “well so what? Whats the big deal and why are stories important?” Those questions are totally fair and I myself even started to ask them. Why do we really tell stories? I have a few reasons in mind.
1) Stories are a vehicle for lessons to be learned. Throughout history human beings have told stories and parables with deeper meaning. At the end of the stories, there is always a moral lesson to be learned.
2) Stories are like adult play. As children we play and imagine and make believe with one another all the time. Unfortunately, if I were to ask my friend today if he wanted to come over and play house, they would most likely not be impressed. However, reading or listening to stories is a way for us adults to escape and make believe for a little while like we did when we were young.
3) Another reason for story telling is to simply pass the time with those close to you. Weather we are in class, at our house with our parents or elders, or at a movie, stories bring us together. The story must be told and received, this requires at least two people. So when we tell or listen to stories we can become closer and spend time with other people.
I watched a cool video on the Science of story telling. Its rather long, but interesting nonetheless. These authors and scientists come together to discuss the meaning of stories. Here is the video.
Another thing I did is searched the hashtag why stories on twitter. I found a lot of cool reasons other people engage in stories and think it is worth a check if you are curious. #whystories
Benjamin Ironstand 
Ben I really enjoyed reading this blog post of yours! I think your ideas of why storytelling is important were really interesting and made a lot of sense. I also like how you described storytelling is the act of taking your own thoughts and transferring them into someone else head.