Stories are an incredibly compelling format for teaching and learning because they guide the reader or listener through concepts, and often in a linear manner. More than anything else, stories provide a level of entertainment that can hold a learner's attention, making them a potent medium for conveying a large amount of information in a relatively compact package. Consuming a story is not the only way that one learns from the experience - I would argue that the creation and performance of a story is a powerful learning tool. A storyteller's discretion, style, rhythm, and medium not only provide signals to the consumer of the story, but are deliberate choices that can shape and enhance a narrative. A storyteller must become a master - even if it's in the most narrow of ways - of the content that they're working with. The telling and retelling of a story subsequently reinforces lessons and values.

As someone who nearly became a history teacher, telling stories comes fairly naturally to me. I do not have to dig too deeply to understand where storytelling may be applied to my current work in college admissions. Any time that I speak to a student about their aspirations and how those aspirations align with my institution's mission, I am telling a story. Even better, the student and I are telling a story together. Representing a college, particularly one as old as mine, means reaching into a deep well of narrative and weaving those threads into a shared history, place, and culture.

On a more concrete level, employing digital learning tools as a platform for storytelling only serves to enhance both teaching and learning, irrespective of audience size, location, or synchronicity. One is able to adapt a story to just about any situation and to tailor the content with a great deal of ease.