For my dissertation I’ve been working on the concept of patient health literacy, and what that has meant for me.

Recently I’ve developed a passion for digital storytelling – and the idea of creating short 2-5 minute YouTube videos. When I was first introduced to this idea at Digital Pedagogy Lab, I had thought that it would be a great way to disseminate my various learnings from my dissertation.

In March I attended a workshop on digital storytelling, where I started the first story on Patient Health Literacy. I didn’t have time to finish it then, but in preparation for a course I’m teaching this summer, I knew that I had to finish it. I needed something as an example for my students – but also for my ePortfolio.

I don’t know why I found it so hard to hit publish on the YouTube channel. I usually have no trouble sharing things. It is not like anything that is in the video is new. I shared it all in this blog. However, the change in medium – from text to audio with images – changes the level of intimacy in the story. I feel more vulnerable sharing it.

There is also the fact that I’m teaching now. When I wrote this blog originally, I was not teaching. There was no connection between my professional blog and my illness blog. There I was Rebecca. Here I was Becky. Even Google didn’t put the two together. Then I started researching my illness experience – and my professional world and my illness world collided.

I’ve struggled with sharing my illness stuff with my students. I usually don’t. Sometimes they find it. It doesn’t take much more than a google search and looking through my blog. However, in the past I have not highlighted it. This semester, I’m teaching a course on creating ePortfolios and with it, I’m updating my ePortfolio (http://rjhogue.name). With that, I will need to create a segment of who I am that is someone who is an ePatient and someone who is studying Patient Health Literacy.

All this to say, I hesitated to release the video. It isn’t perfect, but I’m proud of what I put together. And with that, I’ll share  the link here. What do you think? Is this a good method for communicating the different aspects of Patient Health Literacy?