Black Girl Magic Tell Your Story
by William Jackson, M.Ed.
Edward Waters College @wmjackson

This is the age
for women of color
and culture to be
engaged with technology
locally, but thinking globally.
This is what I teach
my students in my Educational Technology,
Social Media and STEM class at Edward Waters
College. They all matter in the grand scheme
of this developing nation.

The ability to tell a story is not limited
to simplistic writing or blogging, the new
move is towards “Mobile Film Making” and
“Mobile Microblogging,” and “Video Blogging.”
The use of phones, tablets and even watches
has opened new doors for using mobile devices
to allow women of color and culture to be
filmmakers, creating documentaries and
sharing the growth of women of all colors
and cultures their journey’s
implementing technology.

The integration of digital devices that are
mobile provides the opportunity to present
stories in real time and with unprecedented
accuracy. Not using props, make believe
backgrounds or even deadpan musical play-overs
and sound effects. Girls and Women of Color
are discovering their creativity with mobile
technology and throwing away fears to embrace
innovation and encourage new creative ideas.

In the recent article shared with me by my
dear friend Tiffany Duhart (@asktdn), an
original Black Girl Magic sister, before
there was a Black Girl Magic; she shared the
article “Using Mobile Film Making to Tell
Stories,” 4/20/16 in Black Enterprise
Mobile by Kali Wilder.

Matthew Cherry an independent filmmaker
has created critically acclaimed movies
using his iPhone6s. His intent is to
inspire people especially youth, teens
and young adults to use tech in a positive
way by integrating mobile technology to help
tell their stories and implementing Social
Media to broadcast. Girls and women
of color are becoming influential innovators
and even thought leaders in applying technology
to real world applications.

“It doesn’t matter about the camera you
shoot on it’s all about the story.”
Kali Wilder
Technology provides a unique opportunity
for people of color and culture especially
young people to tell their stories on a global
and interactive platform. Interactivity
provides immediate feedback and draws the
attention of the intended audiences.
Social Media provides platforms that encourage
the creation of dynamic and original content.
Vblogging, Microblogging, Podcasting, and
other platforms, for the most part, are free
and easily accessible on phones and tablets.
Content Creation is King…………..

Cherry points out that artist can use those
platforms to support levels of engagement.
There is an awesome networking potential for
women of color that allows for increased
exposure to issues that affect them. The
movement building great momentum of
#BlackGirlMagic is cross-generational and
allows girls and women to network and share
intellectual resources, talents, and abilities.
Girls are no longer afraid of technology
because they see their creativity,
they express a passion that boys in many
cases do not possess.

Educational Technology at
Edward Waters College

In my Educational Technology and Social Media
course, blogging is a foundation for learning,
as technology advances people of color must
advance as well when integrating and being
creators of content not just consumers. Blogging
allows for reading, comprehensible growth and
allowing boys and girls to find their skill-sets
because not everyone is a coder, is not a developer,
but has their skill-sets that can be enhanced and
magnified when tech is properly applied.

Educational Technology in many schools has
diverse instructional directions and applications,
the goal for my curriculum is to make sure students
are exposed to and utilize platforms to teach
them to create their Brand and Market themselves.
I hope to inspire both young men and women to think
strategically. Each person, especially Black Girl Magic
girls and women need to be the CEOs of themselves.

Natalie McGriff – Moxie Girl
Black Girl Magic

Being the CEO’s of themselves means they have to
chart their course, define their Brand(s) and how
to effectively Market themselves beyond local
visibility to global awareness and integration
in the diversity of technology. Examples come in
the form of Melissa James – Founder and CEO of
The Tech Connection and Sherrell Dorsey – Founder
of ThePLUG both can be heard on the program
Blacks In Technology
https://www.blacksintechnology.net/
Their Brands represent them so must be based on
a solid foundation that others can connect too and
relate too.

The tools are there, right at the fingertips
literally so why not integrate them in creating
positive content that gives women of color with
Black Girl Magic a chance to tell their stories
and enhance their hustle.

People of color and culture have access to tools,
platforms, digital devices to share their
diversity in their SoLoMo journeys.
Girls and women of Black Girl Magic must understand
their digital presence is influenced and influences
their social interactions for future opportunities
to grow, their Lo-cal exposure to be seen by people
to help them move in the direction they want to go
locally and globally, and the power of mobile
technology engages video and instant development
and sharing. SoLoMo

Social engagements Local involvement in their
communities and applying their use of Mobile
devices that integrate technologies that are
growing more and more intuitive in learning
what the user wants to do. Black Girl Magic is
growing, but must be able to expand the direction
and even services to inspire and continue
engagement.

Taylor Richardson = Black Girl Magic

Girls and women of color and culture are advised
to READ, network, and share resources to help them grow.
They must be creators of content, designers of digital
devices and Apps to make a difference and a change
in the perceptions created about them by others.
BGM is moving past a movement; it is maturing into a
sentient being for girls and women of color.

Telling a story is the core to sharing information,
to the exchange of ideas and values. For centuries
people of color and culture have used storytelling to
tell their stories. The dynamic must change when sharing
information; it must begin to be interactive and
engaging to reach the youth that are changing the world.
Black Girl Magic opens new opportunities for growth
with video to allow girls and women of color and
culture to leap over those that are
not supporting their growth and smashing
the glass ceilings above them.

Resources:
Black Enterprise Mobile
Matthew Cherry on Twitter
@matthewcherry
“Using Mobile Film Making
to Tell Stories,” 4/20/16
in Black Enterprise Mobile
story by Kali Wilder

#BITTechTalk Ep. #101
Sherrell Dorsey – Founder of ThePLUG
https://www.blacksintechnology.net/bittechtalk-ep-101-w-sherrell-dorsey-founder-theplug/

Blacks In Technology
https://www.blacksintechnology.net/