7 Steps to Creating a Digital Story Tom Banaszewski techszewski@gmail.com techthisout.wikispaces.com/Digital+Storytelling techszewski.blogs.com teachstory.org

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7 Steps of a Digital Story 1. Writing the Script 2. Planning the Project 3. Creating Folders 4. Recording Voice Over 5. Gather, Create, and Edit Media 6. Rough Cut First then Final Cut 7. Export and Share Your Digital Story

5 Steps - 5 Stages of DS Project 1. Write a two to three minute first person story 2. Collect images to accompany the story 3. Import images into the computer 4. Record the voice over. 5. Align images with script.

Digital Literacy “What we ought to be developing in our schools is not simply a narrow array of literacy skills limited to a restrictive range of meaning systems, but a spectrum of literacies...” - Elliot W. Eisner writes The Kind of Schools We Need

Teach Story… or else Students gather any and all images related to their topic. Students cannot explain the difference between a digital story, slideshow and multimedia report. Assessment becomes subjective when the story, visual and media skills have not been adequately taught.

Is it a Digital Story? A little history lesson Next Exit You be the judge 7 Elements (see hand-out) Show Matt McArthur Show Billy Collins animation Show Chelsea My Backyard Show Dr. King Show Zimbabwe story Show My Name Is Not Mr. B

7 Elements (CDS model) 1. Point of view 2. Dramatic question 3. Emotional content 4. Individual voice 5. Soundtrack 6. Economy 7. Pacing

Defining Digital Storytelling the practice of combining personal narrative with multimedia to produce a short autobiographical movie Show Renaissance video. Poll the audience on their definition of “story” Use scraps of paper or notecards

Defining Story “a narrative account constructed around four central themes: character, conflict, struggle, goal” - Kendal Haven Write Right

Step 1: What’s Your Story? “Everybody is talented, original and has something important to say,” – Barbara Ueland If You Want to Write This is what sparked the digital storytelling movement. Brief history of digital storytelling Digital storytelling is all about empowering voices

Challenges of Writing the Script Loss of storytelling culture Weak story literacy skills Avoiding the narrated slideshow pitfall Traditional composition approaches Balancing telling vs. showing

“Dancing together text, images and audio on the screen,” – Bernajean Porter DigiTales

Many Paths Lead to a Good Story Answer an open ended question Concise moment of change Note card approach Writing into a photo Story Spine Story Sparks (Jay O’Callahan)

Story Core What is the central struggle? The dramatic question? Story Circle Synthesizing experience and emotions

Get the Picture of Your Story First Virtual Portrait of a Story (VPS) Show VPS version of Don’t Call Me Mr. B Bring up VPS hand-out

VPS for Don’t Call Me Mr. B Parents died early. No chance to ask questions. People shorten my last name to “Mr. B” Make sure people know my full last name. Don’t answer to Mr. B Nobody in family talked about our background. Find peace in maintaining link to my past thru my last name. Don’t know anything about my last name. What are you? Feel good about getting message across to my students.

Storyboarding

Written Script Not an essay No paragraphs 1-3 sentence chunks Try to keep to one page

Step 2: Planning the Project Practice what you preach Fail to plan, plan to fail Setting realistic expectations iMovie, Adobe, Microsoft? Test your software, equipment, working environment

Step 3: Organizing Your Folders Original Images Resized Images VO Music Exports Go thru process of creating folders on the desk-top for

Step 4: Recording the Voice Over Recording within iMovie Microphones, headphones Using Audacity MP3 recorder Show how to record VO inside iMovie and with Audacity Compare quality with and w/o mic and between iMovie and Audacity Discuss microphones and digital MP3 recorders

Step 5: Gather, Create, Edit Media Start with images, hold off on video til later BIG, engaging images Google, Picassa, Flickr Visual literacy Show where to find images: Google, Picassa, Creative Commons, Library of Congress, museums Show how to resize images Scanning settings

Editing Images Magic numbers 640 x 480 Scanning Hand drawn images Resize images

Step 6: Rough Cut then Final Edits Import your images Drag and Drop Add VO Sync images with VO Adjust timing of images Add transitions, effects Refer to iMovie tutorial Import VO Sync images Adjust timing of images Add transitions Adjust audio levels, create fades Add Ken Burns effect

Step 7: Sharing Your Digital Story Export = compressing = making file size smaller CD quality Full DV Web version Upload to YouTube Exporting in three different versions: CD, web, Full dv

Will My Name Be Shouted Out “…media production gives voice to students who are otherwise silenced in their schools and communities. It allows students to represent their experiences and their communities as cultural insiders, instead of the incessant misrepresentation of them outside their communities.” - Kathleen Tyner Literacy in the Digital Age My dream school – represent every voice of every student, staff and faculty. What’s the potential of a community like that?