Digital Storytelling

What is Digital Storytelling? Combining the art of telling stories with some mixture of digital graphics, text, recorded audio narration, video and music to present information on a specific topic. Revolve around a theme and often contain a particular viewpoint; stories are typically just a few minutes long. (Robin, n.d.)

Types of digital stories Personal narratives Examination of Historical Themes and Events Stories that Inform or Instruct (Robin, n.d.)

Types of Digital Stories -1 Personal Narratives : Character Stories – explore how we love, who we are inspired by, and the importance of finding meaning in our relationships. Memorial Stories – deal with memories of people who are no longer with us. These stories are often difficult but are emotionally powerful and can help with the grieving process. Stories about Events in Our Lives – Adventure Stories – revolve around places we visit and adventures we have in our travels. – Accomplishment Stories – deal with achieving goals and understanding defining moments in our lives. Stories about Places in Our Lives – examine the important places in our lives: our homes, our towns, and our experiences that connect us to our communities. Stories about What We Do – allow us to talk about our jobs, professions and careers in terms of how we value and find meaning in the work we do. Other Personal Stories – Recovery Stories – deal with how we overcome great obstacles and challenges in our lives. – Love Stories – provide us with an opportunity to share some of the most meaningful parts of our lives with the people we most cherish. – Discovery Stories – let us reflect on what we have learned and illustrate our journeys of discovery. (Lambert, 2007)

Types of Digital Stories -2 Examination of Historical Themes and Events  Based on Material Students Explore  Facilitates Research and Organizational Skills  Needs to Go Beyond the Digitized “MTV Video” or the “Encyclopedia Entry” (Robin, n.d.)

Types of Digital Stories -3 Stories that Inform or Instruct  Can be Argued that All Digital Stories Inform (or Instruct)  But the Distinction is that Digital Stories Can Be Created that Deliver Instructional Content on Many Different Topics, Including: Math, Science, Language Arts, Medicine, etc. (Robin, n.d.)

Examples Personal Narratives  Almost Paradise  The Computer and I Examples of Historical Digital Stories  The Gettysburg Address  The Holocaust Examples of Stories that Inform or Instruct  To Kill a Mockingbird  The Pythagorean Theorum

What makes a good digital story?

Seven Elements of Effective Digital Storytelling a point of view a dramatic question emotional content economy pacing the gift of your voice (narration) an accompanying soundtrack (Lambert, 2007)

Why digital stories?

An Effective Tool for Teachers Stories Created by Teachers Can Serve:  As a Lesson Hook  As a Way to Integrate Multimedia into the Curriculum  As a Way to Make Difficult Content More Understandable  To Facilitate Classroom Discussion (Robin, n.d.)  …?

An Effective Learning Tool for Students Research Skills Writing Skills Organization Skills Technology Skills Presentation Skills Interview Skills Interpersonal Skills Problem-Solving Skills Assessment Skills (Robin, n.d.)

Student Literacies Digital Literacy Technology Literacy Visual Literacy Information Literacy (Robin, n.d.)

Developing a Digital Story

Process Writing o Script o Storyboard Preparing o Gather materials (images, audio, video) Constructing o Assemble materials in Movie Maker o Record narration from script o Save in a shareable format

Process: Writing Script  Your story idea  Gets turned into the narration that you will record to go with your images Storyboard  Adding in visual aspect (images)  In narrative order

Seven Elements of Effective Digital Storytelling a point of view a dramatic question emotional content economy pacing the gift of your voice an accompanying soundtrack (Lambert, 2007)

What it boils down to… Writing an effective narrative (does it have a beginning, middle, end?) Communicating it effectively via images and sound (narrative, music) …consider your audience’s perspective

Scripting Brainstorming Exercise Story Prompt: What is an important moment in the history of your relationship to technology? Task: You have 10 minutes to fill out the front and back of this index card. Pretend that your index card is a postcard. Choose a person that you think this story is for, and write them a postcard about the story. Start with “Dear ________.”

Process: Preparing Finding Images o Google Google o Picsearch Picsearch o AltaVista AltaVista o Fotolia (free clip art) Fotolia Finding Audio o AltaVista AltaVista

Process: Preparing: About Copyright and Fair Use Copyright: Must have written permission from author Fair Use: Provides loose guidelines for when material may be used without written permission from copyright holder  Time (up to 2 years)  Permissible amounts  Distribution (don’t put on the web!) Code of Best Practices for Fair Use (video from The Center for Social Media) Code of Best Practices for Fair Use

Types of media and permissible amounts Motion media:  Up to 10 percent of the total or three minutes, whichever is less. Text material:  Up to 10 percent of the total or 1,000 words, whichever is less.  An entire poem of less than 250 words may be used, but no more than three poems by one poet or five poems by different authors in an anthology. For poems exceeding 250 words, 250 words should be used but no more than three excerpts from one poet or five excerpts from different poets in the same work Music, lyrics, and music video:  up to 10 percent of the work but no more than 30 seconds of the music or lyrics from an individual musical work. (

Types of media and permissible amounts Illustrations or photographs:  no more than five images from one artist or photographer.  no more than 10% or 15 images, whichever is less, from a collection. Numerical data sets:  up to 10 percent or 2,500 fields or cell entries, whichever is less, from a copyrighted database or data table. Copying of a multimedia project:  no more than two copies may be made of a project. ( Bottom Line: Be Careful! And Credit Your Sources.

Process: Constructing Create project folder and images sub-folder Lay down narration track Import images into project Add images to video track and adjust pacing Add transitions, title and credits (& effects, if time permits) Rendering your movie - save as.wmv file (Add sound, if time)

Seven Elements of Effective Digital Storytelling a point of view a dramatic question emotional content economy pacing the gift of your voice an accompanying soundtrack (Lambert, 2007)