To anyone whose curiosity has been sparked by the thought of Digital Storytelling, there is one thing that I can say to you… “welcome”. Storytelling is an ancient art, something that has been coursing through our ancestors veins from generation to generation and culture to culture. Why is storytelling important? History, at glance, is our best window into understanding the significance of storytelling. We have told stories as a means of education, entertainment, cultural preservation, and also with the intention of instilling moral values in our communities for ages. Throughout history it would seem that storytelling has been one of the most, if not the most effective ways to unite meaning with emotion. Stories supply meaning to the things that we are learning. It is what connects us to our humanity. Storytelling is essential for children to practice and appreciate. A fantastic website shown to me in my Digital Media Literacy class is Five Card Flickr Stories. This website provides the viewer with five different frames. It is then up to the viewer to take the five frames and create a story using one, a few, or all of them. This website has a huge gallery of photographs and the page can be refreshed as many times as one would like until the pictures displayed on the screen are to the viewers liking. To give an example, here is a screenshot of the five pictures presented to me and the story I wrote in accompaniment. Did you try it out? You really should. Inspiration for telling stories can come from anywhere and everywhere. Think about what happens to you over the course of one week, or even one day. Our lives are filled with eventful situations, and when people share experiences, they are also sharing stories. Digital Storytelling takes the simplicity of telling stories and gives it a modern twist. Digital storytelling gives the everyday person access to tinker, create and publish their stories. It is an emergent method of taking life’s ditties and transforming them into a multimedia production. Digital stories combine photography, video, animation, sound, music, text and a narrative voice to present stories in a compelling and emotionally engaging format. Digital Stories can be fiction, non-fiction, autobiographical, whimsical, adventurous, etc. They can be whatever you want. More often than not, Digital Stories (and stories in general) are based off of personal narratives – a fantastic starting point. These stories are emotionally powerful and promote deeper thinking. Furthermore, they outline difficulties followed by either advice, a warning, a solution, or a call to action, making digital stories impactful. There are eight steps of the Digital Storytelling process: More and more, digital storytelling is making its way into the classroom. Whether it is the teacher/educator who creates a digital story, say, as a means of presenting new information or a “hook” to increase student interest in new ideas, or the students who create their own, Digital Storytelling facilitates conversation and presents information in an attractive and engaging way. Digital Storytelling provides students with a new way to research and tell stories of their own as they “learn to use the library and the internet to research rich, deep content while analyzing and synthesizing a wide range of content… students [may also] develop enhanced communications skills by learning to organize their ideas, ask questions, express opinions, and construct narratives” (p.4 Robin). Digital Storytelling, like any other form of storytelling, begins with an idea. Here is a brief overview of edtechteacher’s “8 Steps to Great Digital Storytelling” with some suggestions of my own. When working with students of any age, the first step is to plan. Here is an interactive ReadWriteThink Webbing Tool that is student friendly. Also, Mindomo is user friendly (for older grades), especially with the assistance of these helpful videos: The Basics – Creating A Mind Map and Adding Media to Your Maps. The next step is to research, explore, and learn about the topic. In this way, there is a wealth of knowledge to draw from when writing and scripting the digital story. Here are some great student friendly mind-map tools ReadWriteThink – Note taker and bubble.us. Next comes the script writing. After having researched the topic, the idea is that the script or writing will come together seamlessly. Take a look at ReadWriteThink – Essay Map for easy templates to organize writing. The storyboard comes next. This is the best way to hash out ideas of what sound and images the author wants to use. Here are two easy and ready-to-use resources: ReadWriteThink – Story Map and StoryKeepers - Storyboarding. Then, it’s time to gather/create images, audio, and video. This is the meat and potatoes (or the tofu and kale), to the digital story. This sets the mood, setting, and tone to the work. Don’t forget to discuss copyright and creative commons with students at this point and make sure that any images they use are cited properly: Understanding Creative Commons. Some great sites for finding images are Flickr Creative Commons, Pixabay, and Morgue Files. Here’s the best part! When putting it all together, try out these websites. Animoto, iMovie, Movie Maker, and We Video. Digital Storytelling help students learn to create stories for an audience and present their ideas and knowledge in a meaningful way. When the digital stories are published on the web, whether it is though YouTube or Vimeo, students are able to share their production and critique their own, and their peers, finish products, giving them practice with critical thinking skills.
Moving forward, I am going to delve deeper into exploring my own digital story. I, too, am in the process of creating my very first Digital Story. I am excited, nervous, and eager to see how it will turn out. I will surely post it when it is completed. By doing this process myself, I will be able to teach it, step by step, to my students and foresee the challenges that my students may face. Let’s take storytelling to the next level. Will you join me?
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
About Me
A life-long learner. Archives
February 2017
Categories |