Digital Storytelling -- Evaluating and Publishing Dr. Helen Barrett

Themes Aligning digital stories to standards Evaluating digital stories - Rubric Publishing stories online CIC Digital Storytelling Project

Aligning Digital Stories to Standards ml ml

Standards Addressed st Century Skills National Educational Technology Standards for Students (NETS) National English Language Arts Standards

Assessing Digital Stories Rubric

Simple Checklist (David Brear, Canadian Middle School teacher)

From my Digital Storytelling web page: Scroll to the bottom of the page

Elements of a Digital Story 1.Overall Purpose of the Story 2.Narrator’s Point of View 3.A Dramatic Question (or Questions) 4.Choice of Content 5.Clarity of Voice 6.Pacing of the Narrative 7.Meaningful Soundtrack 8.Quality of the Images 9.Economy of the Story Detail 10.Good Grammar and Language Usage

The art of presenting family stories using common software tools The Center for Digital Storytelling, Berkeley, CA, has defined seven elements for creating effective and interesting multimedia stories. The Seven Elements of Digital Storytelling Constructing a story is not a simple process that follows a recipe or prescribed formula. These elements require consideration for every story and determining the balance each element occupies in the story can take a lot of thinking and re-thinking.

The art of presenting family stories using common software tools The Seven Elements of Digital Storytelling Stories are told to make a point and should not be presented as a recitation of mere facts. Define the premise of your story so that all parts can serve to make the point. Consider your audience and direct the point to them. A Point (of View)

Rubric - Point of View - Purpose ExcellentGoodSatisfactory Needs Improvement Establishes a purpose early on and maintains a clear focus throughout. Establishes a purpose early on and maintains focus for most of the story. There are a few lapses in focus, but the purpose is fairly clear. It is difficult to figure out the purpose of the story.

Rubric - Point of View - Awareness of Audience ExcellentGoodSatisfactory Needs Improvement Strong awareness of audience in the design. Students can clearly explain why they felt the vocabulary, audio and graphics chosen fit the target audience. Some awareness of audience in the design. Students can partially explain why they felt the vocabulary, audio and graphics chosen fit the target audience. Some awareness of audience in the design. Students find it difficult to explain how the vocabulary, audio and graphics chosen fit the target audience. Limited awareness of the needs and interests of the target audience.

The art of presenting family stories using common software tools A Point (of View) A Dramatic Question The Seven Elements of Digital Storytelling You want to capture your audience’s attention at the beginning of the piece and hold their interest throughout. Typically you want to pose the dramatic question in the opening lines and resolve it in the closing lines.

Rubric - Dramatic Question ExcellentGoodSatisfactory Needs Improvement Realization is dramatically different from expectation. Realization differs noticeably from expectation. Realization barely differs from the expectation. Realization and expectation do not differ.

The art of presenting family stories using common software tools A Point (of View) A Dramatic Question Emotional Content The Seven Elements of Digital Storytelling Emotional content can help hold your audiences attention. The images, effects, music and tone of voice all lend to contributing emotion to the piece. Try to keep the elements consistent with the emotion of the moment.

Rubric - Soundtrack - Emotion ExcellentGoodSatisfactory Needs Improvement Music stirs a rich emotional response that matches the story line well. Music stirs a rich emotional response that somewhat matches the story line. Music is ok, and not distracting, but it does not add much to the story. Music is distracting, inappropriate, OR was not used.

Rubric - Emotional Content ExcellentGoodSatisfactory Needs Improvement Audience is deeply and emotionally engaged. Audience is emotionally engaged. Audience lapses in emotional engagement. Audience has little to no emotional engagement.

The art of presenting family stories using common software tools A Point (of View) A Dramatic Question Emotional Content The Gift of Your Voice The Seven Elements of Digital Storytelling Most likely the first time you heard your recorded voice you couldn’t stand the way it sounded. And you still can’t. Suggestion….get over it! Your voice is a great gift and even thought you don’t like to hear it, others do. If you “read” your script your audience will not know how to react. Take time to learn and practice your script so you can speak in a conversational voice. Record several takes and select the best one. Trust that your audience will think it is perfect.

Rubric - Voice - Consistency ExcellentGoodSatisfactory Needs Improvement Voice quality is clear and consistently audible throughout the story. Voice quality is clear and consistently audible throughout the majority (85-95%) of the story. Voice quality is clear and consistently audible through some (70-84%)of the story. Voice quality needs more attention.

Rubric - Voice - Conversational Style ExcellentGoodSatisfactory Needs Improvement Uses a conversa- tional style throughout. Uses a conversa- tional style the majority (85-95%) of the time. Uses a conversa- tional style most (70- 84%) of the time. Presentation style is primarily monologue.

The art of presenting family stories using common software tools A Point (of View) A Dramatic Question Emotional Content The Gift of Your Voice The Power of The Soundtrack The Seven Elements of Digital Storytelling Music is a big plus to a digital story. The right music can set the story in time and can convey emotion. Play music behind an image and a specific emotion is generated. Change the music behind the same image and an entirely different emotion is experienced. Sound effects can add tension and excitement to a piece, but be careful, they can be a distraction too.

Rubric - Soundtrack - Originality ExcellentGoodSatisfactory Needs Improvement All of the music is original. Most (over half) of the music is original. Some of the music is original. None of the music is original.

The art of presenting family stories using common software tools A Point (of View) A Dramatic Question Emotional Content The Gift of Your Voice The Power of The Soundtrack Economy The Seven Elements of Digital Storytelling A compact, fast moving digital story will contain only those elements necessary to move the audience from beginning to end. We know that our brains are constantly filling in (from our own experiences) details from suggestions made by sights and sounds. Don’t give every detail to clarify your story, let your audience fill in some of the blanks.

Rubric - Economy ExcellentGoodSatisfactory Needs Improvement The story is told with exactly the right amount of detail throughout. It does not seem too short nor does it seem too long. The story composition is typically good, though it seems to drag somewhat OR need slightly more detail in one or two sections. The story seems to need more editing. It is noticeably too long or too short in more than one section. The story needs extensive editing. It is too long or too short to be interesting.

Rubric - Images ExcellentGoodSatisfactory Needs Improvement Images create a distinct atmosphere or tone that matches different parts of the story. The images may communicate symbolism and/or metaphors. Images create an atmosphere or tone that matches some parts of the story. The images may communicate symbolism and/or metaphors. An attempt was made to use images to create an atmosphere/tone but it needed more work. Image choice is logical. Little or no attempt to use images to create an appropriate atmosphere/tone.

The art of presenting family stories using common software tools A Point (of View) A Dramatic Question Emotional Content The Gift of Your Voice The Power of The Soundtrack Economy Pacing The Seven Elements of Digital Storytelling The rhythm of the piece is what keeps your audience’s interest in the story. Music tempo, speech rate, image duration, and panning and zooming speed all work to establish pace. Generally pace will be consistent, but once in a while it will pause, accelerate, decelerate, stop or blast-off.

Rubric - Voice - Pacing ExcellentGoodSatisfactory Needs Improvement The pace (rhythm and voice punctuation) fits the story line and helps the audience really "get into" the story. Occasionally speaks too fast or too slowly for the story line. The pacing (rhythm and voice punctuation) is relatively engaging for the audience. Tries to use pacing (rhythm and voice punctuation), but it is often noticeable that the pacing does not fit the story line. Audience is not consistently engaged. No attempt to match the pace of the storytelling to the story line or the audience.

Rubric - Duration of Story ExcellentGoodSatisfactory Needs Improvement Length of story was 3 to 4 minutes. Length of story was 2 to 3 minutes. Length of story was 1 to 2 minutes. Story was less than one minute long or more than 4 minutes long.

First 80% Last 20% 20% last 80% glitz, fixing every little thing… the production wall - project completion - Hitting the production wall Rule of 80/20 - costs, resources - Source: Jason Ohler

Publishing your story

Publishing Your Videos online 1. (a very public space... OK for your students, but you might not like to post there) or (two video hosting sites especially for schools) (a little less public, but Google may soon start charging $10 per year for an account) (I have a group of movies stored there: ) (a community of individuals dedicated to spreading grassroots creativity: videos, podcasts and other works of personal media)

Online Storage You can also choose an online file storage system, such as the one that Ed uses: Microsoft Windows Live Sky Drive: The advantage of this system is that you can store up to 25 GB of all types of files, and you can password-protect your files. I also like to store files online, because they give you the code to embed your video into a blog or website (just like the video sharing sites). They let you store up to 5 GB of files.

What’s Your Story? Richness not possible in print Audiences worldwide but most likely small and intimate.

CIC Digital Story Project 1. A digital reflective story about your experiences with Teach21 and what it has meant for you, your colleagues, and your students 2.A narrative reflection on your participation to complement your digital story 3.Related assignments and samples of your and/or your students’ work that emerged from the project. Application Deadline: Tuesday, April 21

Stories in three Partners in Learning areas 1.Multimedia Records of Practice 2.Electronic Portfolios 3.Math Dispositions

CIC PiL Digital Story Requirements Between 2.5 and 4 minutes Have written permissions to use student images Music track optional… or use only royalty-free music Mention CIC and the Microsoft Partners in Learning Project Include student voices, where possible Complete story by June 10, 2009

My Final Wish… May all your electronic portfolios become dynamic celebrations and stories of deep learning across the lifespan.

Dr. Helen Barrett Researcher & Consultant Electronic Portfolios & Digital Storytelling for Lifelong and Life Wide Learning Center for Advanced Technology in Education University of Oregon College of Education