Whipping up a Digital Story The Basics of Digital Storytelling L. Martinez Instructional Technology Department Brownsville ISD

Digital Storytelling Ingredients All or a mix of the following: Written Story Video Still Images (digital camera optional) Music Narration Story Elements: transitions, words, signs

Why is Digital Storytelling important in the classroom? digital tools give students and teachers potent ways to tell stories for a variety of audiences it provides an opportunity to share knowledge, feelings, and experiences with a community of learners powerful stories teach diverse viewpoints, can help shape school culture, and allow students to actively share knowledge using current media digital stories provide an opportunity for communication and collaboration “learning to create digital stories can be related to knowledge management, achieving standards, building learning communities, scientific research, artistic expression, developing language and math skills, and cultural diversity” promotes problem-solving many information literacy standards and technology standards are met

Telling Your Story To Begin Your Project: Think about the subject for your story and the story elements Collect pictures that will help you explain your story or convey the message you want to share Use a story board to help you put your ideas, pictures, and story in order (one provided on last page) Think about the music, if any, that you could use to make a bigger statement

Additional Questions to Consider Who is the audience for your story? What do they value? How does your story share knowledge (direct or implied) that will be useful or valued by the audience? How has your storytelling process given wings to a learner’s mind?

Story Elements to Think About Pacing: is the flow of story events and overall speed of the presentation; it has a lot to do with audience, story content, and impact. This includes duration of each scene and the transitions between scenes. Dramatic Question: this becomes the main idea or topic in the story. This question helps center all content around a key idea and also helps focus the audience’s mind and improve learning. Sometimes this question is explicit in the story, other times it is not. Point of View: refers to who is telling the story. The storyteller needs to be able to express their own point of view, as well as understand and present other perspectives. i.e. telling the story of a sea life center from the perspective of a fish.

Story Elements Continued Gift of Voice: this is a unique perspective the storyteller brings to their story. Explain it this way to students: “…until I can find you (your voice, personality and ideas) in this movie, the gift of voice element needs work.” Soundtrack: the sounds or music accompanying the digital story. This brings up many copyright issues that must be considered (see attached page and copyright slide). Emotional Content: refers to the mood of the story. Storytellers can use other story elements such as dialogue, settings, images, transitions, and presentation to create emotion. Economy: the overall use of story elements. This can be seen as the balance between the mind of the storyteller and the audience. “Too busy” or “just right” refer to economy.

Topic Ideas to Get You or Your Students Started What do you want to say to that special person? What should I have said? I remember when … If I had to do it over…. A story about a special place Your firsts: home, day of school, pet Your lasts I am from… A story that you want your grandchildren to hear A school or community issue

More Topic Ideas The greatest day of my life The most _______ day of my life: disappointing, inspiring, magical, humbling One major decision : If I had done this ____ my life would have been ___ MasterCard commercial, ______: priceless! An ABC Book: * a story of a field trip * a time in history * a digital story about a character in a book * the ABC of math vocabulary * a story about the rise and fall of an empire * a tribute to a famous person or someone special to you * the ABC’s of a region or country

The Digital Storytelling Process 1.Write – done in the classroom 2.Continue with writing – done in the classroom or at home 3.Storyboard – done in classroom. This gives teachers and students an opportunity to critique and coach 4.Locate Resources – done in classroom or lab 5.Create – done in classroom or lab 6.Share – done in classroom or lab (other options may be possible)

A Few Recommendations Limit transitions 45 sec. – 2.5 minutes maximum No more than images 1 song, preferably

Putting It All Together Open Photo Story 3 for Windows Select create a new project Import all images and rearrange to the order needed Add text to any slides or pictures Use microphone to add narration to any section of your story Add transitions Import music and play preview to see if you like your story or need to make changes

Image Options You can use your own digital images – images you’ve collected over the years or pictures you’ll be taking to tell your story Clipart Web images available at a variety of sites online – remember copyright!

Copyright? Copyright: Fair Use: allows you to use a limited amount of copyrighted material for educational use. Creative Commons: “Creative Commons is a nonprofit corporation dedicated to making it easier for people to share and build upon the work of others, consistent with the rules of copyright.” Public Domain: A work is in the public domain when it is free for use by anyone for any purpose without restriction under copyright.

Free Online Resources to Find Several Ingredients Office Online ClipArt Jamendo website (music) Stock.xchng – Flickr – Images that teach languages free stock photography Digital image editors: – – –

Additional Online Tools to Create Digital Books Mixbook BookRix Panraven Book Builder MyPublisher Tabblo SmileBooks Blurb SmileBox Lulu

Rubrics for Assessment See attached rubric

References Digital Storytelling with PowerPoint, Teaching Powerful Storytelling by Mark Standley and Meg Ormiston Center for Digital Storytelling, Sylvia Tolisano Rosenthal, Langwitches.org Contact info: (lorena