Digital storytelling combines a story with digital visuals, text, narration, video and music. It revolves around a theme and viewpoint. Stories can be interactive and connected to other stories. Digital storytelling builds 21st century skills like creativity, critical thinking, problem solving and communication skills. It can be used to explore historical themes or teach informational topics. Teachers can use digital storytelling to engage students and make difficult content more understandable. The creation of digital stories involves researching a topic, writing a story, adding digital elements, and refining the final product.

1. Flickr photo by Loren Javier
Digital Storytelling
Jen Hegna
By Jen Hegna

2. Definition of Digital Storytelling
• Combines a story with digital visuals,
symbols, text, narration, video and music
• Revolves around a theme and particular
viewpoint
• Stories can be manipulated, interactive, and
connected to other stories
Flickr photo by
Ilya Boyandin

3. Why Digital Storytelling?

4. BuildingCritical thinking
21st-Century Skills
Creativity and Multiple
and problem
inventive thinking intelligences
solving
Higher-order
Information
thinking (lessons Visual literacy
literacy
learned)
Effective
communication
Sound literacy Technical literacy
(oral, written, and
digital)
Teamwork and Project Enduring
collaboration management understandings

5. http://www.uvm.edu/~cdisorda/blooms.html

6. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Cone_of_learning_export_11x17.png

7. Historical
Themes and
Events
Informational
Personal or
Narratives Instructional
Stories
Types of
Digital
Stories

8. Personal Narratives
• Character Stories
• Memorial Stories
• Stories about Events
or Places in Our Lives
• Stories about What
We Do
• Recovery & Discovery
Stories
• Love Stories

9. – Explore and depict a historical theme or
event.
– Require students to research a topic
– Use informational & media literacy skills
– http://www.wshs.org/wshm/featuredexhibits/womensvotes.aspx

11. An Effective Tool for Teachers
• Use as a hook to a lesson
• Integrate multimedia into the
curriculum
• Make difficult content more
understandable
• Facilitate classroom discussion
• Appeal to diverse learning
styles of students

12. Adapted from the Center for Digital Storytelling

13. Audience - Stories have a particular
audience in mind.

14. Purpose - Stories are trying to
accomplish a task

15. Content - Content must be meaningful.
Digital content adds to the story.
Flickr photo by Moriah Madness
Photography

16. Voice -
Stories are
told from a
specific
perspective
and use the
teller’s voice
to enrich the
story.
Flickr photo by Royalconstantinesociety

17. Flickr Photo by Andrew Phelps
Technology - Technology is used to
extend the story.

18. Connections - Good stories connect
with the participants.

19. Economy - Stories tell enough to get
the point across and no more.

20. What do our students
have to say?
“On other assignments, students try to recreate something the
teacher might want in order to get a good grade, or just write up a
bunch of “stuff”, in this assignment we were expressing something
we believed in and therefore didn’t want to seem stupid or
uninformed. I know I wanted to get people to seriously ponder
what I was presenting; maybe they would think about it more
after the actual presentation was done.”

21. What do our students
have to say?
“This project inspired me to work so much harder than on
other projects because we got to pick our own topics we
felt passionate about and really explain to our peers our
own ideas and values. When we are assigned a projects,
sometimes it’s hard to find inspiration, but when it’s a
topic that we feel passionate about we work hard to get
our point across.”

22. “When using multimedia, I was no longer able to use my voice and
posture as a way to show emotion. I now had to use text, music
and pictures. It was a little confusing at first. I wasn’t sure when to
have changes in texts and pictures, but once I got the hang of it, it
was fun! The project was creative and we really got to use a
different form of media. I agree, our class worked much harder
during this part of the project! I think this is because everyone is
very much into technology, and we were able to create something
with it! It was a new and exciting way to express ourselves. I really
enjoyed watching all of the videos! I would definitely do a project
like this in the future.”

23. Creative Commons
http://mirrors.creativecommons.org/getcreative/

24. Steps to Creating a Digital Story
Step 1: Research &
Collect
Select &
research a
topic
Collect images,
content, &
audio
and save to
computer
folder

25. Step 2: Write & Define Story
Define purpose and point of view
Use a storyboard to plan (I like Concept Maps too!)out
story

26. Step 3: Create Digital Sequence
Import images, content, audio
Arrange & rearrange slides/screens so they
tell or reveal the story

27. Your Voice
• Use your voice to impact the story you
tell.
– Tone: Slow, Fast, Loud, Soft
– Pitch: Vary to add emotion
• It sets the stage & engages the reader.
Flickr photo by
Alphadesigner

28. Example of Voice
A trip to the Moon (link)

29. Music
Flickr photo by Martin-Neuhof

30. Pacing
• Change pace of the story
narrative can have pauses
 music can change tempo
images can be set to enter at different rates
of speed.
• Allows the audience to concentrate, think, &
maintain interest.
Flickr photo by H.koppdelaney

31. Example of Supporting Music/Pace
The American Dream (link)

32. Step 4: Refine & Fine Tune Story
Decide what to keep and what to delete
Evaluate the end result

33. Assessing Digital Stories of Students
Final digital story is just tip of
artifact/assessment iceberg…
Beneath story: storyboards, story maps, scripts, photos,
footage, music, logs, media lists, narratives, treatments…lots of
writing “under the radar”…if it ain’t on the page…
Source: Digital stories, http://www.jasonOhler.com
***Digitales Rubrics -
http://www.digitales.us/evaluating/scoring_guide.php