According to the University of Houston, Digital Storytelling is the newest, most innovative approach to education. Telling a story through the use of computer technology creates a basis for the lesson and a beginning to what promises to be an excited trip through learning.
Digital Storytelling may seem like a new concept, but in fact, it has been around since the early 1990s. Joe Lambert from Berkeley, California, helped develop and co-founded the Center for Digital Storytelling (CDS). The CDS was designed as a non-profit group of community arts individuals that would provide training and assistance to people interesting in creating and sharing their story through the use of a Digital Story. The Center for Digital Storytelling has developed a list of the Seven Elements of Digital Storytelling in an effort to support and direct how educators should prepare individual lessons.
| Point of View | What is the main point of the story and what is the perspective of the author? |
| A Dramatic Question | A key question that keeps the viewer’s attention and will be answered by the end of the story. |
| Emotional Content | Serious issues that come alive in a personal and powerful way and connects the story to the audience. |
| The Gift of Your Voice | A way to personalize the story to help the audience understand the context. |
| The Power of the Soundtrack | Music or other sounds that support and embellish the storyline. |
| Economy | Using just enough content to tell the story without overloading the viewer. |
| Pacing | The rhythm of the story and how slowly or quickly it progresses. |
Digital Storytelling, though a rather new approach to learning, has become a very powerful instructional tool. By combining digital multimedia, images, video, audio, and of course, the art of storytelling, the educator develops an interesting tool used to open lessons and introduce students to a new unit or concept. We live in the age of technology, with a world of video and audio available at our fingertips. Focusing on the standards to be taught, educators now have a new and exciting tool to share with students.
Digital Stories can be categorized into three major areas, first the personal narrative. In this type story one tells a personal account or gives information relating to a significant incident from a point in time. The second story type is the historical documentary. These stories can be dramatic events or take the learner through a chronological timeline of events. The final story type is designed to merely inform or instruct the learner. Introducing new concepts or material would fall into this type story style.
Students create Web pages and publish blogs using social media. Taking their knowledge of technology one step further would give our students a edge in our global society. Digital Storytelling is a concept that can and should be taught in the classroom. If students are to become lifelong learners using technology and learning new innovative approaches should become part of our curriculum. Helping students develop technology skills is only one level of mastery that will help the transition to college or career. As students become more visually literate they become better communicators. Students learn to value the use of images to communicate and ultimately tell a story. Communicating and fully understanding the issues the community outside the classroom is yet another area students will develop and appreciate. Digital Storytelling brings an issue full circle and asks important questions to draw the learner into the idea or subject. The student developing the story will be exposed to more information and grasp the bigger picture through the development process.
Finally, our ultimate goal, as media specialists, is to give our students the ability to find, evaluate and synthesize information; to become Information Literate. Through the use of Digital Storytelling and through the eventual student creation of Digital Stories, students will see the joy in learning and gain a better understanding of how powerful knowledge truly is. On a personal note, I enjoyed reading the suggested information relating to the University of Houston and Digital Storytelling. I believe this is one area we need to explore and use in the classroom. Along with use comes work on the front end. The preparation of Digital Storytelling lessons is a goal I plan to add to my list, how quickly I create and fine tune these stories, is yet to be determined.
Houston, U. (2011). The educational uses of digital storytelling. Retrieved from http://digitalstorytelling.coe.uh.edu/
Houston, U. (2011). The 7 elements of storytelling. Retrieved from http://digitalstorytelling.coe.uh.edu/7elements.html
Thank you for this post that summarizes the content, types, uses, and benefits of digital storytelling. Students in my school just created Animoto “stories” designed to show their understanding of Newton’s Law of Motion. The kids loved making and sharing them, and the presentations were very good! Digital storytelling is another way of engaging students in a creative way while they learn content and add to their information literacy skills at the same time. It is an interesting and entertaining way of injecting technology into the curriculum, something students will need to do for the duration of the education. I will refer to your blog post and to the information in your helpful links while continuing my work on my digital story for this class.
ReplyDeleteI liked that you included the history in the opening of your blog post. You also include the important 7 elements from the University of Houston. I find the “economy” element very helpful for me personally, since I tend to want to include too many images and have a hard time narrowing them down to the essential ones. Keeping in mind not to overwhelm the viewer is a good piece of advice. I liked the Van Gogh example at the U. of Houston site. There is no audio dialogue, only a very pretty piece of classical music playing as the written text of his letters, interspersed with his paintings, fade in and out. This allows the viewer to focus on the paintings and letters, and lets the letters tell the stories. Thank you for your post.
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ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing your information about digital storytelling. I appreciate the way you broke it down for your readers. Understanding the three areas/kinds and the seven elements up front will make starting and finishing my project a much easier task. When I think about the uses for me as a media specialist, I realize that I can share this idea with teachers and students at the high school level, and they can in turn produce elaborate projects. I am especially excited about the historical documentaries. I think I am going to add this to my To Do List for January. I may even try to schedule a series of trainings/teachings for digital storytelling. Maybe I could start with the basics and then do one of each kind. It’s something to think about.
Thanks for making me think, plan, and design something better for my teachers and students.
Leigh Anne
Linda-
ReplyDeleteGreat post! I found the background of digital storytelling to be quite interesting- I was surprised to see that the concept has been around for as long as it has. You did a good job describing the 3 main types of stories and the descriptions of the major elements made a lot of sense as well as being very easily applied. Your post will definitely be helpful as I work on my (historical documentary) project for class! I like the way that you tied the technology back to the 21st century learner and emphasizing our roles as Media Specialists in helping our students use these available technologies to succeed. Thanks for your post.
Although digital storytelling has been around, it is a new phenomenon for me and many other educators. I sure am glad I know about it now though. At first I thought this project was going to be a huge hassle, but now I am glad I am learning another tool that will be useful in the classroom. I plan to implement this into my classes next semester after I learn how to create videos myself. The students are familiar with creating PowerPoints so they will enjoy this as well.
ReplyDeleteAs you stated, our goal as media specialists is to make students information literate. Students will become exposed to more information and grasp the bigger picture through the information process. This is a valuable tool in the learning and development process. Through digital storytelling and the creation of the process, students will learn how powerful knowledge and information is.
Good morning Linda.I enjoyed reading your post on Digital Storytelling. The statement that I zeroed in on was "Digital Storytelling, though a rather new approach to learning, has become a very powerful instructional tool", which I find to be very true. However, I honestly don't feel very comfortable just yet using this and many others as an instructional tool. I thought perhaps this course would ease my anxiety. However, it has only heightened my nervousness. I'm so "stuck" on the powerpoint, but I do realize that I must become proficient in other methods if I want to continue to engage and capture my students interests.
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