An Introduction to Digital Storytelling
Meagan L. Wallace
East Tennessee University
Traditional school subjects such as language arts may have just has become a little more appealing to students with the introduction of digital storytelling in the classroom and community. I am reviewing some of the literature I found on digital storytelling and the use of digital stories. It may not be too long before digital stories are quite common in the classroom.
Digital stories are short, personal narratives, told from the author’s perspective with voiceovers, music, picture, and sometimes video in a video format (Ohler, 2006; Freidus & Hlubinka, 2002). Seen as an emerging technology, digital stories are being utilized more and more in the classroom as well as in after school programs such as Digital Underground Storytelling for Youth, or DUSTY for short. According to Glynda Hull (2003), DUSTY is “ a collection of after-school, evening, and summer programs that is a university-community collaborative aimed at closing the digital divide” (p230). Not many years ago it would have been less practical to create digital stories in the classroom environment because of the high expense. Now, digital storytelling is a great tool that is accessible not only to students and teachers within the classroom, but also to others with internet access. Students are able to view and share their work with others across the internet and around the world(Ohler, 2006).
Different steps go into the creation of a digital story. Jason Ohler (2010) recommends that students first complete a story map in which they can examine and map out the five main facets of a story: the beginning, the problem, the changes, the solution, and the end. A common story map used by Ohler, the Visual Portrait of a Story diagram, is pictured below (Jason Ohler: Digital Storytelling, 2010). Ohler modified it from Brett Dillingham, a well known and expert storyteller. An additional benefit of using a story maps in the classroom is they allow teachers to evaluate their students’ stories while still in the development stage (Ohler, 2006; Jason Ohler: Digital Storytelling, 2010) Next, storyboards are useful to help students plan out the events to be taking place in their story. Finally, the students are ready to create their script, the last of the story development process (Ohler, 2006; Jason Ohler: Digital Storytelling, 2010).
The basic process leading up to a digital story involves many steps and revisions. Students first begin the process by filling out a story map, creating a storyboard, and writing and recording a script. It is important to revise the script and narration because the script and narration are the main writing of the project, and the revisions help to guarantee for a more successful digital story. Once the students have completed these portions, they can begin to search for media they need. The final steps are piecing everything together, adding the selected media, exporting the finished product, and sharing it with others via the internet or a classroom viewing (Jason Ohler: Digital Storytelling, 2010).
Digital storytelling has a number of benefits which are useful for the classroom. It touches on many different learning styles and allows students that may have previously been quiet in class to speak up for themselves through the different types of media (Ohler, 2006). Students also use skills from areas such as storytelling, art, and media production. In addition, they not only become involved and familiar with media and technology programs, they also improve their research, critical thinking, and writing skills (Ohler, 2006). Collaboration often happens naturally during the creation and editing portion of the digital video process. Students begin to assist each other through peer editing and a genuine interest in one another’s projects (Banaszewski, 2002; Freidus & Hlubinka, 2002). Students also gain a great sense of accomplishment after they have personally created and designed their digital story (Banaszewski, 2002).
I was interested to learn about digital storytelling, and think I would have enjoyed using it when I was in school. I think the addition of any media, whether music or pictures, to a story can personalize it and make it much more interesting. This is especially true when comparing anything in video form to the original pen and paper assignment. I was surprised to find that I had watched digital stories by a non-profit organization known as StoryCorps without previously having any understanding of digital storytelling. I would like to utilize what I have learned about digital storytelling in my future classroom. If I end up teaching a grade that is too young to create their own digital stories, I think it would be beneficial to create a digital story for my students as an introduction to myself and my class.
References
Banaszewski, T., (2002, January). Digital storytelling finds its place in the classroom. MultiMedia Schools, 32-35. Retrieved October19, 2010 from http://www.infotoday.com/MMSchools/jan02/banaszewski.htm.
Freidus, N., & Hlubinka, M., (2002). Digital storytelling for reflexive practice in communities of learners. ACM SIGGROUP, 23(2), 24-26. Retrieved October19, 2010 from http://llk.media.mit.edu/projects/channelc/crcp-stories/freidus-hlubinka.pdf.
Hull, G., (2003). Youth culture and digital media: New literacies for new times. Research in the Teaching of English, 38(2), 229-233. Retrieved October19, 2010 from http://www.ncte.org/library/NCTEFiles/Resources/Journals/RTE/0382-nov03/RT0382Last.pdf
Jason Ohler: Digital Storytelling. (2010). Storytelling and new media narrative. Retrieved October19, 2010 from http://www.jasonohler.com/storytelling/storyeducation.cfm
Ohler, J., (2006). The world of digital storytelling. Educational Leadership, 63(4), 44-47. Retrieved October19, 2010 from
