Digital Storytelling for All

Digital storytelling is a way to tell a story or present information for others using computers-based tools and programs.  It is truly an art form that opens doors for educators to present material to students.  Before researching digital storytelling, my experience with it was close to none.  I have never heard of it or used it in my classroom.  After reading about the different ways educators can use media to tell a story I am wondering why I haven’t used it before!  The University of Houston’s website on digital storytelling gives a direct definition and examples of digital storytelling.  I loved the idea of using these digital stories to “hook” students for a new unit or even assign students to create a digital story as they reflect on their own learning. 

As I was researching I found two factors that seem to be the most important as we begin our journey into digital storytelling: following copyright laws and how to use digital stories.

Copyright (cue Jaws theme song...)

Throughout our program we have been prepared for one of the biggest parts of our job as a media specialist, the copyright liaison.  From most of us already being in the classroom, we know that many teachers do not honor copyright laws or are even aware of them.  As we begin using more and more technology in our lessons, it has become evident that copyright laws need to be followed.  Being the media specialist, we are responsible for presenting these laws to our colleagues and making ourselves available to help answer questions (or find answers to questions we may not know, because really, who knows everything about copyright!?).  Even after reading about Fair Use I am weary about using some media in my own educational work.  Creating a digital story opens up a whole new can of worms when it comes to copyright and Fair Use.  After reading about the laws and tips on the University of Houston’s website, I came to the conclusion of three important parts when using media in digital stories:

1. Try to find media that is public domain (creative commons anyone?)

2. Remember to cite EVERYTHING and make notes of media that you may change for your story.

3. Only make it available to those using it for educational purposes.  No posting onto an open website without the permission of the material’s owner.

Whew…copyright is exhausting.  Now for the fun part of digital storytelling.

How You Can Use It

Digital storytelling is a way to present ideas through using multimedia tools.  Stories work around a central theme that “tells the story”.  Because they are used in education and (we all know how long an attention span of a student can last) digital stories should stay within the 2-10 minute time span.  Although short, digital stories can be very powerful tools involving images, videos, audio narration, music, and text.  They can be used by the teacher to present material to students or as an assignment for students to present information they have learned.

The following are some suggestions on using digital stories in the media center or classroom:

-          Used as a hook for the students in a new lesson or unit.

-          Book review from a character’s perspective.

-          Exploration of a different culture or region; a look into another way of life.

-          Narrative on a personal experience or journey.

-          Informational story of a new concept or idea.

-          Timeline of an important event(s) in history.

-          Interview of a significant or historical person.

All this talk about digital storytelling has made me so excited to start one that I can’t decide where to begin!  I’ll definitely visit these sites below for more guidance and information:

University of Houston's Digital Storytelling Site

DigiStories

Creative Commons

You've Got a Story? We've got Digital Tools for Telling.

Digital storytelling can seem a little overwhelming.  It was for me when I watched Daniel Meadows' digital story at http://digitalstorytelling.coe.uh.edu/index.html.  I thought, "Wow, he has a lot going on in that story. Look at all those video clips."  But then I started thinking..."This guy is the top of the class in digital storytelling. Maybe it won't seem so scary if I find a couple of teachers' and students' digital stories. I know I can do this."  Sure enough, when I started looking at other examples, it wasn't nearly so scary.  I especially liked the link I found under Examples...ESL.  From there, I looked at Ms. Rodriguez's Spanish Classes (http://www.marlboro.k12.nj.us/webpages/nrodriguez/examen.cfm) digital stories.  These middle school students are telling their own little stories, using a Spanish script.  Pretty cool way to actually use the spoken word, some creativity, and tech skills. I'm sure the kids really liked it. Now these examples did not use all of the elements that I have seen in the various definitions of DS: they "usually contain some mixture of computer-based images, text, recorded audio narration, video clips and/or music".  The Spanish examples contained 3 of those 5 elements, but not video clips or music.  I guess what I can learn from this is that in an educational situation, I can begin using DS with students without having to be as good as Daniel Meadows.

The University of Houston tweaked the  7 Essentials of Digital Storytelling from The Center for Digital Storytelling (CDS) in Berkeley, California to apply more directly to educational use of DS.

Their 10 criteria are as follows:
  1. The Overall Purpose of the Story
  2. The Narrator’s Point of View
  3. A Dramatic Question or Questions
  4. The Choice of Content
  5. Clarity of Voice
  6. Pacing of the Narrative
  7. Use of a Meaningful Audio Soundtrack
  8. Quality of the Images, Video & other Multimedia Elements
  9. Economy of the Story Detail
  10. Good Grammar and Language Usage


That's a lot to consider, but I am not afraid to start somewhere.  

One consideration when making digital stories is maintaining copyright and fair use.  Fair Use seems to give teachers and students a considerable amount of leeway in using pictures and sound they find on the internet.  The main "no-no", as far as I can tell, is publishing work on the internet if it contains elements that are copyrighted and for which permission was not sought to use them.  So, be careful posting to your class webpage!  There is a lot that you can do within digital story telling that does not infringe on the law, as long as people who view it are doing so for educational purposes, so restrict access to places where the viewing purpose is educational.

It is important to consider that many digital stories do not include copyrighted elements, and therefore can be posted as the author wishes.  There are also many options for music and pictures that are free to be used as you wish, so long as you don't take credit for the original works.

One of the most helpful resources I found is the Digital Storytelling Guide by Silvia R. Tolisano, in which she details how to use several programs for digital storytelling: Audacity, Wordle, GoogleMaps,  Photostory, Mixbook, Voicethread (My favorite), and MovieMaker.

Here's the link to that instructional gem, as well as links to her students' examples of the use of them.

http://langwitches.org/blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/Digital-Storytelling-Guide-by-Silvia-Rosenthal-Tolisano.pdf