Question

How to write a digital story

Answer 1

Stories bring us together, encourage us to understand and empathize, and help us to communicate.Long before paper and books were common and affordable, information passed from generation to generation through this oral tradition of storytelling.  Consider Digital Storytelling as the 21st Century version of the age-old art of storytelling with a twist: digital tools now make it possible for anyone to create a story and share it with the world.

Digital storytelling allows computer users to become creative storytellers by first beginning with the traditional processes of selecting a topic, conducting research, writing a script, and developing an interesting story. This material is then combined with various types of multimedia, including still images, recorded audio, computer-generated text, video clips, and music so that it can be played on a computer, added to a web site, posted on a blog, or burned on a DVD.Digital stories push students to become creators of content, rather than just consumers.

Scriptwriting can be difficult for many students and is certainly more work and less fun than some of the other tasks associated with creating a digital story, like searching for images or adding music. However, digital storytellers at all levels should understand that a well thought out, well written script is an absolute requirement for a good digital story and we require our students to begin writing the script for their story before they begin work on creating the digital story. The following steps teach us how to make digital storytelling :

• Step 1 You probably already have a person or subject in mind. Think small. Focus. Don’t get caught up trying to convey all the aspects of someone’s life — you’re not writing the great American novel, you’re creating what will optimally be a 3- to 5-minute work that recounts a personal tale and reveals a small truth.

• Step 2 Start with an Idea All stories begin with an idea, and digital stories are no different. This idea could be the topic of a lesson, a chapter heading in a textbook, or a question asked in class. Digital stories might be fiction or non-fiction. Once you or your student have an idea, make it concrete: write a proposal, craft a paragraph, draw a mind-map, or use any other pre-writing tool.

• Step 3  Research/Explore/Learn Whether writing a fiction or nonfiction digital story, students need to research, explore or learn about the topic in order to create a base of information on which the story will be built.

• Step 4  Write/Script Next, start jotting down ideas. Discuss your ideas with family and friends. Play out a rough story in your head. Some tips:

1. Get personal. Forget everything you’ve been taught about using a dispassionate, authoritative, essay-like voice. This isn’t an essay contest. People want to hear your voice.
2. Write lousy first drafts. Don’t edit as you go.
3. Write short.
4. Read your script aloud
5. Don’t hold back. Be real. You need to reach an emotional depth, and sometimes that can only be achieved by revealing uncomfortable truths.
6. Look for a narrative arc for your story. All stories — even 3-minute gems — have a beginning, middle and end.
7. Work on the pace.

• Step 5 Storyboard/Plan Storyboarding is the first step towards understanding sound and images. It is the plan or blueprint that will guide decision making about images, video and sound.

• Step 6 Prep your equipment A desktop computer or laptop.
  • Video software

  A scanner, if you want to include traditional photos in your story and need to digitize them.

  • A recording device: for video, a camcorder; for audio, a portable digital recorder (preferably) or an analog cassette recorder (if you use analog video or audio, you’ll need to convert it to digital).
  • A handheld microphone for audio interviews (optional).
  • Headphones

• Step 7  Gather and Create Images, Audio and Video Using their storyboard as a guide, students will gather - or create - images, audio and video.
• Step 8 Digitize your media If you’re using old photos, you’ll need a flatbed scanner. Scan them and save them to a single folder on your computer
• Step 9 Record a voice over and add music.
• Step 10 Put It All Together This is where the magic happens - where students discover if their storyboard needs tweaking and if they have enough "stuff" to create their masterpiece.

• Step 11 Edit your story Make sure you have all the elements of your story in your video-editing program. If you haven’t done so already, import all images, video, your voice-over and musical elements.

• Step 12 Share Sharing online has become deeply embedded in our culture, so as educators, we might as well embrace it. Review your school or district’s Acceptable Use Policy (AUP) and then look for a way to share your students’ stories with a broader audience. Knowing that other people might see their work often raises student motivation to make it the best possible work that they can do.

• Step 13Reflection and Feedback . What did I learn? What do I know about myself that I did not know before? How can I do better next time? Students need to be taught how to reflect on their own work and give feedback to others that is both constructive and valuable.