Saturday, April 27, 2013

Digital Storytelling

What is Digital Storytelling? by  Jerome Gratigny
Digital storytelling is an emerging art form of personal, heartfelt expression that enables individuals and communities to reclaim their personal cultures while exploring their artistic creativity. "
- Bernajean Porter

We all have our own story and there are nearly as many ways of telling them!  For a change of pace why not try Digital Story Telling. This can be particularly effective with students because, as digital natives, they respond best to multi-modal constructs.  It has been claimed that digital storytelling can be seen as the new art form for everyone and anyone!
                         
How do we go about producing a digital story with video, pictures, text, music and narration in a school with limited resources, I hear you ask?  You will be surprised what you may already have on hand. Many technologies are probably already present on devices that you have in your school.  For example, if you have Microsoft Office you will have PowerPoint which can have music, text, narration and video embedded into it.  But if you are like me and feel that it has all been done before, here are some other free or inexpensive Web 2.0 options:

Microsoft Photo Story 3 is free from Microsoft and can combine pictures, text and sound for a basic presentation.

Audacity can be used to create, combine and edit sound files.

Windows Movie Maker includes the abilities to edit movie files and add narration and music to your presentation.  While Window Movie Maker 2.6 has been superseded by Windows Live Movie Maker, it is still the preferred tool by many educators as the newer version will not allow the addition of narration.

iMovie would have to be the star of this category.  At around $15 it is not cheap for an app, but compare that to the hundreds of dollars required for Adobe Premier Elements and it doesn't seem so bad!  And by using hand held devices such as iPad, iPods and iPhones, you have the ability to capture image and sound as well as editing it all in one place.

If you wish to find out more about digital storytelling, Microsoft have a great little e-book to guide you on the journey. This book contains lots of great information and resources such as templates for story boarding.
 
For some great stories, check out these produced by QUT students:
 

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