Digital Storytelling
David S. Jakes's Article 'Capturing Lives: An Introduction to Digital Storytelling is about using digital storytelling as a teaching tool to be utilised by educators in the classroom. It is not just limited to technology it also includes face-to-face work with students and encompasses important writing processes as well. Jakes writes
"Imagine a learning experience, supported and extended by the application of technology, that empowers students to create and contribute...this learning experience provides students with a compelling and competitive voice and enlarges the boundaries of their ability to communicate, potentially to a worldwide audience. That learning experience is digital storytelling" (Jakes, 2006)
Student are able to tell a story in a way that uses multimedia elements of voice, imagery and music to create a visual story. Digital storytelling 'provides a high-quality learning experience' (Jakes, 2006) that represents the value-added approach whereby the inclusion of technology will extend the students learning experience whilst not taking away from face-to-face learning or writing skills.
Digital storytelling allows students to use skills such as writing, multimedia tools, creativity, critical thinking and organisation. Students are able to develop their visual and multimedia literacy skills, interpret digital media and the application of a personal message into a story, students will increase their depth and power of communicating with each other, reconnect with their creative side, recreate it, develop it, apply it and intensify it. Digital storytelling provides an authentic personal learning experience that enables students to learn: different computer applications, the importance of context and copyright as well as visuals and videos with areas of literacy and writing.
A digital story is about 2-3 minutes in length composed of about 20-25 images with a written length of one page (double spaced). It can be broken down into a series of 6 steps.
1. Writing: Student will need to write, rewrite and continue to go back and edit throughout the entire stage of the story. Mostly the writing would take a personal stage in narrative form about a particular event or story chosen by the student however it is open to curriculum and lesson plans/themes.
2. Script: After the narrative is complete students begin to work on a script. A script is normally a distillation of the essential components of the narrative story and forms the foundation and the inclusion of the various multimedia elements being used. Producing the digital story from the script ensures that students are using the multimedia elements to convert and contribute meaning to the story.
3. The Story Board: This steps allow students to work out the flow of their movie. It is a place where students can link their script to a visual either frame or video. Student would also search here for the visuals they intend to use whether that be drawings, images and where those particular things will go within the script. This step is essential as it is an effective tool that helps students locate their elements and what they are looking for next.
4. Locating Multimedia: Students use a variety of websites such as Google or Mamma to locate still frame imager or video or students can scan images of photos they have taken themselves or drawn. (ensure labs have capable scanning equipment as this is essential)
5.Creating the digital story: This step involves the use of software currently available to you. For Macintosh students might use iMovie on PC it might be MovieMarker2, Photostory 3 is also a good source and its free download. Here a teacher might organise for a librarian to give a class on how to use one of these applications or you might yourself if you are adequate in one of these applications. Once students feel comfortable creating their story then they can begin with the aid of a teacher.
6. Share: This step is vital as it allows students to share their hard work with the class and also gain insight into other students. Collaborating is a great skill to learn here. Student can also share their stories on a global level to and upload their products to DigitalStories.org DigitalStories.
David S. Jakes is a Instructional Technology Coordinator at Community High School in District 8 and is very passionate about using technology in the education of students inconjunction with face-to-face classroom learning.
This article gave me some great idea and information on how to get started in implementing digital storytelling within my classrooms. This article provides a wealth of information along with several sources to use when you begin digital storytelling. Jakes provides a list of 8 sources that are helpful for teachers and students to use when making digital stories along with map of the process. The only negative comment regarding this article is the lack of information on safety, what type of stories are allowed and not allowed by students, sharing their video on the internet if the story does have pictures of the students-why types of pictures, who is in those pictures, their age ect. Digital safety would not mentioned and Jakes could benefit from going into this a little.
In my carer I can use this for a number of things; Digital storytelling is not limited to just personal narratives it would be a narrative about a particular person for example for History call you could pick an Ancient Pharaoh to do a digital story on, or for society and culture you could pick a famous sociologist. The list is endless, digital storytelling can be used for just about any subject as well as its ability to work into the curriculum you are teaching. This will be a great tool for me to use with students at school especially as it applies to the first NETS-T standard of Facilitate and Inspire Student Learning and Creativity.
Jakes, D. S. (2006, December 29). Capturing Stories, Capturing Lives: An Introduction to Digital Storytelling. Retrieved from http://www.jakesonline.org/storytelling.htm
Sasha,
ReplyDeleteGreat post! I did my blog on the same article. I never though digital storytelling could be so interesting. I really liked how you broke down the steps just as Jakes did. He made it very simple for someone to make a digital story. All you have to do is follow his 6 steps. You brought up a very great point about digital citizenship. It is very important for students to know what you should and shouldn't share online.
Sasha,
ReplyDeleteI liked how you organized your blog this week: you incorporated pictures, you highlighted Jake's steps, and you included a lot of information that was broken into logical sections. It looks like you really got a lot from this article, and I look forward to working with you on the digital storytelling project next week.
Sasha,
ReplyDeleteI did the same article as you, and also chose someone else's because of that. But all the pictures kept drawing me in, which will be beneficial for viewers of this blog for the long run. The way you brought up the online safety component was not something I mentioned on my blog. I think Jakes should have at least mentioned it, so that the various teachers utilizing his article would remember as well. And it goes back to digital citizenship and providing students with a positive online environment. That way their learning experience would further benefit as well.
Sasha,
ReplyDeleteI did the same article as you, and also chose someone else's because of that. But all the pictures kept drawing me in, which will be beneficial for viewers of this blog for the long run. The way you brought up the online safety component was not something I mentioned on my blog. I think Jakes should have at least mentioned it, so that the various teachers utilizing his article would remember as well. And it goes back to digital citizenship and providing students with a positive online environment. That way their learning experience would further benefit as well.
Sasha,
ReplyDeleteYour blog is always so much fun to read! I love how you organized stuff this week because you kept it informative but also made it very fun! The pictures and all the fun color really pulled me in! I think that it is great that you pointed out that digital story telling is not just useful for personal narratives but can be used for so much more!