Digital Stories

As described in the article, Constructing Digital Stories, digital stories are pretty much what they sound like; they are a series of digital pictures with narration that tell a story. I think that the story can be narrative or expository. The digital photos can be those taken from a digital camera or photos that have been scanned. The steps as outlined in the article are to write the initial script, plan a storyboard, revise the script, sequence the images using a video editor, add narration, add special effects and add music. I really liked how the article explained and outlined every step clearly. The directions were easy to follow; even for a novice.  The steps also ensured that areas of the writing curriculum (script, storyboard and revision) were addressed and not lost in the excitement of the technology. I thought that the idea of a ?ticket? to enter the computer lab was excellent! I can see using digital stories as a powerful way to motivate reluctant writers.

One of the points that the article made is that teachers rarely have access to all the equipment and this is so true! However, the steps as they are outlined, allow for students to be at different stages during the process, so the whole class does not need to be using the equipment at the same time---some may be still working on their story board when others are ready to edit. When I was reading the article, I was wondering if you couldn?t use PowerPoint. Our school doesn?t own iMovie or MovieMaker, but we have PowerPoint on the network, so each student has access to it. It wouldn?t have the fancy transitions, but they can sort and organize the images in the storyboard mode. I have never added recorded sound to a PowerPoint, but I believe it has the capabilities with an external microphone. 

Next year I plan to try digital stories with my 3-5th graders using PowerPoint. I would like to have the students create narratives based on the character traits. The stories could take place in school and their peers could be the characters. I think that they would love acting in each others stories and taking the photos for them. It would also make the digital stories realistic and authentic. For the lower grades, I might try creating concept books for numbers or the alphabet.  Another idea for 3-5 would be to create simple digital stories that take place around the school and give them to our ESL teacher. Very often the older ESL students are at a much lower reading level then their intellectual and emotional level and the books that they have are babyish. Digital stories could involve students their own age in stories that interest them. We could even ask the ESL teacher for essential vocabulary to use in the stories.

The only problem that I found with the article is that I am a visual learner and would have liked to have seen examples of the stories that were created. I would have liked to know some of the subjects that the students choose to write about and how they used photos to illustrate. 

Posted at 06:03PM Jun 15, 2006 by LEOUSIS, REBECCA in General  |  Comments[0]