‘I’m telling’: The rise and rise of digital storytelling
In many ways, digital storytelling is an idea whose time
has come. Before we had books, before we even had the written word, we had
story. Story has a great oral tradition, but new technologies have allowed
this oral tradition to be mixed with digital technologies to produce a new
medium. On top of this, software such as iMovie (Mac) and Movie Maker (PC)
have made these digital technologies more accessible (read free and relatively
easy).
Standing room only
The first concurrent session of the day included a seminar on digital story telling. A joint presentation between Robyn Jay NSW LearnScope Project Officer and Lynette Connors and Elizabeth Jones, both teachers in the North Coast Institute, it was standing room only.
So what is a digital story? Robyn explained that a digital story involves the combination of digital images (both still and video), normally a narrated ‘story’ or voice over, and often including music or sound effects. The story is a mini movie that runs for around 2-4 minutes.
'It can be challenging to write a "text" that will be spoken' says Robyn. 'A 2-3 minute movie is only about 250-300 words and it’s important to capture the essence of a story in those words. It’s also challenging to narrate the text in an informal storytelling way. The important thing to remember is how FEW words you can use to tell the story.'
Robyn outlined for us some of the innovative ways that storytelling can be used, including:
- it’s great for motivating learners
- you can present project reports
- creating a portfolio
- capturing student stories
- as an innovative assessment method
- helping those with limited writing skill to ‘have a voice’
It’s also important to think about capturing the images at the time, and also to think laterally about what you can use to compose the story. For example, old photos might seem obvious, but what about taking digital shots of maps, jewelry or medals? Or you could scan in old postcards, sketch books and books. All of these can be combined to tell a story without words.
Lynette Connors and Elizabeth Jones then presented a number of digital stories that had mainly been put together by their learners. These were moving and a great demonstration of how powerful a digital story could be. The room went quiet as we saw images and music combined to form a dramatic commentary on recent events from the point of view of some of their learners.
Lynette feels that story telling is a great learning tool. “Once trust has been established Digital Storytelling can be used to help students with challenging personal journeys”. We saw a story created by a student who had been experiencing depression, and Lynette told us how it had helped her student enormously.
'You’ve got to allow your students to explore – don’t put them in a box.'
Elizabeth uses digital storytelling with her Koori art students. 'The majority of the students don’t have a computer at home and so are a bit hesitant at the start. But when they see what can be achieved by combining the power of storytelling with digital media they are enthusiastic. We’re currently creating individual stories that can be used as a CV. This allows the artist to showcase selected artworks and combine that with their statement, either written or voiced. This way, the story becomes a visual presentation for marketing and documenting their works.'
Although Elizabeth ran out of time to tell us all of the wonderful applications for digital storytelling in the Arts and Media area, she did let us know that she has used it also for the end-of year Diploma presentation, for working with learners in the local community with an intellectual disability, and for learners studying the Certificate of General Vocational Education (CGVE).
'Technology races ahead, presenting us all with more questions than there are answers – it’s important that we maximise the potential of digital storytelling but also make sure that technology is seen as a tool to help us tell stories and doesn’t take over the main focus of learning.'
For related papers and audio files, see:
Telling Tales: a peek into the world of Digital Storytelling
