The Process of Making and Teaching Digital Storytelling

Porter, Bernajean (2007). Seven Steps for Digital Storytelling. Retrieved April 4, 2008, from the 21st Century Connections Web site: http://21centuryconnections.com/node/234

Digital Storytelling (DS) has been a neat way to tailor my interests in visual literacy, especially in the form of developing productive writers. My neat find today is a place that gets me started on my quest to learn more about DS. I have been looking for a set of steps or guidelines to walk through the process of making DS in the classroom effectively. This site showed a 7-step process including time frames and tasks to create a DS in the educational environment. An overview of the 7 steps are:

1)Writing a script-creating a memorable story, brainstorming, editing, conferencing with student about writing (6-8 hrs over a week)

2)Planning the project-a handwritten storyboard of the students outline for the project…this step involves almost making a ‘comic strip’ of their project BEFORE they get on the computer to plan out pictures, voice, music, etc. This requires conferencing also along with about 2-3 hours during a week.

3)Organizing folders-Creating a folder on a computer before starting the project ensures all of the media (pictures, video, music clips) are located in one place to make the process of the DS easier. Students should collect all of their materials and store in a folder. (15+ minutes)

4)Recording voiceovers-It is wise to record students voiceovers before they begin. Ensure they are using good fluency and expression to gain their purpose for the story. Voice can be recorded in many programs such as Audacity (which is free) and saved for later use. (30min to 1 hour during a week)

5)Gather, create, and edit media resources-Students should now put their materials into their software utilizing tools to edit photos, add media sounds, and recognize the power of the way things are laid out to tell their story. (5-6 hours over a week)

6)Finalizing project-This 6th step is geared for students to tweak their projects to edit timing and effects. This involves paying attention to titles (words on their slides), the effects of how the music accompanies the pictures and voice, and how everything works together to tell their story. (3-4 hours over a week)

7)Finale-The story is now ready to share and be discussed. Students should observe others’ stories and discuss the key components of what makes it effective and how it can be improved.

The author of the article did mention that 7 steps are not always the best way to work through the DS process because it ‘should be a creative process that may take turns unpredicted’ (Porter, 2007). DS is a creature that can be created a million different ways and is purposefully supposed to be a creative outlet of sharing a story. However, I still found these 7 steps as a great tool to begin figuring out how to go about starting to use DS in the classroom.

As I continue to search about DS, I would like to find examples to use to share thoughts with students to guide their creations of their own DS.
Annette