Digital storytelling is a short form of digital media production that enables individuals to create and distribute their narratives through online platforms. The method is frequently used in schools, museums, libraries, social work and health settings, and communities. They are thought to have educational, democratizing and therapeutic effects.
Digital storytelling is the practice of using digital media tools to tell stories, such as images, audio, videos, animation, and text to effectively tell a story. It focuses on emotional engagement, artistic endeavors, personal expression, and creativity. This combines narrative elements such as (characters, setting, plot, emotion). It represent creative freedom and emotional expression: Not bound to data and can include fiction, personal stories, cultural traditions, or advocacy messages.
Digital storytelling is a community-based activity and should be distinguished from electronic literature, which is a literary movement where genres include hypertext fiction, digital poetry, interactive fiction, generative literature, and from other forms of digital narrative, for instance in video games or fan fiction.
Introduction "Digital stories" are "short vignettes that combine storytelling with still pictures, video clips, music, and text using a variety of video software".
Digital stories often present in compelling and emotionally engaging formats, and can be interactive. The media used may include the digital equivalent of film techniques, stills, audio only, or any of the other forms of non-physical media (material that exists only as electronic files as opposed to actual paintings or photographs on paper, sounds stored on tape or disc, movies stored on film) which individuals can use to tell a story or present an idea.
The term "digital storytelling" is sometimes also used more broadly to cover a range of digital narratives (web-based stories, interactive stories, hypertexts, and narrative computer games); It is sometimes used to refer to film-making in general, and as of late, it has been used to describe advertising and promotion efforts by commercial and non-profit enterprises.
Digital storytelling is enable people to share personal experiences and creative narratives with digital media. This newer form of storytelling emerged with the advent of accessible media production techniques, hardware and software, including but not limited to digital cameras, digital voice recorders, iMovie, Microsoft Photos, Final Cut Express and WeVideo. These new technologies allow individuals to share their stories over the Internet on YouTube, Vimeo, compact discs, podcasts, and other electronic distribution systems.
Digital storytelling has been described as an extension of traditional storytelling which incorporates digitized still images, moving images and sounds. Digital technologies are also enable narratives to be presented from different perspectives. Many people use elaborate non-traditional story forms, such as non-linear and interactive narratives.
Simply put, digital stories are multimedia presentations that combine a variety of communicative elements within a narrative structure. Media may include any combination of the following: text, images, video, audio, social media elements (like tweets), or interactive elements (like maps).
Digital stories may be used as an expressive medium within the classroom to integrate subject matter with extant knowledge and skills from across the curriculum. Students can work individually or collaboratively to produce their own digital stories. These stories can be published on the internet, if desired.
Development
Digital storytelling has been used by Ken Burns, in the documentary The Civil War, cited as one of the first models of this genre. In his documentary, Burns used first-person accounts that served to reveal the heart and emotions of this tragic event in American history, as well as narration, archival images, modern cinematography, and music (Sylvester & Greenidge, 2009).
The "short narrated films" definition of digital storytelling comes from a production workshop by Dana Atchley at the American Film Institute in 1993 that was used for training by the San Francisco Bay Area-based StoryCenter (formerly the Center for Digital Storytelling).
Components
Digital stories can combine still images, moving images, sound, text and interactive features. Unlike traditional forms of storytelling, they may use nonlinear structures that allow audiences to interact with the content. These different forms of media provide creators with several ways to organise and present a narrative. Interactive features may also change how authors and audiences experience a story.
Digital stories can be created with computers, digital cameras, audio recorders, smartphones and editing software. They may include photographs, written text, audio, voice-over narration, hyperlinks and video. Finished stories can be shared through the internet, podcasts, discs and other electronic media. Programs such as iMovie, Microsoft Photos and WeVideo provide accessible tools for combining media and editing a digital story.
In educational settings, students can select from a range of technical tools when creating digital stories. The production process may involve learning new software, selecting images, editing video, recording voice-over narration, adding music, creating title screens and controlling the sequence and transitions. Digital stories may also include interactive features that allow readers to participate. For example, users may click on images or text to choose what happens next, activate an event or access related online content.
Additionally, distinctions may be drawn between Web 2.0 storytelling and that of digital storytelling. Web 2.0 storytelling is said to produce a network of connections via social networking, blogging, and YouTube that transcends beyond the traditional, singular flow of digital storytelling. It tends to "aggregate large amounts of microcontent and creatively select patterns out of an almost unfathomable volume of information," therefore the bounds of Web 2.0 storytelling are not necessarily clear.
Another form of digital storytelling is the micromovie, which is "a very short exposition lasting from a few seconds to no more than 5 minutes in length. It allows the teller to combine personal writing, photographic images or video footage, narrative, sound effects, and music. Many people, regardless of skill level, are able to tell their stories through image and sound and share those stories with others."
Telling a digital story combines a narrative, whether it be fiction or non fiction, personal or general, and digital media. Digital media includes imaging, video, sound and all other forms of media then can be portrayed visually, the most simple of digital stories can even be a power point. The point is to convey a message through imagery, which a lot of times can be more effective than if just conveyed through sound. Another outlet for digital storytelling can be articulated through some social media sites such as Facebook and Instagram, where one might be constantly posting images accompanied by captions in order to portray the story of one's life. "A story can be as short as explaining how one misplaced one's keys in the morning or as long as a multivolume autobiography." The wonderful thing about telling a digital story is that there really are no rules. However, there are certain guidelines that are tried and true over time that make up better stories. The most important rule is don't be boring, tell a good story and the "truth" of a "story" lies in a process not the content. Joe Lambert and others who work at Storycenter and other places around the world train people in how to improve their stories during digital storytelling workshops by writing out the story and discussing many options of connecting with the material before recording it in a digital format and editing it into video. When one wants to capture the attention of one's audience, it is important to be passionate about the themes and or characters when telling any story. In order to sell the story, regardless of the medium, the artist may need to ask oneself about what stories could be more compelling before relating the story to others. Some of the best stories begin with one's own personal insights in order to find an interesting and profound dramatic story. It also has more personal stories to tell.
Uses in education The StoryCenter (formerly the Center for Digital Storytelling) model has also been adopted in education, especially in the US, sometimes as a method of building engagement and multimedia literacy. For example, the Bay Area Video Coalition and Youthworx Media Melbourne, the UK social enterprise Noise Solution Noise Solution and the Belgian non-profit Maks vzw employ digital storytelling to engage and empower young people at risk.
Uses in primary and secondary education
"The idea of merging traditional storytelling with today's digital tools is spreading worldwide." Anybody today with a computer can create a digital story simply by answering such questions as "What do you think? What do you feel? What is important? How do we find meaning in our lives?" Most digital stories focus on a specific topic and contain a particular point of view. "These topics can range from personal tales to the recounting of historical events, from exploring life in one's own community to the search for life in other corners of the universe and every story in between."
For primary grades the focus is related to what is being taught, a story that will relate to the students. For primary grades the story is kept under five minutes to retain attention. Vibrant pictures, age-appropriate music and narration are needed. Narration accompanied by subtitles can also help build vocabulary. Content-related digital stories can help upper-elementary and middle-school students understand abstract or layered concepts. For example, in one 5th grade class a teacher used digital storytelling to depict the anatomy of the eye and describe its relationship to a camera. A fifth grader said, "This year I have learned that places are not just physical matter but emotional places in peoples' hearts. iMovie has made all my thoughts and feelings come alive in an awesome movie."
These aspects of digital storytelling, pictures, music, and narration reinforce ideas and appeal to different learning types. Teachers can use it to introduce projects, themes, or any content area, and can also let their students make their own digital stories and then share them. Teachers can create digital stories to help facilitate class discussions, as an anticipatory set for a new topic, or to help students gain a better understanding of more abstract concepts. These stories can become an integral part of any lesson in many subject areas. Students can also create their own digital stories and the benefits that they can receive from it can be quite plentiful. Through the creation of these stories students are required to take ownership of the material they are presenting. They have to analyze and synthesize information as well. All of this supports higher-level thinking. Students are able to give themselves a voice through expressing their own thoughts and ideas.