Digital Story Telling
Using Photo Story 3, Windows Live Movie Maker, or iMovie
Digital story telling is a concept that every teacher should know about. Its essence is about telling stories that are enhanced with digital images. What is most important about digital storytelling, as Jeannie Biddle says, “It is not about the product, it is about the process”, and the process is really the writing of the story. One of the easiest ways to create a digital story is to use a piece of free software from Microsoft called Photo Story 3.
Pre-Assess your skills for this "Thing"
Using Photo Story 3
DISCLAIMER: Photo Story 3 can only be downloaded to a computer that is running either Microsoft Operating System XP, Vista, or Windows 2000. If you are using Windows 7, you will need to download Windows Live Movie Maker 2011. This is the "upgrade" to both Photostory 3 and Windows Movie Maker, both of which can be used on computers with older Windows operating systems. If you have a computer with an Apple Operating system that isn't able to run it, we have provided a link to tutorials for iMovie11 below.
Aligned to NETS-T: 1.a, 1.b, 1.c, 2.a, 2.c, 2.d, 3.a, 3.c, 3.d, 4.b
Connections to Marzano Strategies: Summarizing and note Taking; Non-Linguistic Representations; Cues, Questions and Advanced Organizers
The Digital Story Telling process involves:
-What is it going to be about? What type of story are you telling? What is your own connection to the story?
7 elements of a story: Tutorial
Adapted from StoryCenter.org
1. Point of View - what is your point? What is the goal?
2. Dramatic Question - the action, tension, central desire...
3. Emotional Content or paradigm - inspirational, love, loneliness, friendship...
4. Gift of your voice - your audio recording (practice and relax, be conversational)
5. Power of soundtrack - music, sound effects, your own lyrical narration (watch copyright)
6. Economy - the sequence of events, images, text - (keep it simple)
7. Pacing - the rhythm, planned and telling pauses, starts and stops
Write the story
-Topics can range from personal, to fictional and everything in-between. Make sure to check out the links below for ideas.
- A good idea is to not have pictures in mind before the writing starts.
Keep it to no more than one page using any basic font, 12 pt, double spaced. That will keep a story in the 2.5 – 3.5 minute range.
Create a storyboard
-Keep this as simple as possible (sample below).
-Think of images that will enhance the writing. They may be photographs, drawings or any images that will emphasis points in the story.
-Use a graphic organizer to help, such as Webspiration, bubbl.us, or gliffy (see 'thing 8' -Visual Learning).
Click this link for free storyboard downloads.
Make the movie
-Include music to enhance the story. A good idea is to not use music that includes lyrics and make sure to follow all copyright rules. To get started, we will focus on using Photo story 3 however you may use any program you wish.
From this link (PS3 Download), install it on your computer and watch the video to learn how easy it is to use. They also have a 5 page tutorial located on their site titled: "Create your first photo story." Their tutorial covers: Opening Photo Story, importing and arranging your pictures, adding a title to your pictures, narrating them, adding background music, saving your story, and viewing your story. Here's another link for Photo Story 3 Frequently Asked Questions.
Video Tutorial for Photo Story 3
Click on the image to view the video.
Great Photostory 3 resource link: click here
| photostory.pdf |
Video Tutorials for iMovie
21 Things Hands-On Activity and Assignment:
1. Before beginning this "Thing", complete the Pre-Assessment of your technology proficiency.
2. Create a storyboard for your project. Include a screenshot or copy with your portfolio.
3. Choose one of the resources listed to create a short 2-3 minute video that includes title, content, transitions and music. Post your digital story to your Face of the Classroom site; provide the URL for the site.
4. Write about two ways digital storytelling can be used in your classroom or educational setting to help meet multiple means of expression.
5. Include some feedback from a student or a peer about your project and what suggestions for improvement were recommended in your reflection.
6. After completing all of the activities for this "Thing", take the Post-Assessment of your technology proficiency for this "Thing".
Post-Assess your skills for this "Thing"
Additional Resources
1. For more resources on Digital Story Telling go to: http://delicious.com/cmccarthy and select the tag for DigitalStoryTelling (no spaces).
2. You can copyright your work by going to the Creative Commons site and review the different licenses available to put on your work. As students begin to publish their stories on the Internet, it is helpful to teach them about the process of copyrighting their works as well as the different options available.
3. Check out VoiceThread, Roxio Photoshow, PhotoPeach as other great resources to create Digital Stories. These programs are completely online and require no software to download.
4. Another great resource for Digital Story Telling is a site from ePals that publishes digital stories from around the world, and also promotes classroom pairing to share stories directly with each other, through a defined project. This project is all available at no cost to schools worldwide.
5. Some music resources: incompetech royalty free (search by genre), Soundzabound royalty free for education, RoyaltyFreeMusic.com royalty free music for education, historical music that is copyright free.
6. YouTube.com/create has links to several other sites that include some creative options to creating digital stories online, including Xtranormal, GoAnimate, and Stupeflix.
7. If you have Windows XP or Vista, Windows Movie Maker is a program that usually comes standard on PC machines. Similar to Mac's iMovie, drag and drop photos, add transitions, and create a digital story. Here is a link to Microsoft's tutorial for Movie Maker.
21 Things for 21st Century Educators by CCRESA, IISD, MISD, SRESD is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.
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Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at http://21things4teachers.net/. Page updated August 30, 2011.
