Introducing Digital Storytelling

Digital Creativity, RSC London 23rd May 2012

Why are stories important? Stories play an important part in learning as well as life in general. Stories are:

Universal – we seem to have an innate understanding of story which makes them a good tool for communicating, especially between different groups.

Social – stories are meant to be told. In doing so they enhance communication between people, build relationships and create opportunities of social constructive learning

Sense Making – we use stories to make sense of a complicated world. For millennia we’ve used myths, parables, fables etc. to communicate highly nuanced messages in a simple way. Telling stories helps us to explain ourselves or what we have learnt.

Memorable – remembering abstract concepts is difficult but by presenting ideas in stories we deliver them in a package that someone can easily remember and recall later.

Entertaining – stories should be about getting an audience to respond emotionally.

What is digital Storytelling? Simply, it is the telling of the story by combining various pieces of digital media. That’s all there is to it.

The idea was first developed in the US by Joe Lambert and Dana Atchley at what would become The Centre for Digital Storytelling (CDS - http:// http://www.storycenter.org). They saw the possibilities of using simple technology to help people tell their stories without having the skills to use the complicated equipment and software professional media producers used.

So long as you are telling a story through digital means it qualifies as digital storytelling. Here are a few of the more common forms

Narrated slideshows This is the most common view of what DS should be. It’s the model that was developed by CDS. Using software like Moviemaker or iMovie you can layer images on top of a recorded piece of narrative and add in other elements like text, sound and music. Traditionally, these tend to be around 2-5 minutes long and don’t use video, just still images.

Introducing Digital Storytelling

© JISC Netskills 2012 1

Group storytelling Voicethread (http://voicethread.com) allows users to upload documents, videos, images and sounds into a basic slideshow format, then other users can add their own comments via text, webcam or mic so that a group commentary is created around the uploaded media

Map stories Google Maps and Google Earth allow you to annotate places with text, simple diagrams and embedded media. It’s possible to build up narratives about places, for example following a field trip, or creating virtual guided tours.

Social Media Storytelling Reflective blogging is a form of digital storytelling, albeit one that can rely quite heavily on text. Likewise Facebook, Twitter and Linked In can be a repository for stories. Consider using a tool like Storify (http://storify.com) to collate Tweets, Facebook updates, Youtube videos, Flickr Images etc and create a story out of them by adding interpretive text.

Stories of Things Combining QR codes attached to objects and digital media hosted on the internet you can create simple augmented reality stories. Tools like Aurasma (http://aurasma.com) have object recognition technology that can dispense with the need for QR codes.

Introducing Digital Storytelling

2 © JISC Netskills 2012

Creating a conducive atmosphere For most people, expressing themselves in story doesn’t come naturally but usually because of lack of practice.

Don’t try storytelling as a single one off activity. Build up towards it using smaller creative activities. Repeat the process as well. People get better at it the more they try.

Keep early activities “low focus”. People can find sharing their creative work with large groups intimidating. Gradually encourage people to share with larger audiences.

Welcome liberal interpretations of the brief. So long as it meets things like assessment criteria, is done ethically and has minimum acceptable standards it can be good to encourage creative approaches.

Encourage peer to peer feedback and assessment. Storytelling is a community activity.

Play to your learners’ digital strengths. They need to focus on the story and if the learning curve for the technology is too steep then this will detract from that.

Take your time – creating a short digital story of about 2-3mins can take days. A good rule of thumb is to spend 1-2 days working on the script, then 2 days creating and refining the digital media.

Be a storyteller – the best way to understand the process is to do it yourself. Also, if your learners see you incorporating into your own practice it will give them confidence in you.

Inspiring stories It can be difficult to identify where people’s stories are. Some techniques to try:

Start with a single image or object – what is about the thing or the picture that is important. Does it spark a memory of a person or significant event?

Draw a timeline or temperature graph – if you are dealing with a long stretch of time you don’t want to get bogged down telling the story of the whole thing. A temperature graph can be used to show mood over the course of an event. Ask where were the sudden dips or highs were, where did you move from negative to positive or vice versa. What happened at each of those points? That’s usually where the most interesting stories can be found.

Where was the point of no return? With historical events or personal narratives outcomes depend on a range of choices and circumstances. Try asking someone to pick what they thought was the point of no return, where was the crucial choice made after which what happened was inevitable.

Describe a journey – Tolstoy said that great literature is made of 2 stories: a stranger comes to town or a person goes on a journey. At the end of the journey the person is transformed somehow. Some of the best reflective storytelling is about this transformational journey; what happened and how did it change you?

Unsung hero, hidden villain – stories rely quite heavily on people other than the storyteller having an effect on the narrative. This could be a kindly mentor that imparts important information that equips someone to succeed (think Yoda) or it could be someone whose actions put hurdles and dangers in the protagonist’s way (think Darth Vader). Who has had that effect on you?

Before and after – ask your leaners to describe a current situation and then predict what it will be like in the future; next week, next year, in 100 years? Good for thinking about personal learning goals.

Constrain the story – deliberately put limits on how a story can be told. Tell a story in 3 pictures or 50 words for example. Sometimes these limits can inspire creative solutions

Introducing Digital Storytelling

© JISC Netskills 2012 3

Story-Writing Tips Focus on people or events - Your audience will relate to the story better than if you focus on abstract ideas

Tell small stories to make a big point – rambling stories that try to cover everything are both difficult to write and harder to listen to.

Leave space for the audience – the audience is an active participant in the story. Don’t try to answer every single question or solve every mystery. If the audience stills has questions at the end of a story it can make it more memorable.

Nail the first and last sentences – You need high impact at the start, so start with a question or something that doesn’t quite make sense on its own, that needs the audience to pay attention to the story to make sense of it. The last sentence should resonate with your audience; if possible it should be something which encapsulates the whole story.

Leave pauses – a relentless barrage of talking can be overwhelming. You need space to breathe as does the audience!

Create tension - Your audience will want to stick with the story to find out what happens

Provide resolution… - Satisfy the audience by resolving the tension with a clear ending.

…or don’t! - Leaving things hanging can spur someone on to do something or raise more questions.

Introducing Digital Storytelling

4 © JISC Netskills 2012

Producing your story These are basic guidelines for creating CDS-style digital stories. Depending on what software you use some of these steps will vary. Make sure you have thoroughly gone through the process yourself and be prepared for the unexpected!

Drafting the script – go through this at least 2 times, each time sharing stories with peers and getting suggestions and encouragement.

Record the final draft – using software like Audacity, create an MP3 of the spoken story. Record in a quiet place and try multiple takes until you think you’ve got the best one. Keep old versions just in case.

Storyboard the digital story – what images are you going to use at each point? What other media (sounds, text etc.) are you going to add in.

Upload the audio – using a timeline-based editor like iMovie, Moviemaker, Adobe Premiere Elements, upload the audio and drag it onto the timeline.

Upload images and sync to the audio – without worrying about transitions and effects for the moment just get the pictures appearing at the right place with the audio.

Add effects – add transitions between images, “Ken Burns” effects and titles. Keep it simple. Dramatic star wipes and fancy fonts will end up detracting from the story. Warning: this is usually the place where everything goes screwy depending on the software you use. Pictures will end up out of sync or glued to each other and difficult to re-sync. Leave plenty of time for sorting this out and warn people it may happen.

Render – while you’re working on your movie it’s effectively a collage of digital media that hasn’t been stuck down properly. You won’t be able to share it or upload it online. You’ll need to “render” the finished item as a movie file like .wmv, .avi, .mpg, .dv, .mov etc. Choosing the right one depends on the software you have and where you’ll be storing the stories. There’s plenty of advice available online.

Share – spend time showcasing the finished stories. It’s important that people have recognition for what they’ve done. It can be an emotional process!