Share thisDigital Stories
About Digital Stories from the BBC Wales Digital Stories page: Digital Stories are short, personal, multimedia scraps of TV that people can make for themselves. They’re ‘mini-movies’. Desktop computers enabled with video editing software are used to synchronise recorded spoken narratives with scans of personal photographs… There’s a strictness to the construction of a Digital Story: 250 words, a dozen or so pictures, and two minutes is the right length. As with poetry these constraints define the form (e.g. a haiku is a poem written using 17 syllables, and the 14 lines of a sonnet are written in iambic pentameter) and it’s the observation of that form which gives the thing its elegance. Daniel Meadows, Lecturer in Participatory Media & Photography Cardiff University School of Journalism, Media and Cultural Studies and former Creative Director of BBC Wales Digital Storytelling.
Watch Digistories: BBC Wales
Watch inspiring digistories from the BBC Wales Capture Wales project, or from the School Shoe Box series.Watch Digistories: DigiTales
Video clips from DigiTales Sydney:“In February 2008, a group of young media leaders were trained in the art of digital storytelling by award-winning UK organisation Hi8us who started the DigiTales project in 2006. Following one week of intensive training, these media makers were then supported to train other young people from Western Sydney to make short films about their lives.”
Make Digistories
One alternative to using computer software such as MovieMaker or iMovie to make a digistory, is to use an online tool such as Voicethread.Digistory information, tutorials and assessment
Alan Levine’s 50+ Web 2.0 Ways To Tell a Story - his 50 Ways to Tell The Dominoe Story illustrates what the same story looks when told using different Web 2.0 tools (he is now up to 63 tools).The Center for Digital Storytelling in California. Some great teaching resources and digital stories to show your class.
The Digital Narrative site by Lightening Bug - great introduction to writing stories in digital media (going beyond the traditional video digi-story), but also full of ideas for story writing and narrative in general.
Silvia Tolisano’s comprehensive series, Digital Storytelling Tools for Educators:
- Part I - Connect, Communicate, Collaborate
- Part II - Available tools
- Part III - PhotoStory Guide
- Part IV - Windows MovieMaker
- Part V - Google Maps
- Part VI - Voicethreads
- Part VII - Mixbooks
- Part VIII - Audacity
- Part IX - Wordle
- Digital Storytelling - Downloadable PDF Files
An assessment rubric for digital storytelling at the Western Massachusetts Writing Project digital storytelling website. Also contains a step-by-step guide on how to make a digital story, including instructions for using MovieMaker.
Steve Shann has created an excellent adaptation of the Western Massachusetts Writing Project rubric - it is worth adding in full below. You can read about how Steve remixed and refined this rubric through online discussion with colleagues on his blog.
