World 2-3: Digital Storytelling
Like mobile devices and online learning spaces, digital storytelling was something that I had in repertoire in my teaching practise, but was somewhat undeveloped. I had previously used Storybird as a way of engaging my students in telling creative stories. However, I was eager to expand my digital storytelling horizons, and so I made sure I enrolled in ETEC 532 (Technology in the Humanities and Arts Classroom) to learn more.
Upon entering the world of digital storytelling, I realized that there are two sides to it – reading and writing. I wrongly assumed that digital storytelling could only be for writing – of course students could be just as engaged with reading. However, when I say reading, I am not referring to eBooks or PDFs. I am referring to multimodal digital stories.
Multimodal is a term that is used when describing digital resources that employ more than one media type. For example, a multimodal digital story might include sound effects, video, music, etc. They may be given choices to navigate through a story. They are elements that make the stories more interactive and engaging.
Lambert (2010), of the Center of Digital Storytelling, lists 7 essential elements to create or assess an effective story: Point of View, Dramatic Question, Emotional Content, Voice, Soundtrack, Pacing, and Economy. I tried my hand at creating a couple of digital stories using Plotagon. Computer-based voices aside, I felt that the resources it provided helped me start to create effective stories. The first story is an entry event for the Socials 8 Blackboard course I described in World 2-2, and the next is an attempt to make the story more interactive by giving the “reader” choices during the story by using the Treehouse editor with Plotagon.
Upon entering the world of digital storytelling, I realized that there are two sides to it – reading and writing. I wrongly assumed that digital storytelling could only be for writing – of course students could be just as engaged with reading. However, when I say reading, I am not referring to eBooks or PDFs. I am referring to multimodal digital stories.
Multimodal is a term that is used when describing digital resources that employ more than one media type. For example, a multimodal digital story might include sound effects, video, music, etc. They may be given choices to navigate through a story. They are elements that make the stories more interactive and engaging.
Lambert (2010), of the Center of Digital Storytelling, lists 7 essential elements to create or assess an effective story: Point of View, Dramatic Question, Emotional Content, Voice, Soundtrack, Pacing, and Economy. I tried my hand at creating a couple of digital stories using Plotagon. Computer-based voices aside, I felt that the resources it provided helped me start to create effective stories. The first story is an entry event for the Socials 8 Blackboard course I described in World 2-2, and the next is an attempt to make the story more interactive by giving the “reader” choices during the story by using the Treehouse editor with Plotagon.
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I was fortunate to be part of a group that desired to explore digital stories in more depth. Below is a link to our OER on what makes an effective digital story, as well as numerous resources for both reading and writing digital stories.
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