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The New Narrative 

Long ago, people relied on their voices to tell stories. The storyteller knew just how to pronounce this word or that, where to place vocal emphasis, when to pause, how to tell the story best. Our narratives were born of experience, protected by memory, expressed with our voices and then passed down from generation to generation. Digital storytelling marks a return to this simple, yet powerful expression of the events and emotions that populate our histories as individuals and as communities. It incorporates the ancient tradition of oral narrative and places it within a computerized context blending together voice, music, photography, text, etc... Digital storytelling is a medium where worlds meet to clarify meaning and tell stories about who we are, where we come from, and where we are going in a new and unique way.  

What is digital storytelling, though?  Like telling any story, digital storytelling is a process.  However, it’s not only oral; it’s not only words written on a page; it’s more than vivid images, and it’s more than music.  Digital storytelling is a combination of them all.  The story teller can word process a story, then orally record it into their computer as a narration.  Following, the narrated story can be matched with pictures that are either found on the internet, or scanned into a computer.  The story can be further enhanced by the addition of music. The storyteller can combine the narration and pictures with a track of music that seems to suit the established mood of the story.  When all of these things are done, the storyteller will have more than a story.  He or she will have a digital story.

Digital storytelling software such as Windows MovieMaker offers students a new tool for self-expression and is an exciting creative outlet.  With possible applications for all writing styles (expository, poetry, personal narrative, etc.), digital storytelling has the advantage of letting students make choices that shape the artistic expression of their piece.  When the topic or format of writing is dictated by the curriculum or educator, students may find the opportunities for choice in digital storytelling both empowering and motivating.  Digital storytelling may be just the tech-tool to breathe new life into writing--a task that many students find unpleasant to say the least!

Students uncomforfatble with speaking before their peers may find digital storytelling tool refreshing. It offers them a venue to demonstrate their creativity and originality without the stress of live performance.  Students are not only able to showcase their creativity, they are also able to portray the same topic from diverse perspectives.  This can be particularly useful for voicing historically unpopular perspectives. While one of the great things about digital story telling is that it allows students a myriad of ways to express creativity, another wonderful part about using digital story telling in the classroom is that it allows students to learn on different levels.  Digital story telling appeals to multiple intelligences.  Whether the students are learning from a teacher created digital story, or the students are creating a digital story themselves, this process engages far more than the oft-tried, teacher-lecture, take notes, read the book chapter, and write a paper process.  When ideas are presented to students in a digital story format, the students are engaged via music, narration, captions, and pictures; presenting ideas in all of these manners appeals to many of the students’ intelligences and preferred ways of learning. For instance, a student can incorporate his or her own illustrations and/or photographs.  This provides a way for the those students who feel more comfortable expressing their ideas in ways other than simple words on a page to demonstrate what they have learned, and to create and synthesize based on what they’ve learned.  Also, students can incorporate music to convey a mood, idea, theme, character, or many other things.  Additionally, the ability to narrate, provide subtitles and/or captions provides a way for those students who do best express themselves  through words to show what they have learned, or share what they want others to know.  Students work on their weaknesses and fortify their strengths because digital story telling requires them to communicate ideas in such a wide variety of ways.  

How To Create a Digital Story

1. The first step in creating a digital story, is to come up with the story that you want to tell.  Prior to organizing our thoughts through a storyboard (which is explained in point #2), it is vital that you scan the range of possibilities of what to tell a story about.  Thus, consider using these helpful questions to help you brainstorm a story and begin a storyboard (these questions are not to be used as a check-list but as a choose and pick a question that may help stimulate your creativity):
   1. What is the purpose for the creation of the digital story?
   2. Does the digital story satisfy an assignment that mandates a particular theme or concept to be expressed?
   3. Does the creation of the digital story permit free range of topic and expression?
   4. Is there a story you desire to express?  What is it?
   5. Who is your audience?
   6. What pictures capture the ideas or expressions of your story?
   7. What is the style of music that will accentuate, not distract, the story?
   8. Do you have a picture "worth a thousand words" that you can use as a foundation for your digital story?
   9. What inspires you?
   10. What inspires the desired audience of your digital video?
   11. What do you desire your story to accomplish?  (ex: moral lesson, emotional tone, model of personal narrative, entertainment, gift to a loved one, etc.)
   12. Is the story true or fiction?
   13. What is a personal goal you have and desire to capture within a story?
   14. Is there a story you've wanted to tell but have lacked the courage to share it personally?
2. Digital storytelling is at heart about the story you have to tell. Here is Ira Glass, one of NPR's best storytellers, talking about his craft:

          http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n7KQ4vkiNUk

          http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3qmtwa1yZRM

1. Once you have some ideas jotted down and some mental direcetion to your story, you are ready to begin a storyboard.  A great way to further organize your thoughts is through the use of storyboards. Storyboards allow you to organize both your pictures and your dialog into a chronological order (ie.... first, second, third, ......). If you think you have a good idea for a story, jot down the events, what pictures you may use, and what you could say.  An easy way to make a storyboard is to create a blank PowerPoint presentation and print it in the notes format with three slides per page, including the lines on the right-hand side to take notes. Students can import their photos into the PowerPoint presentation or write a description of the pictures on blank slides--both methods are equally effective.
2. Take or find pictures/videos that correspond to your storyboard and import them all into one folder on your desktop. It is extremely important that you place a copy of all videos, pictures, and audio onto your computer in a folder rather than just importing them staight into movie maker from a CD or thumbdrive because once you remove the CD or thumbdrive, the movie maker will not be able to locate the media.  Then, import them into movie maker, or another comparable application.
3. Drag pictures to a selected spot on Movie Maker's story board, and add transitions and effects (these applications are found under "Edit Movie" on the toolbar),  as desired. It is wise to use these effects sparingly if you are using a free software such as MovieMaker because they may freeze up the program.
4. For narrations simply click the add narration icon (found in windows systems  under accesories-entertainment-soundrecorder), and with either your built-in mic or an attachment tell your story-- you may want to do this in smaller increments and meld them together after they are complete. Save each audiofile in the folder on your desktop you have designated for this project. Once you have saved these audiofiles you can import them into Moviemaker just as you did the photos.
5. Save your work as a project and be sure to save often! You do not save as a movie until the next step. It is wise to keep all the saved projects and movies for a single digital story in the designated folder. SO SAVE OFTEN! SAVE OFTEN! SAVE OFTEN!
6. Once you line the pictures and narrations up as needed you may decide to add a title and credits. This application is found under "Edit Movie" in the toolbar. It is particularly important to  add credits if you have used someone elses pictures or music in order to be in compliance the copyright laws.
7. When you feel you are satisfied with the quality of your picture, then save your project as a movie. This will allow the project to open direct in Windows Media Player format.  Note that you will not be able to edit the project when it is open in Windows Media Player.  Please note that some versions of MovieMaker do not have the "Save as Movie"  option, and you will need to choose "Publish Movie"  instead.
8. If you want to add music, open a new project in Movie Maker, drag the video (movie) you just made, and insert the music under audio (this is where your narrations were on the first video).  The music must be in the MP3 format in order for it to be compatible with Movie Maker. The Apple I-Tunes format will not be recognized. You also want to make sure to adjust the volume of the music added to ensure that your narration is audible in all parts of the movie. You can do this by right clicking on the audio stream and selecting 'Volume' from the pop up menu. 
9. Save as a movie again, save to a CD-R or flash drive for easy transport or for safe-keeping, and you are done. 

Classroom Benefits

• With the use of multimedia, students are encouraged to apply their knowledge of a subject to their own experiences and emotions.  
• Digital storytelling enhances learning through authentic, creative, real-world experiences, and publications.
• Digital storytelling appeals to all learner types: auditory, kinesthetic, and visual.
• Digital storytelling gives you another method for assessment that is new, fun, and a good way to grasp what your students have learned.
• Students that complete a digital storyelling project not only become more familiar with the content covered in the project but also learn a marketable skill- how to use multimedia applications.
• Digital storytelling allows a creative input, especially in subject areas where creativity is not fostered through daily lessons (e.g. math).
• When you share the projects, students are able to see how the concept can be applied in many ways with many outcomes. It adds to the depth of information students experience.
• It enhances the classroom community because students can relate to the experiences and emotions of others.
• Digital storytelling also gives students a voice that otherwise may never be heard. 
• Digital storytelling also allows students to see what they may have never seen.
• Digital storytelling enables the teacher to create instructional videos for students, clarifying instructions, reviewing content, teaching new concepts, or demonstrating skills.
• Digital stories can be shared within the school, with other schools across the nation or even worldwide as a means of collaboration. 

Helpful Hints

Best practice before assigning and giving a deadline for any project or writing piece is to give students time to brainstorm ideas and pre-write. Likewise, creating a digital story requires a lot of pre-thought and planning. It is critical that a story board process is undertaken BEFORE students begin working in the movie maker tool. Story boarding allows the student to think through the story, while understanding how the words of the story can be paired with the images of the story. It also allows a lot of major early "editing" to the story before it actually gets constructed in the tool.

Digital storytelling should occur after students have become familiar with the process and have completed the story that they will use for the project. This best fits at the end of a unit or grading period. Before students even begin a digital storytelling project, the teacher should model how to use the technological tools needed for the assignment. Having an example digital story, particularly one created by a student if possible, will help set the expectations for the assignment. This type of project would work very well in a language arts classroom, especially for a unit on short stories or personal narratives.

If you are planning a digital storytelling project for the whole class, it might be useful to designate some computer-savvy students as class helpers.  Give these students some prior experience with the program you're using so that they can help their classmates with some of the simpler problems they might encounter while they put their stories together.  Remember to ask for volunteers for this task. Nothing is worse than a disgruntled student "helper".There will probably be a limited amount of time you and your class have to complete these projects and having some students on hand to help answer questions will enable you to use your available time more efficiently. If it is the first time most of your students have used this application, you will want to give your students a longer frame of time to complete their projects since it will take them some time to learn how to navigate and use the application.  Any movie maker projects assigned after the first should only take your students half as long to complete since they have acclimated to the application.

You may even want to break the class into sections so they are not all creating a Movie about the same topic area. The complication of the videos at the end of the year could make great material for the final class days of the year! They will be providing a review of the class for the class.

If you are a PC user, all music must be in an MP3 file format.  Sometimes this requires reminding the students as I spents quite some time trying to figure out why the song that I transferred from a CD to my computer would not import to the moviemaker project.  It might seem intuitive to those who are music junkies but I wasn't making the connection.  Same goes for any song you get from ITunes; the song(s) will not import unless you have converted them to a MP3 file.  I actually did an internet search on how to do this and there it was.....step by step instruction on how to convert my iTune song to MP3 file.  Also, I recommend that anyone who gets stuck or can't figure out why something is not working right with their movie maker project just do an internet search.  It is amazing how you can put in a few words to Google search and find a wealth of information and troubleshooting!!a

The playback screen on Movie Maker is small. The product looks and sounds different once it is viewed on Windows Media Player. Allow enough time to edit sound and effects, so that students can create a quality product they will be excited to share with others. 

Movie Maker has its limitations.  One problem is that the program has a tendency to "freeze" if it is trying to process too many commands at the same time.  Scrolling for instance, especially scrolling through the timeline often causes the program to become unresponsive.  If the project has not been saved recently, the most recent changes will have been lost.  Often, when the program is restarted, MovieMaker asks if it should recover an automatically saved version of the project.  This is both a good thing (when the program saved recent changes automatically) and a negative (the auto-save saved a version of the project without recent changes and previous changes are lost).  The best way to prevent this is to save often and to do only a few tasks at a time between saves.

Some students may not have access to downloadable music, digital cameras, or other tools that are often used. Encourage them to use the class computer and assure them that there are many ways to enhance a story outside of fancy songs and photostock pictures.  You may also keep a couple flash drives in your classroom with a variety of music and pictures to assist kids who do not have access to these materials.  You may want to encourage students who don't have access to a digital camera to draw their own pictures for the story that can be scanned into the computer. Pictures can also be imported from other parts of the Internet. Of course all copy written material must be cited. Being able to import pictures from other parts of the Internet expands the possibilites of your digital story.

Remember planning is key to making a successful digital story.  It is extremely important that students gather photos, video clips, and music beforehand.  Also, students need to have a written script and or storyboard before being allowed to enter the lab.  This will ensure that students are not wasting time while in the lab.  The entire process of putting a movie together takes a long time, and lab time must be used efficiently in order to ensure that everyone gets finished.

It is also a good idea to have a movie to show the students before they get started. It will give them an idea of what they are going to doing. If you just tell them they are making a movie but don't show them an example of a digital story, they may not understand what exactly they are supposed to create, and not knowing what the finished product should look like and accomplish could make the process difficult.  It also allows the teacher to share something that could be personal with the class. Movie Maker can create great classroom community and allows students to get to know others. better. This could be a great activity to use at the beginning of class to introduce students to each other in the class. 

Interesting Uses:

• "Get to know you" activity: the teacher can create a digital movie to introduce himself/herself to the class.  This can be a model for the students.  The students can create digital stories introducing themselves to the teacher and the class.
• Cumulative projects: students can compile pictures, drawings, text, and audio to show what they have learned during a unit.
• Group projects: digital storytelling can be an option for student group presentations.
• Digital storytelling can also be used for extracurricular activities. Student athletes could be introduced to their respective sport with a digital story outlining the rules, regulations, and expectations of the commitment.