Digital Storytelling - NYSCATE

David Jakes described the incredible power of using digital storytelling for students to express themselves. Stories are emotional and therapeutic in nature. The power of digital storytelling lies in the emotional impact of an individuals story. Jakes mentioned that the digital images are ideal for the brain which is hardwired with millions of neurons in the optical nerves for visual stimulation.

NUTS & BOLTS
Digital storytelling is comprised of writing, voice, still frame imagery, video, music and of course a story to tell. Using 20-25 images and a single music track students create a 2-3 minute video to convey a personal story. Use of black space, text, transitions & title slides adds motion to the still photos. Jakes continued by describing the use of flickr and Creative Commons licenses and adding a slide at the end of the show citing the source of the images and photos. Students can download .mp3 music through FreePlayMusic to use in their story. Jakes supplies many tools and resources to start digital storytelling on his website.

What's amazing is that all the tools to do this are available for free. Microsoft has PhotoStory 3 available. With the release of the video iPod these stories can then be converted into a format for vodcasting. Following the session we discussed how to realistically start with digital storytelling. Ideas were to start with a free, simple to use application like PhotoStory 3 with elementary age students. In middle school students could use iMovie or MovieMaker and in high school students can use higher end software such as Adobe Premiere

For more about digital storytelling check out The Center for Digital Storytelling.