Digital+Storytelling

Digital stories are "mini-movies" created and edited by people like you and your students - using cameras, computers, scanners and their own photo albums. Everyone has a story to tell and new technology means that anyone can create a story that can be shown on a website or in a digital presentation. Most Digital Stories contain a spoken story supplemented by photographs. Some contain small pieces of video footage and a musical background. Photos can be recently taken as part of the workshop or scanned in from old photo albums. Using basic readily available multi-media software the stories are created and then presented to the group and community.
 * What is Digital Storytelling?**

Explore some of these Digital Stories and read more about them online at:

[|http://storycenter.org/stories] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] []

The goal of the workshop is to design and produce a 2-3 minute digital story. Participants craft and record first-person narratives, collect still images and music with which to illustrate their pieces, and are guided through computer tutorials which enable them, with support, to edit their own stories. Prior to the commencement of the workshop students participants involved would have discussed the basis of their story with their teachers and perhaps already completed a first draft. This could be based on an event, person or thing in their life which has had a significant impact on them. Or, it could be based on a place, location, friend, pet, toy or game. Alternatively it could be a précis of their life story. At a minimum, participants should have a rough idea of their story after discussions with the class and teacher and have an idea of what photos etc they would like to illustrate it with. They might have "raided" their family photograph albums to collect possible photos to illustrate their story.
 * The Workshop:**
 * The Steps:**
 * 1) Working together as a group we would listen to, discuss and edit each person’s story. The story would be completed in a hard copy written format ready to be narrated into the Digital Story. The story should be no more than approx 240 words - around 3-5 minutes.
 * 2) The participant should already have in mind the pictures or photos he/she would like to use to illustrate the story. These may have to be photographed now or scanned and then manipulated to get the desired results – (eg enhanced, cropped, movement added)
 * 3) Using movie editing software (Movie Maker or iMovie) or slide editing software (Photo Story or iPhoto) the pictures are imported and set to the desired speed, transition etc
 * 4) Narration is then added along with background music if required. Given enough time participants would be encouraged to create their own music using either Acid Xpress or GarageBand.
 * 5) After fine-tuning the completed Digital Stories are shared with the whole group.