1. Digital Storytelling
Ningchun Han, Ed.D
Office of InstructionalTechnology
Purdue University Calumet

2. What is digital storytelling?
 Digital storytelling is the practice of
combining narrative with digital content,
including images, sound, and video, to
create a short movie, typically with a
strong emotional component.

3. Seven Elements of A Good Digital Story
 Point ofView
◦ What is the main point of the story and what is
the perspective of the author?
 Dramatic Question
◦ A conflict or a key question from the beginning
that keeps the audience’s attention until the end
of the story when the question is answered
 Emotional Content
◦ The fundamental emotional paradigms such as
love and loneliness, confidence and vulnerability,
acceptance and rejection.

4. Seven Elements of A Good Digital Story
 Gift ofVoice
◦ Personalizing the story with the pitch, inflection,
and speed of the voice
 Power of the Soundtrack
◦ Music or other sounds that support and add
depth to the narrative
 Pacing
◦ The rhythm of the story to sustain the audience’s
interest
 Economy
◦ Using just enough content to tell the story
without overloading the audience (3-5 minutes)

5. Why digital story
 Critical thinking skills
 Research skills
 Communication skills

6. Why digital story?
 21st Century Skills
◦ Digital Literacy
(Digital Native ≠ Digitally literate)
- Digital literacy is the ability to find, evaluate, utilize,
share, and create content using information
technologies and the Internet.
Alan November
American educator and Educational Consultant

7. Why digital story?
 21st Century Skills
◦ Media Literacy
- Media literacy is the ability to encode and decode
symbols transmitted via media and the ability to
synthesize, analyze and produce mediated messages.
Media Consumer Media Producer Self-
representation Self-identification
- To look is one thing,
To see what you look at is another,
To understand what you see is a third,
To learn from what you understand is still something
else:
To act on what you learn is all that matters.
-- Taoist saying

8. Why digital story?
 21st Century Skills
◦ Visual Literacy
- The ability to interpret, negotiate, and make
meaning from information presented in the form of
an image.
◦ Information Literacy
- The ability to find, evaluate, and synthesize
information in both analog and digital formats.
◦ Global Literacy
- The ability to read, interpret, respond, and
contextualize messages from a global perspective.

9. Basic Steps
 Step 1 – Select a topic and point of view
◦ What is the main point of the story and what
is the perspective of the author? Is the author
trying to inform, convince, provoke, question?
 Step 2 – Develop script
◦ “We may be digital storytellers but, if we have
no story, then we have no reason even to
switch on our computer.Time spent polishing
a story idea and writing the script is time well
spent.” – Daniel Meadows

10. Basic Steps
 Step 3 - Storyboard

11. Basic Steps
 Step 4 – Collect images, videos and
sounds
◦ Free and copyright-friendly Images
Flickr – http://www.flickr.com/creativecommons/
Pics4Learning – http://www.pics4learning.com/
Freefoto – http://www.freefoto.com/index.jsp
FreeStockPhotos – http://freestockphotos.com/
Open Photo - http://openphoto.net/about/
Stock Exchange - http://www.sxc.hu/

12. Basic Steps
 Step 4 – Collect images and sounds
◦ Free and copyright friendly music for download
Freeplay music - http://www.freeplaymusic.com/index.aspx
Freesound Project - https://www.freesound.org/
ccMixer - http://ccmixter.org/
◦ Recording voice
Audacity - http://audacity.sourceforge.net/

13. Basic Steps
 Step 5 – Create a digital story
◦ Mac - iMovie
◦ PC – PhotoStory 3,Windows Movie Maker
 Available labs on campus: CLO 238 (25 seats), CLO 240 (26
seats), CLO 263 (17 seats), CLO 251 (PhotoStory only, 20
seats)
◦ Web-based Software for both Mac and PC
 Meograph – www.meograph.com
 WeVideo – www.wevideo.com
◦ Mobile Apps – Com-Phone Story Maker, StoryKit,
Blurb, Story Creator, Storyrobe
 Step 6 – Share
◦ YouTube - Public, Unlisted
◦ Through Meograph,WeVideo

14. Digital Storytelling Rubric
 Digital Storytelling rubric generator
http://digitales.us/evaluating-
projects/scoring-guides
 Sample rubric by DISTCO (Digital
Storytelling Contest)
http://www.distco.org/wp-
content/uploads/2011/10/Digital-
Storytelling-Rubric-DISTCO-2014.pdf

15. Digital Stories in Subjects
 http://digitalstorytelling.coe.uh.edu/examp
le_stories.cfm