We’ve already touched on the potentials of YouTube for locating educational materials, but a topic we have not directly addressed on this blog is the potentials of authoring your own video content, or having students author their own original video content. This week’s Web 2.0 blog post looks at incorporating video into the classroom, specifically the type of video creation referred to as “Digital Storytelling.”
What is Digital Storytelling?
Digital stories are short reflective video pieces created by students that traditionally combine photos, music, and narration to tell “real-life stories.” These stories are usually short (less than 5 minutes.) Because digital storytelling is popular for telling personal stories they are often compelling and emotionally engaging. Digital stories run a spectrum of topics; popular ways to include digital storytelling in the curriculum include assigning students to create instructional videos, reflective pieces, interviews with experts, or narratives collected from a population group of interest.
Digital storytelling is an increasing popular way to have students create video content that is tied to course material. Though the final product of a digital storytelling project is video piece, most digital stories rely on text, images, music, and narration to tell a story rather than shooting footage with a video camera. Though some people do choose to use video, working with photos and narration provide a good starting place that requires less in the way of equipment and software. The cost of tools for authoring digital stories have continued to decrease in price to the point where two free pieces of software, Apple’s iMovie and Microsoft’s MovieMaker, have become the tools of choice for most beginners. In addition to the low cost, these tools are increasingly user friendly, and many digital storytelling advocates state that a student with no technical background should be able to create a digital stories using these tools.
Though still an “emerging” concept a good number of instructors at UMass Amherst have begun asking to students to create video pieces as part of course projects. Because digital storytelling is a possible components of many courses and programs we have already seen a broad range in the types of content students are creating. As this practice continues to grow we hope to be able to share some examples with you via this blog.
What is the next step?
Before you ask you students to create these types of projects we encourage you to explore creating digital stories on your own. I invite you to explore the links below to get a feel for what digital stories can be like and they different ways they might be integrated into a curriculum. If you are interested in learning more about the tools for creating digital stories, Academic Computing offers faculty workshops each June and January on iMovie and MovieMaker. Additionally you can contact our Instructional Media Lab (545-2823) for a one-on-one consultation to learn more about this process.
Useful Links related to Digital Storytelling:
Center for Digital Storytelling
7 Things you Should Know about Digital Storytelling
BBC Digital Stories