Digital Story Telling

Storytelling as a teaching and learning method

One of the most effective ways to help people learn is to tell a story.  Story-telling has been a major method of learning for the human race throughout history.  For many First Nations people such as Aboriginal groups, using story telling is a powerful way to enable learning.

Story telling helps the transfer of knowledge and the retention of facts.  Research has borne this out many times, but a good overview of the research with a discussion of this is "The Power of Storytelling with Adult Learners" by Breck A. Harris.

Just think to yourself for a minute - how would you prefer to learn a load of required information that is important to your job role but not personally inspiring to you?  We all have to do this sometimes.  Most of us would probably prefer to be entertained by an amusing animated cartoon embedding this information, even if it is a little corny, than to have to sit through "death by powerpoint" or scroll endlessly through text.

Digital Storytelling

Since we are in the digital age and most of our work and life is dealing with technology, why not do it the easy way, using the technology?  There is an abundance of tools on the web to use pictures to create stories.  In an age of information overload, images are always more refreshing and easy to relate to than large amounts of text.  You can use this principle to create instant engagement with learning.

Using still images and video

For some great examples of personal story-telling using video go to the Maricopa Centre for Learning and Instruction example page. Please note if the QuickTime or Windows Media links don't work, try the iPod download.   Here is one example from the page:

As you will see most of these stories are created using still images, music and voice.  It is possible to make beautiful digital stories using a simple application from Microsoft called Photostory.  It is a free download from the Microsoft website - please note, it says it is for Windows XP but it works fine with Windows 7.

Here is an example from the Human Rights Commission in Australia:





These examples are of sharing personal stories, used to encourage self-reflecion, and sharing cultural knowledge.  There are other forms of digital stories that can provide important practical information such as practical skills and knowledge for completing tasks.  Digital story formats can also be used to get students to document their learning.

Using Cartoons and Animations

Sometimes issues of privacy prevent us from using photos or video footage for teaching and learning.  This is where the many apps out on the web that provide tools such as cartoon characters and themes can be used  by both students and facilitators to tell a story, to demonstrate learning, or to provide instruction or share knowledge.

Take a look at these instructional videos that are shared with the public on the GoAnimate site

Also, below you will find my own attempt at an "instructional video" using GoAnimate's tools.  The topic is ethical issues in using social networking for teaching and learning.  This was done by me on the fly, using a subscription to GoAnimate called GoPlus which costs $4 per month.  They also have a free subscription but it does  not allow sharing, and has limited tools.  The free one is good though, if you would just like to try it out.  The video below that I very quickly created, could obviously be much improved - please see it as a work in progress!

Teachers talk privacy by Jillya on GoAnimate

Resources and Information about Digital Story Telling

The links below are to websites that either have information on the benefits and pedagogy behind digtial story telling, or actual apps that can be used for digital story telling.

Information and resource pages:

University of Regina, US page on Digital Storytelling - a wonderful page with a huge number of resources about and for digital story telling.

John Larkin website on Teaching, Technology and Professional Development page on Digital Story telling  - Scroll down to find a large list of links to resources and information

Apps for Digital Story Telling

14 iPad Apps for Storytelling in the Classroom

Australian Centre for the Moving Image has an online story board creator plus resources to try making your own digital stories, plus a lot of resources and information.

MakeBeliefComix is a free website comic generator with special tools for teachers.

GoAnimate has a free version with limited tools to trial it, and also a very low cost personal GoPlus subscription for $4 per month (you can have a 3 months subscription for $18) that will provide a range of characters and themes and allow you to share your production.  There is also a GoAnimate for Schools.

MapSkip is a web site where participants can add their stories to a map of the world, describing where they live, where they are from, and sharing stories with others around ther world.

Pixton is a drag and drop comic creation program on the web, which has free personal acounts and also educational accounts for up to 200 student participants for $10 per month

EdShelf digital storytelling apps and sites - this is a very large list of different sites and apps that you may like to explore

Share your digital story journey

Please use the comments section to share your experiences of using digital storytelling with your learners, and also any useful tools or links you find.