Saturday

Tool 7: Digital Storytelling

Digital storytelling involves using tools from the digital world in order to tell one's story or impart information. Students who create digital stories improve their writing, show creativity and have a voice with many opportunities for an authentic audience that can benefit from or enjoy the students' creations. Another term for digital storytelling is podcast - personal-on-demand broadcast. Watch the Common Craft guy explain the value of podcasting.



Here is an overview of what digital storytelling is using a similar format to the Common Craft videos.



By creating digital stories, students have to locate resources, synthesize information, and pull many things like words, images and even music together to create the final product.

For the purposes of this exercise, you may choose to use PhotoStory on the Dell or I-Movie on the MacBook to create a sample. If you are receiving MacBooks and have not ever made an I-movie, it is highly advised that you create one during this learning session!

Here are some resources about digital storytelling:
Educational Uses of Digital Storytelling
Digital Storytelling Finds Its Way into the Classroom
The Elements of Digital Storytelling

A book review made in PhotoStory.


A second grade group project made in PhotoStory.


An I-movie example about weather


Click here to see two more iMovie examples.
Click here if you would like to see some book trailers middle school students made using iMovie!

For your Tool #7 Assignment:
1. Create a PhotoStory or I-Movie.

These resources are already loaded on to your district-issued computers.
The sample can be something you might use in class, a sample a student might create, or something for you personally.
I-Movie tutorial help. More iMovie help. PhotoStory help. More PhotoStory help. Atomic Learning PhotoStory tutorials (district password required)

2. Include pictures, music, and text and/or voice-over in your digital story.
Each resource has music contained within it, but here are some copy-right friendly free music sources: Incompetech, FreePlayMusic, Soundzabound
You should not use music from CDs you have without getting permission...all that music is copy-right protected!

3. Upload the finished product to your blog. If it is a PhotoStory, be sure you saved it as a finished product--a wmv file or it will not load. If you made an iMovie, it needs to be a mp4 file.
You will use the video icon on the Post Box tool bar.

4. In your blog, write a short post about your experience with digital storytelling. Include how you might have students use digital stories in your classroom.

Ready? Quiet on the set! Action!

29 comments:

  1. I am struggling with uploading my Photostory. I've saved it as a .wmv extension, but keep gettting a failed upload message.

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  2. I am having the same problem....

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  3. The IMovie was a big challenge for me! It was a difficult task! I had to take a break, and come back to it. Trying to figure it out! But I finally did!
    I finally posted my IMovie to my blog. About the digital photostory, I think I'll have to buy Windows XP Digital Photography in order to have that on my computer to make a digital photostory. I like it cause my students can act out their own stories, and make their own IMovies. Not only do they see themselves on video, but they will be able to retain info, and have fun at the same time. Cool!

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  4. OMG! Photo story took me practically all day to do! I finally did it! No audio though. My microphone is not working! This is my second laptop given to me! The first one didn't work right! Well, when I can figure out the problem, I can make a better photo story! For now, just read. Reading is good!

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  5. Has anyone figured out why some of us are having problems uploading our movie? I keep getting, "An error occurred, please try again later." I saved it as a .wmv extension, but I can't seem to upload it to my blog. Making the movie was VERY simple, it's the uploading to the blog that seems to be IMPOSSIBLE!

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  6. I was able to upload my 2 videos. I can't view them on the district's laptop, but I can on my personal. I'm not sure if its a security/firewall setting. I also tried updating my Adobe Flash, but that still didn't work.

    Are you guys still having problem uploading? Also try doing it on another computer, sometimes the district's laptops can be moody! =)

    Good luck!

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  7. To make the photo story took me about 2 hours. I was very excited working with this interesting tool. I'm thinking on how my children will be enjoing while working making photo stories.

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  8. I have problems trying to upload my video. It is an file with .wmv extension.

    Others bloggers have had the same problem. I don't know what is happening. I some body has the solution, please let me know.

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  9. At last I got it. The bar was filled until 50%, the transmission finished and the square inside the message was black. I try to play it and it ran.

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  10. The iMovie, I had to do it on my Mac. The Photostory, I had to do it on my district laptop. So, I had to do these things on 2 different computers.
    I know that everyone is going to have a hard time. I also had a hard time.

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  11. I am having a lot of trouble with this one - I cannot use the school computer because I do not have wifi at home. I have been using my home computer for tools 1 - 6. I just watched a bunch of intro videos, and am still lost. Also, I am not sure how this will make me a better teacher.

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  12. Ditto with the difficulty of uploading PhotoStory. If anyone knows the answers PLEASE let me know.

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  13. iMovie is soo much easier to do than photostory. If you haven't tried making an iMovie you need to.

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  14. I've used Photo Story before...My most current Photo Story was at my end of the year party I made a Story of pictures that I had taken of the student during their Pre K experience and showed it to the parents as they were arriving and getting situated for the graduation party.

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  15. Trying to do 7, but keep getting an error that stops the program.

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  16. Wow, after reading all of these comments, I will save this step to attempt on a day that is wide open! LOL

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  17. I agree if you have an Imac or Macbook or Macbook Pro, IMovie is a lot easier to use than Photo Story. The only limitation is you need an Apple computer or an Iphone 4.
    Like Sonala I use PhotoStory on my school laptop and use iMovie on my MBP.

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  18. Wow- can I do this? The comments made are discouraging yet if I have problems it will make me feel better to know that others did too!

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  19. Well, unfortunately the district does not allow us access late at night! I was hoping to get this tool done while my daughter was sleeping. :-(

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  20. Okay, when I disconnected from the SBVPN, my photostory started playing! So, that is really sad that all of our hard work will not be viewed on this point on the SBVPN!

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  21. Got it! Make sure you save it correctly! It will not upload if you do not do this right or in my case if you do not retrieve it from the my videos under your my documents icon on your desktop. I was uploading from my documents but in a different spot that I had saved it in.

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  22. Piece of cake. But my OCD tendencies were kicking in. I'm too crazy to do multimedia projects that require a thousand finely-tuned details.

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  23. I can't get my photostory to upload. I saved it in myvideos. How long is it supposed to take. Also, do I upload using the photo or video icon?

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  24. I am having problems uploading my Photostory.

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  25. I got my photostory to upload but it took awhile. About five minutes at least. I did notice that as I was editing my post it showed underneath that my video was processing. I did not hit publish post until it said it was complete. I don't know but maybe you tried it to fast and it didn't upload properly.

    You use the video icon to upload. It looks like a film strip.

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  26. After the video stopped processing, I tried to preview the post. Every time I did, the video failed to show up. I tried again, skipped the preview, and hit "publish post" as soon as the video stopped processing. That time it worked! I don't know if that helped or it was just a coincedence. Worth trying, though!

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  27. When I uploaded my video it took about 5 minutes... When it finally finished I tried to watch it before actually PUBLISHING POST and it read error. So i clicked on VIEW BLOG and the video was actually there ready to play!! So don't get discouraged! It's very simple and don't let the ERROR message distract you!!

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  28. In kinder we could use this by making a photo story of the changes of our seeds when we do the plant unit. We could take pictures of our seed daily and make it into a photo story to watch the process of the growth of a seed. Pretty neat!

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  29. I cannot believe how easy it was to create a project using Photo Story. I take many pictures of my students throughout the school year and this is a great way for me to put them together and enjoy as a class. I am not sure my kinders would be ready to do this but maybe as a class project we could put some together.

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