Digital Story or Video?
Digital stories are tricky to define. Is it a video of any length? Does a picture slide show count? Is a documentary a story? Does audio over an image suffice? Does it have to be fiction? What exactly is it? The University of Houston has a digital storytelling website that explains:
Digital storytelling at its most basic core is the practice of using computer-based tools to tell stories.
https://digitalstorytelling.coe.uh.edu/page.cfm?id=27&cid=27
This is still a very broad term and can include a huge range of digital works. The definition of ‘story’ itself is hard to pinpoint. Wikipedia defines storytelling as:
‘the conveying of events in words, sound and/or images, often by improvisation or embellishment.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Storytelling
Digital Story Count
If we assume that telling a story can mean any of these things (words, sound and/or images), when applied digitally we have a vast new medium for telling stories. When viewing YouTube statistics I found that:
YouTube has over a billion users — almost one-third of all people on the Internet — and every day people watch hundreds of millions of hours on YouTube and generate billions of views.
https://www.youtube.com/yt/press/statistics.htmlics
Internet Livestats claims that 8 billion YouTube videos were viewed so far today alone (30/09/15).
Impact in the Classroom
Viewing videos in classrooms and with students has become common practice for many educators. The flipped learning model means that students can watch these videos at home to maximize learning time in the classroom. In addition to this trend many students are also increasingly creating their own media at home. An internet connection and a device are all that is needed to become a director.
We are at the point now where anyone can create and publish very compelling content with nothing more complex than a web browser.
https://50ways.wikispaces.com/
Many students are utilizing this technology to share ideas about their personal interests, to tell a story or to share an idea or skill.
Today’s students don’t think twice about generating original electronic content and sharing it online, and digital storytelling dovetails well with these modes of student expression.
https://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI7021.pdf
A Class YouTube Channel
As an educator I want to maximize this new form of storytelling. Digital stories and/or videos can be used in limitless ways including:
- to reinforce learning
- to provide additional support (especially for EAL students)
- to create a provocation at the start of a unit
- as an additional lesson resource
- as a student assessment tool
I decided to create a class YouTube account to experiment with different ways to share digital stories and videos with my students. Below is my first attempt:
[youtube]https://youtu.be/2r5aBjRdmjw[/youtube]
Students and parents responded positively to the video and found it a useful link to home/school learning. I then decided to set an assignment using a digital story to explain the assignment. Here are the results:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7WSf2FtZEhA
The possibilities are endless!
Hi Amanda, As usual I love what you have to say. You’ve made a great point exploring that difference between video and digital story. Personally, I think it is exciting to expand our concept of story, but I suppose we can’t get carried away either. Also, I think that using video with students of this age – are you still teaching Grade 2? – is super powerful. They are able to express so much more than they would simply by writing. Finally, by using video yourself, you are showing the students other powerful ways to use video. And by framing everything with the idea of story, it immediately becomes more interesting to your audience.
Now for a question: how long do you give your students in class to work on creating a digital story / report such as the interview assignment? What are the cautions that you would offer fellow teachers?
Thanks once again for a great read!
Hi Leah, thanks for the compliment! I had to read through the literature in detail this week to help me distinguish between digital stories and videos. I’ve decided it’s a continuum and it’s up to the creator or reader to decide where something fits on that continuum. Perhaps this would make a useful infographic for the next assignment!
I’ve moved classes to Grade 5 now. I’m keen to be more involved with the Exhibition again. I’m still learning the adequate time given to students creating digital stories. We had 2 hours of class time this week on a digital story assignment but most students aren’t finished. We’re all realizing that iMovie is great fun but quite time consuming. The assignment I set about Grandparents students are being asked to complete it at home so I’ll see how that goes. Definitely a work in progress! My aim is to ‘teach’ some essential skills for digital storytelling now, early on in the year, so that students can use it as a tool when they think it is appropriate. I hope that helps! I’m happy to connect with any teachers to share tips/ideas.
Hi Amanda. I really enjoyed reading and learning from your post this week. I think it’s great that you delved into more meaning with deciphering between a video or a story. I think to me, if it somehow tells a story (and isn’t just a video put on YouTube for people to laugh at), then there you have it. Those YouTube statistics are staggering, yet not surprising. All kids love YouTube, because all kids love videos and video stories. Put a bit of music with it, and they are hooked. I think we are all remiss if we don’t think about how to tap into this fascination in our classrooms. I have not yet braved the waters of creating a digital story or digital story assignment yet like you have, but I love the idea. Your assignment about technology sparked some ideas I could use with our standards in science that have to to with the ‘history of science and technology’ (or something like that). I also started thinking about transforming our migration unit into the possibility of digital stories from students. The only sort of digital storytelling I have done was a few years ago when I had kids create book trailers. I agree with your comment above that the video and editing aspect of things is very time-consuming. I’d love to see how some of these come out for you and your students!
Hi Jodee, I think you’re right- if it somehow tells a story then it is a story! I’m very much a beginner on iMovie but I’m enjoying experimenting. It does most of the hard work for you. It is fun playing around on it and my class are enjoying my ‘experiments’.
Thanks for the comment!
Amanda