The World ofDigitalStorytellingJason Ohier

magine you are watching thedigital story that Kim, a 6thgrader, has created for a languagearts assignment. As the storyopens, the computer screen

slowly fills with photographs of Kim'sparents, one from when they wereyoung and another taken more recentlyInstrumental music plays in the hack-ground as family pictures appear on thescreen. We hear Kim's voice telling thestory of how her parents came to theUnited States from rural China, Theyworked long hours, saved their money,and eventually created a good life fortheir family, Kim's narration explainsthat although she loved her parents, herrelationship with them was oftenstrained hecause they considered herunresourceful and unappreciative ofher good fortune. Kim was tired ofhearing ahout how hard life was for herparents as children.

Suddenly, Kim's story shifts to thefire that nearly destroyed her family'shouse. Somher music plays andphotographs from the fire scroll by asKim narrates details ahout the tragedyInterspersed among the photos areKim's original pencil drawings of her

family standing hy a smoldering house.However, this mood does not last

long. The music becomes upbeat asKim describes how her parents' tradi-tion of hard work helped rally thefamily and restore the house. Thescreen shows before-and-after picturesof a room Kim helped rehuild. Hernarration reflects on how the experi-ence changed family memhers' percep-tions of one another, Kim developednew admiration for her parents, andher parents were surprised and proudat how much she helped the family

Kim's digital story is evocative andcrafted with care. It's personal, yet ittouches a universal chord. Her storyincorporates authentic voice, problem-resolution, narrative tension, a trans-forming realization, and other elementsmost of us expect from a serious storyor movie. It is hoth a story and a docu-mentary, incorporating real events fromKim's life and her reflection on thoseevents, Kim plans to post her digitalstory on the Intemet so that all of herrelatives, including those in Asia, canwatch it,

Kim created practically every elementof this digital story. She took most of thephotographs and scanned in older ones,created artwork, mapped and story-

Through creatingelectronic personalnarratives, studentsbecome active creators,rather than passiveconsumers, of multimedia.

hoarded the story, wrote the script,narrated the story, and created titles andcredits. She even produced the sound-track, using music composition softwaregeared toward nonmusicians.

Ten years ago, a project like thiswould have been too complex andexpensive to be within the reach ofmost 6th graders. But media-basedstories are now everyone's to create.And with the Intemet as an intema-tional stage, they are everyone's towatch and enjoy

Alan Davis defines a digital story as

a form of short narrative, usually apersonal narrative told in the firstperson, presented as a short movie fordisplay on a television or computermonitor or projected onto a screen.(2004, p, 1)

As with any art form, digital story-telling continues to evolve to accom-modate new technologies, purposes,and creative \isions. The importantquestion for educators to ask is, "Whatdoes digital storytelling offer educa-tion?" The answer is "a great deal," if wedo two things: focus on the story firstand the digital medium later; and usedigital storytelling to enhance students'skills in critical thinking, expositorywriting, and media literacy

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Story FirstLike many other teachers of digitalstorytelling, I welcome the advent ofmultimedia technologies. Such tech-nologies give voice to a number ofotherwise quiet students and tostudents whose skills don't fit the usualacademic mold. Yet many students lackan intuitive grasp of how to use digitaltechnology to enhance their stories.As the technology hecomes morepowerful, their stories hecome weaker,illustrating the truth of the saying"What happens when you give a badguitar player a bigger amplifier?"

The prohlem for many students istheir focus on the power of the tech-nology rather than the power of theirstories. Some students are engaging themedium at the expense of the message,producing a technical event rather thana story. Part of my task as a digitalstorytelling teacher is to teach studentshow to be storytellers. Two importantcomponents of my approach toteaching storytelling are story mappingand practicing written and oral story-telling hefore hringing in digitalelements.

Story MappingMost approaches to creating a storythat will eventually have elements of afilm go directly from idea to story-board development, A storyboard,used commonly in the movie and TVindustry, is an ordered presentation ofdrawings or photos that each summa-rize a major story event. Looking overthe pictures should provide an overallsense of what will happen in the story.

1 recommend that teachers use story-hoards as a way to help students planthe events of a story But storyboards donot capture a story's central conflict,structure, and elements of transforma-tion, which we must help studentsidentify if they are to vmte stories withdepth. For that, 1 have studentscomplete a story map before the story-board, A story map is a one-pagediagram showing how the essentialcomponents of a story are incorporated

In front of the chroma screen. In front of a fox!

In front of original pictures. The grand finalct

In creating a digitally enhanced story, student Hannah Davis performs her storyfor the camera in front of a green chroma screen. Photos and artwork are lateradded to the background using chroma key editing.

into the overall flow of the narrative. Inaddition to helping students thinkabout stories in terms of theme andcharacter development rather thansimply as a series of events, story mapsenable teachers to quickly assess thestrength of a story while it is still in theplanning stage and to challengestudents to strengthen weak storyelements.

Although the nature and structure ofstories vary for personal, artistic, andcukural reasons, I initially discussstories as most of my students experi-ence them through popular media.Such stories are typically made up ofthe following essential components:

•A call to adventure. Normal life isinterrupted by a significant event, initi-ating a physical, emotional, intellectual,or spiritual joumey for the main char-acter.

• Problem-solution involving transjor-

mation. Characters encounter problems

that are solved through a personal trans-formation of some kind. Transformationcan happen in a numher of ways,including skill acquisition, maturation,leaming, and self-discovery,

• Closure. The story comes to a mean-ingful conclusion, not necessarilythrough a happy ending. Often, closureinvolves the main character's realizationof something significant, a moral, orevidence that something or someonehas changed,

A compelling digital story must incor-porate all these components, as Kim'sstory does. Her struggle to understandthe tragedy of the fire and her relation-ship with her parents gives her storyauthentic voice and makes it engagingfor the audience. Had she left her ownvoice out and simply reported about thefire and her family's experience in theUnited States, she would have created aninformative hut flat report.

There are many story mapping tech-

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niques. I lend to use the Visual Portraitofa Story diagram, which I adaptedfrom the work of storytelling expertBrett Dillingham (2005). This diagramgraphically outlines how a story movesthrough different elements from begin-ning to end and helps students \isualizethe progression of their stories—fromthe call to adventure, through develop-ment of the central problem and accom-panying tension, to a solution involvingcharacter transformation, and finally toclosure. As they plan their charactersand action, students fill in how eachelement on the story map will bereflected in their story The teacher canlook over the story map and help astudent strengthen weak story elementsbefore the student starts writing.

The Visual Portrait of a Story is anexcellent way to begin using storymaps, and it continues to be one of myfavorite story planning tools. But I havefound that there is no single right wayto map a story; each student may comeup with his or her own way of graphi-cally mapping the narrative for eachstorytelling project. A story map is not abox that a story needs to fit into, but aflexible guide aimed to help storytellersunderstand their stories and tell them incompelling, memorable ways.

Written and Oral StorytellingI involve students in as much writingand oral storytelling as time allowsbefore they begin incorporating theirstory into a computerized presentationwith images and sound.

Writing is key Even though students'final products are media-based, themost important tool used in the creationof a digital story is writing scripts andstory treatments. The saying "If it ain'ton the page, then it ain't on the stage,"is as true for digital storytelling as it isfor productions on Broadway. Thewritten component of a digital story cantake various forms, depending onwhether the strongest curricular focus ison digital, oral, or writing skills. Thefinal written form could be well-crafted

Digital stories need to be used to strengthenstudents' critical thinking, report writing,and media literacy skills.

bullets, a complete narrative, or a finelyedited script, depending on which kindof writing the teacher wants to teachand assess.

Telling stories in traditional, oralfashion is also an important part of thepreproduction process, and I make surestudents have chances to do so beforetbey work on the digital presentation.Oral storytelling is a powerful way forstudents to develop their own voicesand discover what events and details areessential to their stories. Oral presenta-tion is also an important way to preparefor the future: As \ideo becomescheaper and easier to use, it will becomemore commonplace for students toappear on film as they narrate a digitalpresentation.

Once you begin helping studentscraft their stories into multimediapresentations, they will need guidancein such skills as photography scanning,and working wdth photos digitallyTeachers who are less experienced withmultimedia technology—whom writerMarc Prensky (2001) calls "digitalimmigrants"—need not be intimidated.Most software provides tutorials, and alittle coaching from a media-sawycolleague or older student shouldpro\ide enough starting knowledge.

You'll need to get a few relativelyinexpensive yet powerful tools andfamiliarize yourself with them. The hubof a digital storytelling station is acomputer running software that canblend photos, tides, voices, music, andpossibly video and animation. For aMacintosh computer, I recommendiMovie software; for a PC, I recommendMovieMaker. Both are free or inexpen-sive and easy to leam. One note ofwarning: Digital stories tend to take upa lot of file space and computer

memory, particularly if you incorporatevideo. Simple stories that use stillphotos, titling, and voice-over narrationcan be just as effective as video withoutovertaxing your computer

You'll also need some peripheral tools,especially a digital camera, microphones,a flatbed scanner, and a video camera ifyou plan to add video. The scanner iscrucial. Using a scanner creatively opensup a world of content because you canphotograph and import into a digitalstory any object you can place on a scan-ning bed: medals, locks of hair, a doll—you name it.

Creating a Tie-Into Academic SkillsIf digital stories are going to survive ineducation, they need to be tied to thecurriculum and used to strengthenstudents' critical thinking, reportwriting, and media literacy skills. Increating and presenting digital stories, 1advise educators to think in terms of acontinuum anchored by "story" on oneend and "anal>tical report" on the other,and to aim for the middle. Kim's project,for example, is part personal story andpart expository report about her familyheritage and her house fire. 1 have seendigital stories used to combine story-telling, critical thinking, and reportwriting in all content areas. Thefollowing examples show how theproblem-solution story component canmorph into its academic counterpart:inquiry-discovery.

Making a ball roll. To demonstratetheir understanding of the geometry ofcircles, students at Molalla ElementarySchool in Oregon created an animatedstory showing how to make a ball rollon the beach. As the story unfolds, thenarration tells us that the students

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encountered a problem. The ball skidsalong the sand instead of rolling. Thestudents clearly explain their error anddescribe how they developed a moremathematically sound approach to theirproject, applying their understanding ofthe nature of spheres to make the ballappear to move more naturally In tbeend, the ball rolls,

Superhugs. To demonstrate theirunderstanding of superbugs (drug-resistant bacteria), two preserviceteachers at the University of Alaskacreated a digital story called Bob's Battle,using primarily stills with voice-overnarration. Bob tries to discover why hecan't manage to shake an illness despitetreatment from his doctor. It turns outthat Bob did not complete his fullcourse of antibiotics and has created acolony of superbugs resistant to hismedication. The story is packed withscientific illustrations, diagrams, anddata that support the narration. In theend. Bob admonishes the viewer, "Don'tmess around with antibiotics."

Although these are clearly academicreports involving the presentation offactual infonnation, their use of storyelements keeps them from being onlyreports. The story characters facedproblems and were transformed byleaming. If the students had notencountered a problem making the ballroll, or if superbugs had been explainedwithout the benefit of Bob's joumey tounderstand his illness, these presenta-tions would have been less engaging toboth storyteller and audience.

Media LiteracyCreating digital stories is a perfectopportunity to engage students inmedia literacy, in leaming about bowthe media influence our perceptions ofthe world (Goodman, 2003; Tyner,1998). Stories are enjoyable because wegive ourselves over to them; this is alsowhat makes them dangerous (Kay,1996). By their very nature, storiesrequire us to suspend our disbelief andbe swept away by their narrative. Yet

students need critical media skills in aworld overwhelmed by story-basedmedia, much of which views their agegroup in terms of commercial marketshare. We want students not only toleam with media, but also to leam andthink critically about media. We wantstudents to understand that the differ-ence between a successful digital storyand an effective advertisement is largelyone of purpose.

Digital stories provide powerfulmedia literacy leaming opportunitiesbecause students are involved in thecreation and analysis of the media inwhich they are immersed. When

Through creating

narratives, students

develop the power

of their own voices.

students do the hard work of marryingstory and technology to express them-selves to others, they can see moreclearly the persuasive nature of the elec-tronic culture in which they live. Such ametaperspective of media does notdevelop naturally, however. It is hard forstudents immersed in a project to"zoom out" and see tbe larger picture ofmedia impact. Teachers who want toinclude a media literacy component in adigital storytelling project need to do sodeliberately at the project's outset.(Contact the Center for Media Literacyat www.medialit.org for ideas andresources on teaching media literacy.)

Tapping Dormant SkillsAs digital storytelling enters theacademic mainstream, the techniqueshows great promise. Creating a digitalstory taps skills and talents— în art,media production, storytelling, projectdevelopment, and so on—that mightotherwise lie dormant within many

students but that will serve them well inschool, at work, and in expressingthemselves personally In addition,digital stones develop a number ofdigital, oral, and written literacies in anintegrated fashion. This technique takesadvantage of the fact that students arecomfortable v̂ ath narratives (Egan,1986) and attracted to digital enhance-ments that sharpen their criticalthinking, research, and writing skills.Through creating narratives, studentsdevelop the power of their own voicesand become heroes of their ownlearning stories. Most important, digitalstorytelling helps students becomeactive participants rather than passiveconsumers in a society saturated withmedia. S!

ReferencesDavis, A. (2004). Co-authoring identity;

Digital storytelling in an urban middleschool, THEN: Technology, Humanities,Education, & Narrative, Kl), 1- Available:hup ://thenj oumal. org/i'eature/61

Dillingham, B. (2005), Performance literacy.The Reading Teacher, 59(1), 72-75.

Egan, K. (1986). Teaching as storytelling.Chicago: University of Chicago Press,

Goodman, S. (2003). Teaching youth media:A critical guide to literacy, video production& social change. New York: TeachersCollege Press-

Kay, A. (1996). Revealing the elephant: Theuse and misuse of computers in educa-tion. Sequence, 31 {'^), 1-2,

Prensky, M, (2001), Digital natives, digitalimmigrants. On the Horizon, 9(5), 1-2,

Tyner, K. (1998). Literacy in a distal world:Teaching and learning in the age oj informa-tion. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.

Author's note: For more about digitalstorytelling, visit wwwjasonohler.com/storytelling.

Copyright © 2005 Jason Ohler.

Jason Ohler is President's Professor ofEducational Technology and DistanceLearning at the University of Alaska,1108 F St,, Juneau, AK 99801: 907-465-6427; jason.ohler@uas,alaska,edu. He isauthor of the upcoming book DigitalStories in the Classroom: A TellingExperience {CQr\N\n Press, 2006),

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