Digital Storytelling, usually take the form of a relatively short story (less than 8 minutes), is a method of using computer-based tools to tell stories. Like the art of traditional storytelling, digital stories focus on a specific topic and a particular point of view.
As a combination of computer-based images, text, recorded audio narration, video clips and/or music, the topics used by digital storytelling can range from personal tales to the recounting of historical events, from exploring life in one's own community to the search for life in other corners of the universe – almost anything is possible.
Educational Uses for Research
Digital Storytelling has been a tool used by researchers of early childhood education and multimedia technology. At the University of Texas, researchers are conducting a research study with elementary and middle school students and teachers from the border region of Texas, New Mexico and Mexico.
In examining how students used multimedia software tools to create digital stories based on multicultural folktales and myths, the study sought to measure the effectiveness of the digital torytelling activity by examining the students understanding of the major points in the folktales as well as their technology skills in creating the stories.
Many libraries or museums have oral histories that have been recorded. These can be paired with historical photographs to create a visual/interactive historical experience.
California of the Past
This digital storytelling program is a collaboration of a number of California public libraries: Benicia, Covina, Hayward, Orange County, Sacramento, and San Francisco. In capturing the stories of its people, the program endorses the inclusion of underrepresented communities in the media arts field and the portrayal of accurate images of these communities by mainstream media and promotes community access to and use of media technology.
The recorded memories of California and local communities enable people to hear others personal experiences and find out what did the community look like, stories that address the recent past or distant past. Not only does digital storytelling promote intergenerational sharing, it engages aging baby boomers, encourages immigrants to California to share their memories, while encourageing library/community partnerships.
MITMuseum without Walls
Based on location-based storytelling, MIT Museum is leading an innovative location-based storytelling research project, Museum Without Walls (MWOW), to put history and science in your hand and turn the world into a museum. The goal is to help reveal the hidden and the extraordinary in the MIT landscape by encouraging people to learn about their surroundings. It begins with an Institute-based effort but the project is pioneering the development of technologies as a model usable by any institution or community.
Veria Central Public Library
A collaborative effort between public libraries and museums to provide new, informal and accessible learning opportunities. Library and museum staff in the four regions of the Czech Republic, Denmark, Germany and Greece have been trained to train and support groups of individuals from migrant communities in the art, skills and technologies involved in the creation of digital stories.
Digital Storytelling in Academia
Digital storytelling has been adopted in higher education, particularly more so in the United States, where some educators use it as a method of building engagement and multimedia literacy. While the Bay Area Video Coalition employs digital storytelling as a means of engaging and empowering at-risk youth, faculty and graduate students at the University of Houston have created a website called the Educational Uses of Digital Storytelling which focuses on the use of Digital Storytelling by teachers and their students across multiple content areas and grade levels. Ball State University has even developed a masters program in Digital Storytelling, as does the University of Oslo.
Digital story and storytelling is more than just a technology or an art form, it is about engaging community, promoting intergenerational communication, as well as providing an innovative method of historical research.
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