Education for a Digital World Advice, Guidelines and Effective Practice from Around Globe, 2008a

25 – Tools for Online Engagement and Communication
Start putting your digital story together
Because any story delivery has to be linear in regards to
time, approaching the project as a linear timeline is
helpful. Therefore, ask students to scan and place pictures
into a sequence that relates to their storyboard and
script, and then add the music tracks that they have chosen
to accompany the images. Next, have the students
practise laying the voice track in the appropriate places.
Finally, students should create and insert their video
clips into the proper sequence.
“The essence of cinema is editing. It’s the combination
of what can be extraordinary images of people
during emotional moments, or images in a general
sense, put together in a kind of alchemy”. – Francis
Ford Coppola (Cristiano & Letizia, 2006, p. 26)
At all points, encourage students to test their stories
as they develop them, sharing ideas and products with
their peers. Also encourage them to be open to suggestions
for improvement from everyone, because the process
of giving and accepting feedback is as important as
the final product.
“I suppose film is distinctive because of its nature,
of its being able to cut through time with editing”.
– Oliver Stone (Kreisler, 1997)
An overview of the process
The chart below, from Seven Steps to Create a DigiTales
Story, provides a visual guide for the creation of digital
stories. Note the division of the production into three
distinct phases: pre-production, production, and postproduction.
COMPUTERS, SOFTWARE, AND EQUIPMENT
If this discussion has whetted your appetite for digital
storytelling, then it is time to take stock. It is obviously
not possible to review all of the possible configurations
of computers, so making a list of your hardware and
software is the first step in determining what is possible.
(1) Does the computer have USB ports and a DVD or
CD-ROM burner?
(2) What type of access do you have to a network, and
how easy is it to post, distribute, or share projects?
The following are all good programs for creating a
digital story.
• iMovie (Apple Computer)
• Microsoft Movie Maker
• Broderbund Telling Stories Basic
Tip
Apple’s iMovie site has a range of iMovie-specific
art, sounds, downloadable plug-ins, and assorted
other resources.
Tip
Microsoft’s Movie Maker site (http://www.microsoft
.com/windowsxp/using/moviemaker/default.mspx)
has Movie Maker tutorials, tips, and downloads.
Tip
Broderbund’s Telling Stories Basic (http://www
.broderbund.com/) focuses on creating a digital
scrapbook based around a personal reminiscence,
making it useful for oral history projects, especially
within families or communities.
Another useful tool is a scanner to scan photos of
family, friends, and scenes for use in the digital story.
Powerful and evocative projects can be created with a
simple combination of individual still photos, background
music, and voiceovers, as was demonstrated by
Ken Burns’ Civil War series. In a pinch, a digital still
camera or a video camera can serve as a scanner.
Digital music can be used, but even if you don’t have
the equipment to access and transfer digital recordings,
a microphone can record music or voiceovers.
Source: Seven Steps to Create a DigiTales Story (http://www.digitales.us/resources/seven_steps.php )
Education for a Digital World 403