Overview

In this project students will use 5 to 10 copyright-friendly photos with narration and music to create a digital story.

Goals

  1. Develop student planning, organization and writing skills using media.

  2. Intentionally use media to create a mood, establish a setting, and convey feelings.

  3. Discuss intellectual property and open media licensing.

  4. Discuss responsible media decisions / digital citizenship.

Preparation

  1. Setup or insure students are setup the by school IT department with free school / enterprise / "federated" logins to Adobe Spark for Education.

  2. Provide instructions for students and time to practice logging into Adobe Spark with their School Email / Google account.

  3. Use the provided student planning/storyboard template to create a sample video project to share with students. (THIS LINK WILL ASK YOU TO MAKE A COPY)

  4. Create this new assignment in Google Classroom, including links to the video "What Makes a Hero?", the project planning / storyboard template (each student gets their own copy), and your sample video project.

  5. Test and verify unsplash.com and other required project websites are accessible on the school content filter.

Procedures

  1. Discuss what makes a good story and what makes a hero? Show the TED-Ed Video, "What Makes a Hero?"

  2. Discuss the importance of planning and using media with intention to set a mood / establish a setting / convey feelings.

  3. Show the blank student planning / storyboard template, and your completed template example.

  4. Show your completed project video.

Extensions

  1. Challenge students to experiment recording alternate forms of their story, using either/both different voices and/or different story endings.

  2. Provide students with the opportunity to publish their stories "outside the classroom" on a class blog, a class YouTube channel, or another website.

  3. Access more resources on digital storytelling on showwithmedia.com/digital-story/

Digital Story Examples