Key Resources

• The Learning Portal. (n.d).  https://tlp-lpa.ca/digital-skills/digital-storytelling 

• University of Wollongong (n.d.)  https://www.uow.edu.au/student/learning-co-op/assessments/digital-storytelling/ 

• National Geographic Digital Storytelling Rubric (example) - https://media.nationalgeographic.org/assets/file/Digital_Story_Rubric_1.pdf 

• Google CS FIRST Digital Storytelling Course - https://csfirst.withgoogle.com/c/cs-first/en/storytelling/overview.html 

Steps 1 & 2 : Planning and researching Your Story

Digital Storytelling can be integrated into practically any topic or learning area - Science, English, HASS, Health, etc. 

For example, I teach my pre-service teachers to create digital stories about social and environmental issues, examining a real-world problem, a solution, and how STEM professionals are involved in the development and implementation of that solution. As part of this phase, we ask them to create a mind-map for their story proposal. 

When students are drafting their stories, and for older students, when writing their scripts, encourage them to consider:

• What are the key messages you want to share in your story? 

• Who is your target audience? How will you capture and keep their interest? 

• How might you tell your story? Consider animation, text and audio conversations between characters, and reader interaction. (Refer students to the Levels of Scratch).

Remember, a great digital story starts with writing a great story. 

STEP 2: sCRIPTWRITING

Depending on your students' age level and your teaching approach, Step 2 (Scripting) and Step 3 (Storyboarding) could be interchangeable. I would very highly recommend the Dramatic Arc Planning Template and the Script Template available here: https://tlp-lpa.ca/digital-skills/digital-storytelling. 

Tip: Have your students read their script out loud - to themselves first, and then to a friend or family member. 

STEP 3: Storyboarding

Again, the level of detail you require in a storyboard will depend on your students' age and prior experience. For older students, I would suggest encouraging them to consider adding information about animations, sound effects, and user input (e.g. buttons, questions). 

I would also very highly recommend building in an opportunity for peer feedback towards the end of this planning phase of the digital storytelling process.

Suggested Templates

• https://edudigitalstorytelling.files.wordpress.com/2013/09/storyboard.pdf

• https://theelearningcoach.com/resources/storyboard-depot/

STEP 5: Sourcing images, sound effects, and music

PLEASE try to model and explicitly teach responsible copyright practices with your students! 

• “No, you can’t just copy and paste images off Google Search.”

• “No, you can’t use the latest [insert hit single of your choice] as the backing track in your video …”

Public domain images and media are copyright-free. Creative Commons media can be used with various levels of attribution or credit, and I typically recommend students look for media they can use for non-commercial use. This website (https://guides.lib.uoguelph.ca/remixing) has links to some fabulous media libraries. I would recommend Pixabay (make sure students tick the Safe Search box) and Unsplash for images. 

step 6: Pull it all Together and Share

As mentioned previously, there are many digital storytelling tools that you could use with your students. During this stage, you will likely need to scaffold, model, and explicitly teach key technical skills for the particular tool you are using. Suggested tools for different year levels are included below. If you know of a great one that's missing from the list, please let me know.

Early Childhood

• Scratch Junior (Free)

• VoiceThread (Free trial)

• Book Creator (Free trial)

• Puppet Pals (iOS) (Paid)

• Toontastic (Free)

Years 3-6

• Microsoft PowerPoint

• Scratch

• Microsoft Sway

• iMovie

• Canva for Education (free!)

• Powtoon

• Book Creator

Years 7-8

• Microsoft Sway

• Canva for Education (Free Teacher account required to set up student log in)

STEp 7: Feedback and reflection

This final, often overlooked step is really important. There are various ways to go about this - self reflection against the rubric/success criteria, 2 Stars and a Wish, Gallery Walk, etc.