Week 13: Digital Storytelling

Links to great digital storytelling sites.
By Newton Baker
Retired teacher

Six students (aged 11-13) and I recently set out with digital video and still cameras and notebooks to explore all of Montpelier’s bridges crossing our town’s three major rivers.

The point was to collect writing and visual images to combine in a final DVD that included text, music and voice-over. The students would write, photograph and edit the material and would make group decisions necessary to create their final product.

The entire effort was a standards-based dream come true. Choices of Vermont teaching standards on which to focus were many. I selected the standard 1.5 on process writing as the main focus.
A digital storytelling project involves all aspects of process writing, group decision-making, using and sharing tools, researching, taking notes and revising.

Images and writing are examined for their proper role in the final product. Such projects are well-suited for the Vermont Writing Portfolio genres of narrative, report, procedure, persuasive essay and personal essay, as well as poetry.
We discussed our approach for the project and wrote up a plan. Our next writing was to brainstorm about bridges, exploring our knowledge, attitudes and understandings.

We discussed what we learned from our writing and wrote interview questions to ask of people on the street: “What bridge do you use most?” “Why?” “Do you know how many bridges there are?” “By what names do you call the bridges you know about?”

We shared a digital video and a still camera to shoot pictures of bridges from all sides and underneath. We learned some basics about filming technique. When it came time to do further writing about bridges, students had a choice of factual, descriptive, fictional or poetic styles.

The interplay in student discussions of scene choice and pictures, as well as what kind of writing would best serve the images, was lively and thoughtful: “Should we show all the bridges first?” “Do we mix in our street video interviews with other pictures or show them as one segment?” “Should our facts be presented as voice-over or written below the pictures?” “Where should poems come?” “Writing shouldn’t explain the pictures!” “Does the writing complement and enhance the pictures?” “What do we want people to know, to think about or learn upon viewing this?”

I came to appreciate the importance of student ownership in the work as I listened to their discussions and watched their thinking unfold. What a variety of views and with what tenacity they were defended. Some saw the project as a report. Others suggested a more narrative journey questioning whether people really stopped to see our town from a “bridge’s” point of view.

The kids loved to take a camera, point it at something and shoot. They didn’t worry too much about what a picture meant or how good it was. But reviewing their pictures, they became critical about what was a good shot and what was not. Further examination of the writing, in the context of the project’s purpose and images, led to more refinements.

Their film approach became a great metaphor for their writing: Just as photographers shoot many images and then select the best, as writers we can write a lot and worry later about selection. Just as photographers can easily see what in an image excites them, young writers can examine their words to find what lights a spark.

This exercise also helps students see that revising and editing involves looking closely at their writing to find the best ideas, expressions and words to create more polished writing.
This kind of project engages students to become both critical thinkers and creative artists using language, visual images and sound. It requires students to use not only writing but also the kinds of communication technologies that are becoming ubiquitous in life and work. It is a hands-on, interactive activity. It has great power to jump-start some reluctant writers. It is a community-building project that can use parent volunteers or older students working with younger students. Some element of such a project is possible at any grade level.

Many teachers will say their own technological skills are not up to snuff and their students know more than they do. As a “digital immigrant,” I learned about digital cameras, computers, downloading, editing, importing music, making voice-overs, creating special effects, and burning DVDs. I learned with my students and let them be my teachers!

Newton Baker recently retired after teaching grades 3 through 8 for 35 years. He continues to work as a writing consultant and teacher consultant for the National Writing Project in Vermont. He is the defending champion for his age-group, 60-64, in the USA National Championship 24-Hour Run.