Samantha Morra shares with us a practical guide on how we can bring digital storytelling into our classrooms in 8 Steps to Great Digital Storytelling at the EdTechTeacher.org site.  Her article not only provides the step-by-step process for how to have your students create digital stories, but she also provides a number of resources for each of the steps so that anyone using this method can explore each step in greater detail.  She also shares a list of elements that make a great digital story.

The following diagram illustrates the 8 steps in the process:

With these simple steps, students have a road-map of how to create their own digital stories.  Some of the most important steps are writing the script which is where the students actually put their ideas down on paper, forcing them to think through all of the elements of the story.  It also gives them the material to move on to the next step, Storyboard/Plan where they can further refine the flow of the story.  Once they’ve completed these steps it should be much easier for them to move through the creation of the content and putting it all together to create their own stories.

Two important parts of the process are step seven and eight where they share their story with a larger community, or as Morra says, “Knowing that other people might see their work often raises student motivation to make it the best possible work that they can do.”  And the reflection and feedback are also key steps to give your students  a sense of accomplishment, and hopefully create a sense of wanting to do more digital stories.

I liked the list of elements to a great digital story that Morra provided, which included that they :

• Are personal
• Begin with the story/script
• Are concise
• Use readily-available source materials
• Include universal story elements
• Involve collaboration at a variety of levels

These elements describe some of the characteristics of good digital stories that can be used as a guide by your students during their journey through digital storytelling.