Digital Pedagogy Librarian
Prepare for Digital Storytelling
In academic settings, digital storytelling is a way of sharing research and scholarship using audio, images, video, text, maps, timelines, and related media in a digital format. Sharing information as a story engages broader audiences - especially when the project is made public. While digital stories are frequently more entertaining than a research paper, they still require serious work in planning, research, structuring, writing, and curation of a variety of information resources.
Four Key Considerations for Digital Storytelling:
- Purpose: What is the motivation behind your project? To teach? Inform? Persuade?
- Audience: Who is the final product for? Who is the intended audience - and how will they access, interpret, and use the information?
- Perspective: What is the point of view through which the story will be told? Does it reinforce or challenge stereotypes?
- Design: How will the components of the story be organized and presented?
- Digital Storytelling ProcessAn overview of the process for creating digital stories of all kinds.
- Creating a Digital StoryA short tutorial guiding readers through the steps of creating a digital story.
- Assignment PlannerA tool from University of Toronto that generates a step-by-step plan based on due date and type of assignment. Select "digital storytelling" for tips on planning and executing a project.
Plan Your Story
Digital stories require planning. Just like you start with an outline to write a paper, digital storytelling relies on a flow of information, ideas, and resources. Media projects like these often begin with a storyboard, which is an outline that also includes multimedia objects.
A storyboard doesn't need to be fancy - many times, it may even be hand-drawn. Like an outline for a paper, the goal is to establish the flow of content and determine what elements you need to write, illustrate, or include media for.
Example of a hand-drawn storyboard for a multi-media digital story
STEP 1: Brainstorm a timeline for your story.
- The beginning, or introduction, should ask a question or state a thesis
- The middle will provide supporting evidence and research
- The end will provide a conclusion, and maybe a call to action
STEP 2: Outline the key 'scenes' of your digital story
- Add more detail to the beginning, middle, and end
- Map out the headings for each section
- List the types of media that will be used to craft your story in each section
STEP 3: Frame your story
- Define the topic, theme, and media (including text) for each 'scene' or heading
- Visualize the flow of the story and consider whether it makes sense in progression, and edit where needed
Storyboard Tools & Ideas
- Planning and Outlining Your StoryA guide from ArcGIS detailing an approach to outlining a digital story. This article refers specifically to StoryMaps, but its process can be useful for other platforms as well.
- Creating Storyboards for Narrative ProjectsSuggestions for mapping and planning your digital exhibit.
by Beth Fischer, Hannah Jacobs, and Melissa J. Lingle-Martin in Visualizing Objects, Places, and Spaces: A Digital Project Handbook - What is a Storyboard?An introductory guide to storyboarding from University of Houston College of Education, with examples.
Prepare to Write
- Audience AwarenessA brief guide to identifying and writing for an audience.
- Public WritingA guide from University of Washington with practices and resources about writing for public audiences on the web and in other mediums.
- Writing Accessible StoryMap ContentA guide from ArcGIS explaining how to format and edit content for accessibility.
- Writing Clearly and Simply for the WebGuidelines for organizing and writing text content for general audiences on the web.
