Digital Storytelling and Flickr

Coronet Cluster: A Neighbor of Star Formation (A region of
star formation about 420 light years from Earth.), a photo by
Smithsonian Institution on Flickr.

Digital storytelling has the potential to be a very valuable tool in teaching. It is defined as "The practice of combining narrative with digital content including images, sounds, and video to create a short movie typically with a strong emotional component" Net.Educause.com. Basically, it is the use of technology to create a personalized version of a story, be it your own unique idea or a new take on an old one. It has been proven that the use of multimedia aids help in learning retention and the photos found on Flickr and the stories that can be created on Bookr help with this process.

Digital stories can be highly edited and produced audio and video or simple slides with music in the background. It is a great way to present historical, instructional, persuasive, or reflective stories. It is not easy though to create a story as it requires careful thinking and consideration of who your audience is and how best to reach them. A story tailored for a 1st grader would most likely not be deep enough to gather the interest of a 4th grader and vice versa. Digital stories are great tools to use for groups to work together on or indivudals to create.

There are many different applications of digital storytelling for teachers. All of them require you to be creative to implement them. One way they can be used is for teachers to enhance lesson plans with. Instead of reading from a text, teachers could deliver information through a story to the students who then could reflect on the story. It engages students with images, audio, and video elements that they would not get from a paper text book. Students could also create their own stories with proper instructions from the teacher on how to make them. They could research a topic and write their point of view on it or create their own stories from historical events. Another fun way to implemnent it would be to have them read a fictional story and create their own story to summarize it and present it to classmates. Using these tools develops communications skills by learning to organize their ideas, express opinions, construct a narrative, and present stories and knowledge gained University of Houston Digital Storytelling Website.