EDCI 5784: Inquiry-Based Learning with Digital Technologies: Digital Storytelling

Tell a story using five photos. Basically, that's it. Figure out the story you want to tell and then use five photos to tell it. If you need to edit, add filters, etc. in order to get the effect you want, go for it.

Using either Microsoft Word, creating your own webpage, or using a website like LinkedIn, create a "fake" resume for a fictional person or character of your choice. Add detailed descriptions and make the resume relevant to the character. Resume must include a profile, work history, education, and skills. Locations, job positions, and companies can be made up! Use your creativity!

For this assignment create a place by just using sound. For example, make the listener know where they are if outside use birds, cars, etc. You can get sounds from https://freesound.org

Record a day in the life of your host character. Using your character's voice and Audacity, explain what happens during their typical day. Where do they work, what do they eat, who do they live with? Try to make it at least one minute long.

Use the online organizational tool, Kumu, to create a web map of relationships. This can be anything: contacts, movies, your Ds106 assignments. Kumu offers a stellar way of organizing information and honing in on relationships between information. Maybe try converting a paper from another class into a Kumu map. In this way, using Kumu forces you to further explore the relationships between sources and source material.

Take a favorite poem, inspiring quote or passage from a book (or even a movie monologue, if you like!) and record yourself reading it. Then set it to original video you've recorded with some kind of music or sound effect in the background. The final video should be at least a minute long. The goal of this assignment is to tell a story that evokes a specific mood--sadness, joy, hope, anger, fear, peace, wonder--and to do so not only through the literal meaning of whatever you choose to read, but through your use of original video and music or sound effects. Be creative!

Design a newspaper. Using Word, photoshop, or whatever, make a fictional newspaper, and put together the front page for today. You can use real articles or you can write your own, but the design of the newspaper should be original.

Find an old archive: letter, postcard, photograph, memo, computer document, e-mail. Then, form a story surrounding the piece. Develop a general, basic narrative or back story and characters. It doesn't have to be super long; it can be a haiku or a novella--your choice. Let the past inspire you!

Using Knightlab's Story Map, create a map telling a story of a trip you took or would like to take. Include pictures. They can be your own, or from flickr (just give them credit).

Sometimes pictures can say much more than words. A diagram can provide the "aha" effect to help the readers better understand the written text. However, a video can be the happy medium to combine the two. For this assignment, find a written explanation of a concept and a simple illustration/diagram that further clarifies that concept. Then make a movie combining the two.

A free web-based tool to create graphics, video, and web pages.

Free audio recording and editing software.

Free web-based design tool that enables users to create a wide range of document types.

Free, Creative Commons-licensed downloadable sounds.

Apple's native video editing software. Intuitive and free with Apple products.

"A non-profit library of millions of free books, movies, software, music, websites, and more." Many are in the public domain.

Over a million icons that can be incorporated into projects. Icons utilize a variety of Creative Commons licenses.

A free web-based design tool for creating infographics, presentations, and other designs.

Freely available, Creative Commons licensed images.

Soundcloud is a place to upload audio files that can be embedded in other sites.

Free, openly licensed, high-quality images.

The home of DS106, a digital storytelling class originally offered at the University of Mary Washington and now participated in by people from all around the world. The digital storytelling prompts used in EDCI 5784 came from the DS106 assignment bank, and there is an abundance of resources available on the site.

2023 update: The site seems to load slowly and may not be being updated anymore or as frequently as it once was.

A guide to digital storytelling in education from the University of Houston. Contains lesson plans, links to software, tutorials, and more.

Storycenter is a nonprofit that "supports individuals and organizations in using storytelling and participatory media for reflection, education, and social change."