Digital Stories

Creative writing and storytelling both play a huge role in most elementary classrooms. Whether students are using a daily journal or creating their own stories, writing and creativity are classroom essentials. Students are always encouraged to think creatively and outside the box when they write. What could be more creative than allowing your students to turn their stories into a movie?

Digital storytelling is the new way of intertwining technology with storytelling. Digital stories can be composed of pictures, video clips, text, recorded audio narrations or music. The stories can vary in lengths but most digital stories range between two and ten minutes. There are no limits to the topics of digital stories. They can be based on personal experiences, historical events, fictional tales, or educational material.

Digital stories are also very simple to create. All you need is access to the internet and a program that will allow you to create you movie. I have only worked with iMovie to create digital stories and it is an excellent program. You can easily navigate the program and drop in pictures, videos or music in seconds. If you have access to iMovie it is an excellent tool to use in a classroom. You can teach your students how to use the program and allow them to share their stories with the class in a movie format. I plan on using digital stories frequently in my classroom because it is a fun and creative new way for students to share their ideas and stories.