Exploring Digital Stories

Next, have students complete the fill-in-the-blanks exercise in the student chapter What is a digital story? to identify what makes a compelling digital story:

A digital story should be clear. People should understand your point of view and understand why the story is important to you. The parts should work together to make your audience feel a certain way. You can have the words and images tell a story together or let just the words tell the story and use the images to set a mood or feeling.

Next, show one of the example digital stories to the class, then have them answer the following questions in the student chapter Exploring digital stories:

• Did they like it? Why or why not?
• What audio and visual elements were used to tell this story?
• How well did they work together?
• What do you think the message was? How clear was it?
• If they were asked to make a digital story on the same or similar theme, what (if anything) would they do differently?

(If you prefer, you can distribute video links to the students and have them watch individually.)

When students have answered the questions, have them share their thoughts with the class.