Storytelling With Purpose

PART I What Are Digital Stories? 

CHAPTER 1 

ELEMENTS OF DIGITAL STORIES 2 

Interactivity 2 

Multimedia 3 

Shareability 3 

Low Cost 4 

Accessibility, Equity, and Inclusion 4 

CHAPTER 2 

BEYOND WORDS: THE POWER OF MULTIMEDIA STORYTELLING 6 

Photography: A Thousand Words 7 

Audio: Storytelling with Emotion 8 

Video: Sculpting in Time 10 

Data Visualization: Painting by Numbers 10 

Illustrations: Pictorial Representations 12 

CHAPTER 3 

FINDING THE BEST WAYS TO TELL A STORY 16 

Choosing the Best Medium 16 

How to Create an Engaging Story 19 

Marketing Your Story and Storytellers 22 

CHAPTER 4 

ELEMENTS OF A GOOD STORY 23 

Clarity and Purpose 23 

Design for Your End User 24 

Structure: Stories as Learning Quests 26 

Elements of Story 26 

Why the End Is the Most Important Part of a Story 28 

CHAPTER 5 

HOW TO CREATE A STORY, STEP BY STEP 30 

10 Steps of the Storytelling Process 30 

Learning Together: Why, When, and How to Form Teams 33 

Tips for a Fun and Productive Storytelling Process 34 

CHAPTER 6 

DEVELOPING STORY TOPICS 37 

You Are What You Consume: A Storytelling Audit 37 

Where Do Good Stories Come From? 38 

Story Generation Techniques 39 

Choosing the Best Ideas 42

PART IIWhy Use Storytelling to Support Learning

CHAPTER 7

WHY DO WE NEED STORYTELLING? 46

How Storytelling Helps All Stakeholders 46

How Storytelling Helps Learners 47

CHAPTER 8

STORYTELLING FOR INQUIRY AND DESIGN THINKING 51

A Quest for Understanding 51

Seeing is Believing: Experiential Learning 55

Solutions-Based Learning: Storytelling as Design Thinking 56

How to Integrate Storytelling as Design Thinking in Your Classroom 58

CHAPTER 9

STORYTELLING AS ASSESSMENT 61

Why Use Storytelling for Assessment? 61

How to Use Storytelling to Assess Student Knowledge 62

Triangulate Student Growth with Stakeholder Evaluations 65

How to Grade Storytelling Projects 68

What to Assess 68

PART IIIStorytelling Projects

How to Use This Section 72

Timeframe 72

CHAPTER 10

UNIVERSAL STORY PROJECTS 73

Explainer Videos 73

Digital Books 75

Steps for Creating an Explainer Video or Digital Book 77

CHAPTER 11

ANTHOLOGY PROJECTS 79

Podcasts 80

Video Documentaries 80

Websites 80

Social Media Stories 80

Portfolios 81

CHAPTER 12

STORIES FOR OBSERVATION AND INQUIRY 82

Photography 83

Audio Story Projects 85

Video Documentary 89

CHAPTER 13

STORYTELLING FOR CREATIVITY AND DESIGN 93

Illustrations 93

Graphic Novels 97

Animation 98

CHAPTER 14

ADVOCACY: STORY PROJECTS THAT INSPIRE ACTION 101

What Do We Mean by “Advocacy”? 102

Public Service Announcement 104

Social Impact Graphic 106

More Advocacy Story Project Ideas 106

CHAPTER 15

WRITING FOR DIGITAL STORYTELLING 107

Writing for Ideation 108

Writing for Research 108

Scripts for Digital Storytelling 111

How to Sound Like a Real Person 114

Writing for Context 114

Organizing Thoughts: How to Structure Digital Stories 115

Get Attention: Titles, Captions, and Taglines 115

Postscript on Writing Digital Stories 117

CHAPTER 16

QUICK WIN PROJECTS TO TRY TOMORROW 119

Me, Myselfie, and I 119

The Story of You 119

Six-Shot Story 120

Interview an Expert 120

Social Media Story 120

APPENDIX A

TOOLBOX FOR DIGITAL STORYTELLING 121

Choosing the Right Tool for the Job 121

Tools by Process 122

Tools Listed by Project 126

APPENDIX B

ETHICAL STORYTELLING 128

Ethics of Storytelling 128

Resources and Guidance for Legal and Ethical Storytelling 130

Resources for Royalty-Free Media 130

APPENDIX C

TEACHING AND LEARNING RESOURCES 132

Books 132

Other Resources 133

BIBLIOGRAPHY/WORKS CITED 136

Citations 136

INDEX 139