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What is a Digital Story?
//Digital Storytelling is the modern expression of the ancient art of storytelling. Digital stories derive their power by weaving images, music, narrative and voice together, thereby giving deep dimension and vivid color to characters, situations, experiences, and insights.// - Digital Storytelling Association

A digital story is a 2-to-4 minute digital video clip, most often told in first person narrative, recorded with your own voice, illustrated mostly with still images, and with an optional music track to add emotional tone.

**Educational Uses for Digital Story Telling**
Digital Storytelling is a fantastic way to engage students, teachers and just about anyone else who has ever wanted to be the next Ken Burns or Steven Spielberg. There are many different definitions of "digital storytelling," but in general, all of them revolve around the idea of combining the longstanding art of telling stories with any of a variety of available multimedia tools, including graphics, audio, video animation, and Web publishing.

**Top ten Reasons to use Digital Storytelling in your classroom.**

 * Students will retain what they learn.
 * Promotes creativity.
 * Students will be engaged in their learning.
 * Students will practice “real-life” skills like time management.
 * Speaking, writing, reading and listening skills will be practiced.
 * Forces students to think at a higher level.
 * Students will improve their technology skills.
 * Helps to develop problem-solving skills.
 * It is fun!
 * Affirmation from the community.

**Social Studies**

 * Lewis and Clark**
 * Be one of the explorers and tell the story from their perspective
 * Historical event**
 * Groups of students tell their version of what happened making connections to the other student’s stories (weaving in the events bringing out the connections)
 * Authentic stories**
 * Compare and contrast current events to historical events
 * The decades project adapted, but with various “voices” (Each decade needs to find people from that decade to interview and explain significant events)
 * Our community**
 * Meet our community
 * Looking at our town, how have we changed?
 * Important people that have shaped our community
 * Regional or local stories**
 * Midwest, what is it like to live here?
 * How does weather affect the way people live, work and play?
 * Tell the “wild weather stories” from Illinois
 * Create a commercial and sell your region to the visitors bureau
 * Mr. Mayor you should know this

**Science**
**Language Arts** **Math Ideas** **Specials** **General Ideas**
 * Inventions**
 * Explain how inventions and discoveries are important to others
 * Simple machines, how have they changed the world?
 * Animals**
 * Tell the story from the butterfly’s point of view
 * Focus on descriptive words or anticipation
 * Informational story, follow the monarchs etc.
 * How have animals adapted?
 * Farming**
 * Tell the story of the fading small farmer
 * Challenges then and now
 * Technology on the Farm
 * Authentic student writing**
 * Students write stories and then illustrate or act out
 * Family tree stories (think about point of view of someone else)
 * Take a character to court, students are judge, jury etc.
 * Fiction**
 * Change the setting, how would it be different today?
 * Compare and contrast fairy tales from various regions
 * Change an ending to a favorite tales
 * Bring a set of characters to life and act out the story
 * Take a geometry walk and show and tell what you found
 * Math is all around the town, really where? Split up in groups and find out
 * Explain to others a concept like adding fractions using real life examples
 * Act out math problems using various strategies
 * Health**
 * How do we stay healthy? (Interview doctors, others)
 * Story from a different point of view, inside the heart, the opinion of the bones why we all like the circulatory system (tell the story about all working together)
 * Public service announcement about the importance of sleep, tell from the point of view of a sleepy driver, crabby sleepover breakfast, student in school. Embed science facts.
 * Nutrition portion size from what we should have to most restaurants, calories have two groups one healthy nutrition other fast food junkies, junkies try to get everyone eat not healthy.
 * PE**
 * Fitness, who cares?
 * History of a sport
 * Sell the PE teacher on something new
 * Create an Eye Toy ad for the couch potato
 * Art**
 * There are artists everywhere, meet some of our local artists
 * Meet the masters
 * Our artist changed the world because..
 * This is how graphics are created on the computer
 * Re-enact**
 * A piece of literature
 * A picture book
 * An event in history
 * Abraham Lincoln is more than a big statue in Washington
 * Study and debate issues important to students in the class
 * Instead of just images of the students as they graduate**
 * How we have grown…
 * Who were the teachers?
 * Scan some of the art projects
 * Funny things students remember
 * How the building changed
 * How has the world changed?
 * New products or changes (see the decade project)
 * Interview where we hope to go