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About

Storytelling is an integral part of life and has been for centuries. This digital storytelling community explores and shares how digital storytelling can be used in education as a learning tool, in assessment, in curriculum development, to disseminate research, and to build digital capabilities and graduate attributes.

Who should join?

Everyone who has an interest in digital storytelling in schools, further education, higher education or industry is welcome.

How to join

Sign up to the mailing list to keep updated and learn about online events where we can connect being launched in 2024.

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A community that explores and shares how digital storytelling can be used across education.

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Durham Digital Storytelling is a site created by Dr Teti Dragas (Durham Centre for Academic Development) that houses a number of higher education curriculum development projects that have sought to explore the affordances of meaningfully embedding digital storytelling into curricula to attend to specific pedagogic and educational motivations and outcomes.

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Adobe Firefly: Your all-in-one AI creative studio

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Firefly gives you the speed, control, and creative freedom to go from idea to high-quality content. Generate images, video, audio and more with 30+ AI models, all in one place.

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Latest edition

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In all communities, in all cultures, stories evolve from the culinary experience. Making media, like making a meal, requires guidance, learning from our friends through the sharing of recipes, and expertise from those who spend their professional lives in the kitchen. The Digital Storytelling Cookbook shares our experience, some recipes, and some humor, to help readers get started with their own storytelling experiences.
Preview a partial copy of our Cookbook (PDF)

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Digital Storytelling Cookbook PDF - STORYCENTER

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In all communities, in all cultures, stories evolve from the culinary experience. Making media, like making a meal, requires guidance, learning from our friends through the sharing of recipes, and expertise from those who spend their professional lives in the kitchen.

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Add digital storytelling to your online learning toolkit - Inspiring learning

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Chris looks at the fundamentals of digital storytelling and how it can play a part in effective online learning and assessment

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Create your video today.

Start creating stunning videos for free with Adobe Express. Build your brand on social, level up your promo and slideshow videos, and create unique personal projects with the all-in-one editor. When you're finished, export your video, then schedule and share it with the world using the Adobe Express Content Scheduler. No experience necessary.

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Create and edit videos using the Adobe Express free video maker online. Get started with free video templates, no experience needed.

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The Photos experience empowers you to do more with your photos and videos. Easily view, edit, compare, create albums and make movies of your special memories. The filmstrip shows all the items from that location and allows you to jump to other photos while staying immersed in the experience. You can also compare photos and videos in the same app window using the multi-view mode. This is activated by selecting multiple items from the filmstrip interface.​​ In the toolbar you'll get to work with edit, mark-up, favouriting, metadata and have quick access to third-party photo editors. Enjoy your photos edge to edge and distraction-free by easily hiding the toolbars with a single click in the app. Whether you are viewing or editing your photos, the Photos experience is intuitive, elegant and seamlessly woven into the fabric of Windows 11.

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Get Microsoft Photos - Microsoft Store en-GB

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The Photos experience empowers you to do more with your photos and videos. Easily view, edit, compare, create albums and make movies of your special memories. The filmstrip shows all the items from that location and allows you to jump to other photos while staying immersed in the experience.

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Get help viewing, editing and sharing movies on your Mac, iPhone, iPod touch and iPad. Find out more about iMovie with these resources.

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Free sound editing software

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Audacity ® | Free Audio editor, recorder, music making and more!

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Audacity is the world’s most popular audio editing and recording app. Edit, mix, and enhance your audio tracks with the power of Audacity. Download now!

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Getting your main point - the big idea

(a postcard summary that is easy to tell)

Your first task: decide what your story should be about.

A digital story works best when focussed on something specific - a single event, object etc. Trying to tell the whole story of your research makes it harder for the audience to relate to the story. It's also harder to write. Stick to the main point - think of the story as a teaser (like the back of a book cover), piquing interest in the bigger picture.

Make some notes on these three questions:

1. What makes your story important?

2. Why do you care about it?

3. Why should other people care about it?

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Getting your main point - the big idea (a postcard summary that is easy to tell) Your first task: decide what your story should be about. A digital story works best when focussed on something specific - a single event, object etc.

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The Images team, in collaboration with Chris Thomson (Jisc) have developed a training programme and online resources to enable you to create your own digital story to share your story with the public visiting the exhibition.
What's a digital story?
Quite simply it's a personal story that you produce yourself using digital tools. It includes:

Recorded voiceover of written story

Still images enhanced with subtle effects

Text

Optional music and sound effects

Minimal use of video

Credits

A digital story works best when focussed on something specific - a single event, object etc. Trying to tell the whole story of your research makes it harder for the audience to relate to the story. It's also harder to write.

So short stories (2-3 minutes) work best. This limits the information you can include, so you need to be economical and focussed, sticking to the point (a digital story can be thought of as more of a postcard, or window into something larger, than a novel).

You can listen to our Project Coordinator, Rachel Clark, describing the benefits and uses of digital storytelling here with digital solutions organisation, Jisc.

Here are some examples:

Scientific Research - Dear John

Public Engagement - Pi Day Live

Reflection on Research - Chris' Story
Wondering how to get started?
Check out the Images story builder website for hints and tips.
Happy with your story?
The next step of the process is converting you story to a storyboard. The easiest way to do this is to create a spreadsheet with column titles:

Script (What you hear)

Image (What you see)

Optional - Sound (special effect or soundtrack)

Credits (see section below for more details)

Credits
Finding and using images

To capture exactly what you want in an image for your story, consider setting up and taking the pictures yourself with help from friends or family. You need to credit the photographer as the image owner and have their permission to use the image for the purpose of your video. This is your responsibility and the Images team will check you have appropriate permissions.

Images in the public domain don't necessarily mean you can use them for free. Familiarise yourself with Creative Commons Licenses and look out for the codes on image websites such as Flikr and Google Images to ensure you credit the owner by listing:

Creator

Image Title

URL

Type of license

CC0 Public Domain

We recommend you start with these sites:

(change the last search box "Usage Rights" to Free to use or share)

Finding and using sound

Often, digital stories can be powerful in their simplicity, the viewer focussing on the power of your voice. If you wish to add sound effects or a backing track then you need to source sound files that are free to use for this purpose. You can't use a top 40 hit or your favourite band without their permission!

We recommend you start with these sites:

If you use any tracks or sound effects, you need to credit them in the same way as the images with Creator; Track Title; URL; Type of License.

To learn more about free and legal music download read this article.
Recording your voice over
Recording devices are available from Information Services, but often, the quality you can get from a smartphone is good enough. The location you record your voice over should be quiet, with no low level noise such as clock ticking, air conditioning or street noise, for example (this is harder than you might think!). If you're a student, the library has soundproof meeting rooms that you can book for a 2 hour slot. If you're a member of staff you can book Collins Court Senate for 30 minutes at a time through room bookings, it has no background noise.
Creating your video
The Images team recommend We Video, an online video building software that has excellent video tutorials to get you started. You can create a personal log in free of charge as a personal user. Once you've done that contact the Images team to be added to our institutional license to enable access to shared files and resources, and create videos without the watermark.

PowerPoint can be used to create short animations using simple effects, which can then be saved as a movie and imported into your We Video storyboard. Learn more about animation effects in PowerPoint here.

Prezi is also a good site for creating simple but effective graphic animation sequences.

There are also some great, freeware applications which enable you to create simple animations:

Moovly: https://www.moovly.com/

Create up to ten minutes of footage free. There are many online animation apps with free subscriptions (limited features) but this is one of the few that allows you to download your animation on the free plan.

GIFMaker: http://gifmaker.me/

Create animated GIFs to import to your We Video storyboard.

For specific help and advice or a copy of the training materials the Images Team are here to support you. Email us with any questions you have!

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Strathclyde Images of Research: storytelling

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The Images team, in collaboration with Chris Thomson (Jisc) have developed a training programme and online resources to enable you to create your own digital story to share your story with the public visiting the exhibition. What's a digital story? Quite simply it's a personal story that you produce yourself using digital tools.

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Digital Storytelling and Advocacy Webinar: Stories for Change

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StoryCenter supports individuals and organizations in using storytelling and participatory media for reflection, education, and social change

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Find images under the creative commons licence to use in your stories

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Join a global community working to strengthen the Commons

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Dr Maire Braniff's digital story about memory in divided societies and her research to address the issues