Determine which genre of digital story your students will create.
There are many different kinds of digital stories. Most are produced and shared as a video, but others are PDFs, audio-only files, animated GIFs, and more. A digital story is merely a digital artifact intended to convey a message or tell a story. The workflow to create a digital story is very similar between the genre, however, some genre require more detailed work and possibly scaffolding of the assignment.
Personal Narrative
Quality audio recording is one of the most important aspects of any video. If you don't have decent audio in your video, then your video becomes hard to watch. Learning how to record quality audio is essential in the creation of your digital story. Take a look at the resources below to learn more about recording quality audio.
Documentary
A documentary style digital story uses a range of media: images, audio, video clips, and interviews to illustrate key concepts and ideas through storytelling (aka case study) narrative. After gathering the interview/s, the documentarian can either take a position or leave it to the audience to come to their own conclusion.
Narrated Presentation
Quality audio recording is one of the most important aspects of any video. If you don't have decent audio in your video, then your video becomes hard to watch. Learning how to record quality audio is essential in the creation of your digital story. Take a look at the resources below to learn more about recording quality audio.
Public Service Announcement
Public service announcements (PSA) or public service ads are messages in the public interest, traditionally disseminated by the media without charge. Usually, the objectives of a PSA include raising awareness and changing public attitudes and behavior towards a social issue (Wikipedia). For example, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention has produced a number of video PSAs alerting people to the public health benefits of regular hand washing.
PSAs can be a good type of digital storytelling or media assignment if you want your students to research and present on a certain concept or point of view through an engaging yet brief project. These type of assignments are prominent in courses that deal with social issues, community outreach, or public health. They are ideal low barrier assignments because they are intended to be short, with one brief but important message, and they don’t require complicated media production techniques.