Presentation by Daniela Bartalesi-Graf of Wellesley College at the Language Symposium 2012, hosted at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC). Story telling is an ancient art in every language and culture around the world. With the help of modern technology, story telling has become a digital experience, one that combines oral tradition and images captured by and stored on a computer. Digital story telling is a powerful and gratifying experience for both teachers and learners, and can be successfully employed in the language classroom. Students become active learners as they work through several stages towards a well defined objective: to write and illustrate a story in any genres, i.e. autobiography, fantasy, science fiction, fairy tales, history, essay, travel narrative, etc This step by step presentation will focus on how to guide students in creating, writing, revising and presenting a digital story telling project in any language and at any level of language learning, using Voicethread, a free web application. Handouts will include step by step instructions and rubrics, guidelines on how to conduct peer reviews and assessment. The presentation will include PowerPoint slides, and a discussion of a sample of students projects.

1. DIGITAL STORYTELLING
DANIELA BARTALESI-GRAF, Department of Italian Studies, Wellesley College
CRISTINA PAUSINI, Department of Romance Languages, Tufts University
Language Symposium 2012, University of Illinois at Chicago
April 13-14, 2012

2. Objectives of my presentation
• Define digital storytelling (DST) and show you
two samples of DST;
• discuss how the project can be organized in
several step in the course of one academic
semester;
• show how to use Voicethread, a software
(free online) that allows for the productions of
DST;
• discuss how a DST can be evaluated and
present the results of a students’ survey.

3. Objectives of my presentation
• Define digital storytelling (DST) and
show you two samples of DST;
• discuss how the project can be organized in
several step in the course of one academic
semester;
• show how to use Voicethread, a software
(free online) that allows for the productions of
DST
• discuss how a DST can be evaluated and
present the results of a students’ survey.

4. WHAT IS DST?
• A story entirely created by the student,
illustrated and told in the voice of the
student;
• Always includes images and a narrating voice; may include
video, music, sound;
• Created and published using Voicethread.com, a free software
available online;
• Consists of a file that can be saved and shared on a Learning
Management System (LMS) and/or on Voicethread.com;
• When a DST is “published” on Voicethread.com, anyone in the
class may record or write a comment(collaborative learning)

5. • Example 2: Il mito di Demetra e Persefone
(The Myth of Demeter and Persephone)

6. • Example 3: Il Testimone (The Witness)

7. DST VS. OTHER FORMS OF WRITING
• The use of images helps students identify, visualize
and integrate all of the elements that make up a
story:
• characters
• setting
• conflict
• resolution
• The voice narration is a powerful motivator to
improve pronunciation and intonation.
• Images, narrative, and sound are integrated in one
final project that can be easily shared and that
other students will watch, listen, and comment on.

8. DST VS. OTHER FORMS OF WRITING
• A DST project is complex and lasts one
semester (includes two feed backs from
teacher and other students, two
revisions).
• Students must follow a very tight
schedule that includes several steps.
• Result: they understand that writing is
the result of a long process (it’s not just
one chore completed in one session).
http://www.essaywriting.tk/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/Tips-to-Improve-the-Essay-Writing-Process.jpg

9. FLEXIBILITY OF DST
• DST supports different genres including:
• personal narrative
• travel
• fantasy
• fairy tale
• essay
• science fiction
• The story can be in the…
• present tense
• past tense
• future tense

10. Objectives of my presentation
• Define digital storytelling (DST) and show you
two samples of DST;
• discuss how the project can be
organized in several step in the
course of one academic semester;
• show how to use Voicethread, a software
(free online) that allows for the productions of
DST
• discuss how a DST can be evaluated and
present the results of a students’ survey.

11. STEPS IN THE DST PROJECT
1. Teacher shows an example of a DST.
2. Students submit the subject of their
story.
3. Students submit their storyboard.
4. Students submit a first version of the
story script. Instructor highlights
mistakes, writes comments and
returns it.
5. Revision: students correct their script;
load images on Voicethread and
record their story. Then they
“publis” their story, i.e. they make it
available to their classmates and
teacher.

12. STEPS IN THE DST PROJECT
6. Students watch 3 to 5 DSTs produced by classmates and
leave their comments directly on Voicethread (they
may record or write their comments).
7. Students modify their DST according to feedback
received from classmates and teacher; they hand in
an improved version of their scripts to the instructor.
8. Students meet with instructor to go over pronunciation
and proper intonation (“pronunciation clinic”).
9. When students receive a corrected version of their
script, they record the final version on Voicethread
and place a link on the LMS.
10. Final presentation: each DST is presented in class,
and students vote for two or three winners.

13. Objectives of my presentation
• Define digital storytelling (DST) and show you
two samples of DST;
• discuss how the project can be organized in
several step in the course of one academic
semester;
• show how to use Voicethread, a
software (free online) that allows for
the productions of DST
• discuss how a DST can be evaluated and
present the results of a students’ survey.

14. HOW TO USE VOICETHREAD
• Voicethread is free! There is no need to install new
software.
• Go directly to the site, sign up, create a three to six
minute story.
• Three major steps:
• Upload your images or video
• Comment (to record your voice)
• Share (to “publish” your DST)

15. • Upload your images (or a video) from “My
Computer”, Media Source (direct link to New York
Public Library: photos are uploaded with credit line),
or Webcam to take a picture of a drawing (works
like a mini-scanner).

16. • Add narration (your voice) using “Comment”.
• You need a microphone on your computer.
• “Comment” will also be used by other students to
leave their audio or written feedbacks on any DST.

18. • Students enter names and e-mail addresses of
classmates and instructor.
• Students then copy the link to their DST into the LSM
(blog or wiki)

19. Objectives of my presentation
• Define digital storytelling (DST) and show you
two samples of DST;
• discuss how the project can be organized in
several step in the course of one academic
semester;
• show how to use Voicethread, a software
(free online) that allows for the productions of
DST
• discuss how a DST can be evaluated
and present the results of a students’
survey.

23. SURVEY
What did you like the most about DST?
• Creating my own story (20)
• Improving my pronunciation (13)
• Avoiding a final oral presentation (8)
• Viewing and commenting other DSTs (7)
• The recording phase (6)
• Drawing and/or choosing the images/photos (5)
• The variety of DST’s stages (4)
• The oral and written components of the project (2)

24. SURVEY
What did you like the least about DST?
• Technical difficulties with Voicethread (19)
• Too many steps (12)
• Commenting on other DST projects (6)
• DST is very time consuming (4)
• It’s extra work on top of studying, homework, etc.
(3)

25. SURVEY
What would you change about DST?
• Eliminate a few steps (10)
• Nothing, I liked it the way it was (7)
• Nothing, it’s still better than an oral presentation (7)
• Assign a specific subject (4)
• Use different software other than Voicethread (3)
• A better distribution of the phases in the course of
the semester (3)
• Devote more time in class to DST (2)
• More technical help with Voicethead (2)

26. THANK YOU FOR YOUR
ATTENTION
DANIELA BARTALESI-GRAF
dbartale@wellesley.edu