What+is+a+Digital+Story?

**There are Seven Main Elements of a digital story:**

 * 1) **Point of View**- Your personal expressions from your own experiences. Use the personal pronoun "I" rather than third person point of view.
 * 2) **A Dramatic Question**-What gets resolved by the end of the story? You are always pursuing a question in your story.... " What is so important about visiting Washington DC?" or Why would anyone want to Visit Washington DC?" or What can I expect from a trip to Washington DC?"
 * 3) **Emotional Content-** You want to audience to get emotional- that means you have told a great story, tell us about your feelings, use your senses to describe what you are showing us. Example: " The Korean War Memorial was very emotional for me, the pictures on the wall made me realize that there were actual people that died in a far-away place, fighting for our country. When I saw my students putting their hands on the pictures I was touched."
 * 4) **The Gift of Your Voice**- Pitch and inflection give your story meaning- be excited when you are talking about exciting events, be sad when you are talking about something that made you sad. Make your voice match the mood of the area you are talking about.
 * 5) **The Power of the Soundtrack**- Only use music where it will enhance your story- make sure the mood of the music matches the mood of the story. This is not MTV or Youtube- you are telling a story, when you watch a movie pay attention to what music is playing in the background of each scene.
 * 6) **Economy-** Do not overuse special effects and transitions- they will actually make your story less interesting. The ones you use should be powerful.
 * 7) **Pacing-** Do not hurry to finish- pace your story so you have enough time to speak slowly when you need to and also have a chance to race forward when appropriate.

Here are some examples of digital stories created by students from the point of view of an object. The pages takes a few minutes to load so be patient. Listen to how the first digital storyteller uses his voice...