Digital Storytelling Using Microsoft PowerPoint

As the coach of our school’s Student Technology Leadership Program, I have had the privilege of engaging students in digital storytelling and entering the best stories into a contest held each year at the state level. My students have been quite successful and have won first place in 4 out of the past 5 years. Each year the students have used Microsoft PowerPoint as the building block for the digital stories. Microsoft PowerPoint is quite flexible, but normally is used for lectures or presentations to large groups. The students needed a program to use which was universal so that anyone could open and view their stories. They decided to use PowerPoint because the students could add pictures and narration as well as the text. Choosing the subject was totally up to the students. Three years ago, one student suffered a devastating flood in his neighborhood. He grabbed his camera and began shooting pictures of the homes on the outside, the inside of the homes showing the mud and school books which were ruined, and the flood waters from the river flowing through their yards. He told his mother that he was going to create a book telling the story of the flood and the loss from the children’s point of view. He used his photos in the book he created digitally adding the photos to a PowerPoint slide along with the text boxes holding the words to his story. He then narrated the story and when the judges opened up the PowerPoint, they were able to hear him reading his own digital story from a great distance away. The County government thought this was such an important historical document that the head of the government came to school and gave the student a commendation as an Ambassador for the county. Another student just simply made an alphabet book about careers. He found one career for each letter of the alphabet, and he took his digital camera to take pictures of the people who held each job. One of the photos was a Zoo Keeper. This particular student was fascinated with animals, and his parents took him to the Columbus, Ohio Zoo where he met the famous animal trainer Jack Hanna who agreed to have his picture taken for the digital book! Again, he used Microsoft PowerPoint using 1 slide for each letter of the alphabet. He also narrated the story within the PowerPoint program. Digital storytelling is a powerful method of writing expression for students. In addition, the students learn how to create PowerPoint slides and how to narrate their own stories. To see a story created by one of the students, please visit our web site @ http://tinyurl.com/opxyatd