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Breaking down barriers and exploring local heritage with young people
Digital Storytelling
What is Digital Storytelling (DST)?
Digital storytelling (DST) is a narrative method, that combines the tradition of oral storytelling with new technologies.
The stories you create, are based in personal memories of events and experiences, that are turned into short videos.
DST is a versatile tool that can be applied in different areas such as culture and education,
participatory research, and the world of work and business.
Everyone has a story to tell. Digital Stories are about real-life experiences. Each story is as individual as the person who made it.
Each Digital Story is made by the storyteller themselves, using his or her own photos, words and voice.
Digital Stories are short, personal, multimedia films that people can make for themselves. They're 'mini-movies'. Desktop computers enabled with video editing software are used to synchronise recorded spoken narratives with personal photographs, video clips, and selected images.
People of all ages and abilities make Digital Stories, and many have testified how rewarding the experience is for, when their story is shared with friends and family or posted on the web, they find they have discovered a new voice.
There's a strictness to the construction of a Digital Story: 250 words, a dozen or so pictures, and two minutes is the right length. As with poetry, these constraints define the form; and it's the observation of that form which gives the thing its elegance.
Digital storytelling has gathered momentum in Europe since 2003, when the BBC organised the first international conference on DST, in Cardiff.
We have been using DST in our Breaking Down Barriers project. On this website, you will find tips and guidance to help you make your own Digital Story. Including:
Return to the Toolkit menu, or continue to the next page (What is a Story?).
