Seven Steps for Digital Storytelling

There have never been more forums for shooting and sharing video with others - the YouTube Presidential debate being the newest example. To support youth and the educators who work with them on media-making activities, the Adobe Digital Kids Club website offers this useful guide to digital storytelling, with detailed descriptions of the seven process steps. This guide divides the steps into four phases—pre-production, production, post-production, and distribution—and identifies the length of time, processes, and technology associated with each step.

"Our students are ready to read and write information beyond words — to use the media technologies of our era for effective communication. For those who have experienced process writing as a series of steps from brainstorming to a finished product, you can also think of digital storytelling as a series of process steps from start to finish. There are seven process steps divided into four phases: Pre-Production, Production, Post-Production, and Distribution. The technology tools, resources, and skills needed vary with each phase, but following these process steps will help your students translate their imagination and talents into exemplar digital stories worth the time and energy spent creating them.

Even though there are seven process steps outlined to guide students, digital storytelling is not a precise lock-step linear process. It is a creative process that sometimes takes its own path. Sometimes there are left turns — taking them may be the right intuitive thing to do. Other times, a project deadline prohibits taking the time to deviate from the storyboard in any significant ways."