Monday, May 14, 2012

Grabbing images for digital stories, Day #3--Digital Storytelling in a nutshell

After brainstorming topics for a digital story and creating a storyboard, the next best step is to begin grabbing images. When I taught digital storytelling to my students, this task proved most difficult as I found students did not understand how to correctly acknowledge images.

To teach image pairing, it is helpful to have students build sensory maps that connect each emotion/message in the storyboard to one of the senses (sight, sound, touch, taste, feel). This allows students to begin thinking of images that may coincide with specific scenes. This is an important step in the brainstorming process that should not be skipped.

Once the appropriate sensory map is complete, students can begin searching for or creating images that match the sensory description. However, it is best to first explain where to find images, how to find them, and how to acknowledge images.

How image licensing works: 

  • There are several types of licenses students should look for when searching:
    • Public Domain photos (not under license) 
    • Creative Commons
    • Fair use
  • Creative Commons licenses are the ideal license because they are flexible and speak to both the user and the owner. Essentially, they allow the owner to build a license that can still allow viewers to copy and share. And, it is all done within the boundaries of traditional copyright. Creative Commons license are perfect for 21st ideals of collaboration and thought. 
    • Attribution: others can share, copy, distribute your work if they give credit in the way you specify
    • Share alike: Others can distribute derivatives of your work if they maintain the same license on their work
    • Non commercial: Other can copy, share, distribute your works and their derivatives if it is for non commercial purposes
    • No derivatives: Others can only quote your work verbatim--no derivatives 
  • The University of Maryland University College has a good write-up on fair-use and other copyright information. 
  • This write-up on stock photos also contains valuable copyright information
  • Kathy Schrock has a set of guidelines on copyright and fair use. 
  • This presentation by Amy Hopkins provides a good overview of copyright and fair use as well. 

Where to search for images:


How to find images (correct keywords):

  • When available, always use the advanced search options in search engines. This is where you can specify what type of licenses you want to search under. Google does not default to searching Creative Commons licenses, but you can change that under advanced search.
  • Just like in the previous series on searching and evaluating, keywords are essential--start with a search question and narrow it down to a keyword. 

How to acknowledge images: 

  • The Purdue OWL offers details on MLA and APA styles as they pertain to images. 

The Kathy Schrock Tech Quest also provides valuable copyright/image links. 

Pairing emotions and messages with images is just the beginning of creating an effective digital story. Be sure to spend careful time on each step in the process. 

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