Digital Stories

In the new curriculum the ELC has been exploring different media for assessing students’ English ability. In ELC 1011 Practical English for University Study, the first English course taken by many students when they arrive at PolyU, students are asked to produce a digital story as an alternative way to present their research than the ubiquitous formal presentation.

What is a digital story? Digital storytelling involves combining narrative with images and sounds to create a short movie. At its simplest a digital story could be a simple commentary accompanying a photo slide show.  But often our students prefer to explore beyond this, adding video clips, music, sound effects and captions to tell their story in an appealing and novel way.

Students generally use MS PhotoStory 3, MS MovieMaker, or for Mac users, iMovie. The software is surprisingly simple to use and after a very short time spent exploring it, students begin to produce interesting and innovative 6-minute movies. They are able to produce presentations which entertain more easily as well as inform in this format than in the traditional formal presentation, where their focus is largely on sharing information. 

For the digital story project our students research the issue of heritage conservation in Hong Kong, focusing on a particular heritage property of their choice. (Did you know the Hong Kong Government has a list of over 1,400 properties deemed heritage sites?) They range from famous landmarks like the Peninsula Hotel and Wong Tai Sin Temple, to lesser known sites such as the Sai Ying Pun Community Complex, said to be haunted following use at different times as a wartime execution hall and a mental asylum.

In addition to the usual internet and document searches they would conduct for other university projects, they conduct site visits, and search for images and music. This allows for discussion of copyright issues in a wider context than just academic integrity, and the course includes an exploration of Creative Commons licenses.

When they come to put the digital story together, students value the fact that they can relax and record their narration over and over until they are happy with it.  After all, this is an English assessment, so the narration is the most important part. Some students stick with the images and narration, and perform very well, but most get caught up in the new presentation media, and add music and effects to produce a digital story that goes beyond simple presentation.

Here is a digital story (Western Market) with references produced recently by a PEUS student, Michelle Chau Yuen Yee. We hope you enjoy it.