Digital Storytelling with Microsoft Word

With the current prevalence of multimedia, digital literacy is an essential skill. Digital storytelling can be a very successful way of building these skills in students. They combine visual elements with text and appeal to students with different learning styles. It is possible to produce high quality digital stories with Microsoft Word and Microsoft Office.

In this tutorial you will:

1) Learn how to generate all the elements needed for a digital story.

2) Learn how to save a Word file as a PDF file.

Tools: Microsoft Word

ICT Skill Level Required:

Educator Scenario

Claus is a teacher of 7 year olds. He is beginning to integrate ICT into his lessons. He knows that it will help him address the multiple intelligences of his class.

As a primary teacher Claus knows that stories help children understand the world and stimulate their creativity.

In this activity Claus’s students will produce a comic photo strip. They will work in pairs and create a story board first.

1. To create a comic strip in Word, you need to create a table first. Click on Insert and table. Create

one with 1 row and 3 columns. New cells can be added later if needed.

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2. Afterwards a picture can be inserted in each cell of the grid. The picture can be cropped or made

smaller. See how to insert a picture at this web link.

3. Add speech bubbles by selecting Insert and Shapes and then right click on the shape and Edit text

to add some text

4. In a story the same character(s) appear in different settings. Word has a built-in tool to change

the background. In this way you don’t need to add a new picture for each cell of your story.

Using this technique you can show historical figures visiting school; students can use their own picture and have themselves appear next to famous statues etc.

Click on a picture, select Picture Tools and Remove Background:

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The pink section is the background that will be removed. Drag the corners of the highlighted square to select the area you wish to remove. Right click on this new image and select wrap text – in front of text

5. You can now add another image into the cell as a background. First insert a new image, and then

drag your other image on top of it.

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6. The result can be shared with the rest of the classroom. If the strips are not printed out, it might

be best to save them as a PDF file so they can be viewed but not edited. Select file – save as – save as type - PDF

Further Resources and Ideas

Digital Storytelling in the classroom Teacher Guide Learn more about Multiple Intelligences

Framework Alignment

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UNESCO CfT – Technology Literacy (Pedagogy, Integrate Technology) ISTE – Facilitate And Inspire Student Learning and Creativity (1a,b,c) Design and Develop Digital

Age Learning Experiences and Assessments (2a,c)

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