What is Digital Storytelling?
Digital storytelling is a creative practice that combines personal narrative with digital media such as voice, photographs, video, music, sound, and text.
A digital story is usually a short video that shares a personal or community-based experience. It often begins with memory, reflection, and conversation before becoming a finished media piece.
The process helps storytellers identify what they want to say, choose the images and sounds that support their story, and communicate their experience from their own point of view.
Digital storytelling values personal voice, emotional meaning, careful listening, and the relationship between words, images, and sound. It is not only about producing a video, but also about creating space for people to reflect on lived experience and share stories in a thoughtful and meaningful way.
In this project, digital storytelling is used as a way for older adults to tell stories about companion animals. These stories are not only about pets, but also about care, affection, routine, loss, family, home, and the many ways animals become part of people’s lives.
Resources
This section gathers useful materials for people interested in digital storytelling.
These websites may be useful for learning more about digital storytelling, exploring examples, or finding inspiration for research, education, and community-based storytelling:
Simon Fraser University – Aging in the Right Place
This project uses digital storytelling to share the voices and experiences of older adults, especially those who have experienced homelessness, through personal narratives about housing, belonging, care, and home.
University of Melbourne – Digital Storytelling with Older Adults
This research project explores how older adults create and share stories, and how technologies can support social interaction through storytelling.
McMaster University – Writing Through Time: Older Adult Digital Storytelling
This project brings together older adults and university students to support storytelling, technology learning, and intergenerational exchange.
StoryCenter
StoryCenter is a nonprofit organization that supports digital storytelling, participatory media, and community-based storytelling practices through workshops, trainings, and public resources.