3 Types of Digital Stories:

·         Personal Narratives

·         Stories That Examine Historical Events

·         Stories That Inform or Instruct

PERSONAL NARRATIVES

Joe Lambert helped Digital Storytelling get off the ground as the co-founder of the Center for Digital Storytelling (CDS), a non-profit, community arts organization in Berkeley, California. Since the early 1990s, Lambert and the CDS have provided training and assistance to people interested in creating and sharing their personal narratives.

Personal narratives may be told in a variety of different ways, as described by the CDS:

• Character Stories – explore how we love, who we are inspired by, and the importance of finding meaning in our relationships.
• Memorial Stories – deal with memories of people who are no longer with us. These stories are often difficult but are emotionally powerful and can help with the grieving process.
• Stories about Events in Our Lives - deal with significant occurrences that we remember and want to share.  
• Adventure Stories – revolve around places we visit and adventures we have in our travels.  
• Accomplishment Stories – deal with achieving goals and understanding defining moments in our lives. 
• Stories about Places in Our Lives – examine the important places in our lives: our homes, our towns, and our experiences that connect us to our communities. 
• Stories about What We Do – allow us to talk about our jobs, professions and careers in terms of how we value and find meaning in the work we do. 
• Recovery Stories – deal with how we overcome great obstacles and challenges in our lives. 

Example: My Search

STORIES THAT EXAMINE HISTORICAL EVENTS

Although many personal narratives can include historical information to add context to the story, a different kind of digital story can be created from historical material that students might explore in a classroom. Audio recordings of United States President Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address and Lincoln's Second Inaugural Address are used as the basis of digital stories that explore famous events in American history. These digital stories were created by using early photographs taken during the American Civil War in the 1960s, as well as paintings and other materials found on the Internet.

Personal Narrative Example: My Search

Example:  The Gettysburg Address 

STORIES THAT INFORM OR INSTRUCT

And while it can be argued that all digital stories inform (and perhaps instruct), the distinction here is that there is room to create a separate category for stories that reflect instructional material in content areas such as math, science, health education and instructional technology. Pinhole Cameras is an example of a digital story that was created to inform students about how to construct and use their own camera by examining the history of pinhole cameras, how they work, and including images taken with such a device.

Example: Pinhole Cameras

And of course, stories can be created using combinations of these three methods such as an autobiographical story that uses historical material as the backdrop of a personal narrative.