Use Of Storyboards In The Classroom

Storyboards, most popularly used in the TV and film industries (Branham, Wahid, & McCrickard, 2007), tell stories and depict events through pictures (Sova & Sova, 2006). Conveying large amounts of information, showing orders of events, and being easy to understand are all reasons that storyboards do not only belong in the TV and film industries. Storyboards are most commonly created in pencil, using a visual language that can be followed and understood. While sometimes story boards include words, screen shot directions and descriptions, the pictures are to be universally understood. Storyboards most often include portrayals of time, include people and emotions, include text, and have a certain amount of detail included (Branham, Wahid, & McCrickard, 2007). Storyboards are gaining acceptance outside TV and film because of their usability and powerful communication potential. Storyboards are great ways to visually present an idea, depict time and sequences of activities, remove language and cultural barriers, facilitate idea recognition, and enable audience feedback. Because pictures are often worth a thousand words, even simple pictures can convey action, relationships, emotion, and environmental details. In most cases, storyboarding is faster and easier than writing (Sova & Sova, 2006). Storyboards are also finding their way into the classroom. Technology classes are digital storytelling, where the students use their creativity to design their storyboard on paper, use a camera to shoot a video, and then edit their video using computer software (Jonassen, Howland, Marra, & Crismond, 2008). Storyboarding can be used for more than videos in the world of education as well. Because it is such an easy way to plan, it

can be used if students are creating a series of visuals as well. Storyboard planning could be easily used to arrange a series of Power Point slides, transparencies, or a series of computer screens (Smaldino, Lowther, & Russell, 2008). This process could also cement series of events to memory for history class, help to visualize biological processes in life science, or create patterns to remember computer programming steps in technology, all by drawing and adding text to the storyboard. Storyboards are available in many different styles and set-ups. The choice is up to the user to decide which works for the creator.

Available at http://www.schoolhousevideo.org/Pages/Storyboard.pdf, this template is set up for a student’s use. This template would provide a user-friendly version for students to fill in with their visual layout and allow space for the notes of screen shots, narration, character notes, etc. While this layout allows for six screens to be shown which allows for greater planning visually, it limits the amount of in-depth

planning that can be included. This template would probably be most useful for younger students and could be used if a class needed to be able to see many steps of a process at once. However, without more room to plan for digital storytelling or another similar project, this template may not be the best choice.

This template was downloaded from http://www2.csd.org/showmemovie/storybrd.pdf. This template is set up for more indepth planning and possibly more advanced users. The amount of planning with this template would take more explanation on the instructor and the students would have to be ready for more work. However, because there is more room for planning, there is less room for the visual part of the storyboard. There are two of these setups included on an 8.5 by 11” sheet of paper, making the details more prominent. A high school or higher education level class doing digital storytelling or movie making or other similar project

would find this template easy to use and helpful as they put together more in-depth projects.

Templates and explanations from instructors would make learning and creating storyboards easier. Depending on which level of class one was teaching, there are resources that could help to engage the students in a project of this nature.

Branham, S.M., Wahid, S., and McCrickard, D.S. (2007). Channeling Creativity: Using Storyboards and Claims to Encourage Collaborative Design. Retrieved June 4, 2009, from http://www. people.cs.vt.edu/~mccricks/papers/bwm-cc07.pdf.

Jonassen, D.H., Howland, J., Marra, R.M., & Crismond, D. (2008). Meaningful learning with technology (3rd ed.). Columbus, OH: Pearson Education, Inc.

Smaldino, S, Lowther, D, & Russell, J. (2008). Instructional technology and media for learning (9th ed). Columbus, OH: Pearson Education, Inc.

Sova, R. and Sova, D.H. (2006). Storyboards: a Dynamic Storytelling Tool. Retrieved June 4, 2009, from www.teced.com/PDFs/upa2006_storyboards_a_dynamic_storytelling_tool.pdf.