The PIC training interns created digital story’s, their stories are about their journey in one of the workshops they attended this summer. Digital stories its most basic core is the practice of using computer-based tools to tell stories. There are a wealth of other terms used to describe this practice, such as digital documentaries, computer-based narratives, digital essays, electronic memoirs, interactive storytelling, etc.; but in general, they all revolve around the idea of combining the art of telling stories with a variety of software, including graphics, audio, video, and more.

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As with traditional storytelling, most digital stories focus on a specific topic and contain a particular point of view. However, as the name implies, digital stories usually contain some mixture of computer-based images, text, recorded audio narration, video clips, and/or music. The topics used in digital storytelling range from personal tales to the recounting of historical events, from exploring life in one’s own community to the search for life in other corners of the universe, and literally, everything in between.

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Despite its emphasis on computer technology, digital storytelling is not a new practice. One of the fields’s most noted pioneers are Joe Lambert, the co-founder of the Center for Digital Storytelling (CDS), a nonprofit, community arts organization in Berkeley, California. The CDS has been assisting young people and adults in the creation and sharing of personal narratives through the combination of thoughtful writing and digital media tools since the early 1990's. 

We were particularly interested in Digital Storytelling, in new ways to use digital platforms to tell stories and in the ability of youth, who are now growing up in a digital world, to figure out new ways to tell stories.

Today the use of digital stories are being practiced in neighborhood community centers, schools, libraries and businesses, by novice technology users to those with advanced skills. Interns got to chose to use PowerPoint, Scratch or create a simple narrative video to create their stories.