AI tools for digital storytelling
Have you been wondering about how to use new generative AI tools with your students? Do you want to navigate AI in creative ways with your students?
I’m excited to add a new module to my “Becoming a Digital Storyteller” course that focuses on how to use generative AI tools for digital storytelling with learners of all ages!
The next cohort of “Becoming a Digital Storyteller” kicks off on January 20th, and in the new module you’ll get to try out some powerful AI tools that you can use with your students to create images, videos, podcasts, infographics and digital stories.
For a sneak peek, I’ll share what I’ve been up to with DALL-E, an image generator linked to ChatGPT4.
#1. I put this prompt into DALL-E first: Please create an image inspired by Moby Dick and Captain Ahab's search for his nemesis, the white whale. The white whale should be huge and intimidating and should be closing on Ahab's ship. The scene should feel chaotic and dark. The outcome was this image:
Not bad, I thought! But I wanted to refine the image, so I put in a second prompt.
#2: The prompt read: Excellent. In the first image, can you highlight Ahab's face so the viewer can see his ultimate understanding that the whale will triumph and his quest will end in disaster for him and his crew? The outcome was the following image:
Hmmm… the whale really looks like a shark in this one. More refinement was needed.
#3: My third prompt was this: Could you make the whale look less like a shark and can you make Ahab's face slightly less large? The result…
We’re getting closer but that whale still isn’t right.
#4: My fourth prompt went like this: Can you make the whale look like a sperm whale?
Better! But I lost Ahab’s face again. Here comes prompt #5.
#5: The final prompt: Good. Now combine the last 2 images so I can see Ahab's face.
That’s it! This could be a movie poster, couldn’t it?
What is fabulous about using AI tools for image creation is that your students can dream up any kind of image to go along with a story they’re creating, or for a blog post or social media post. As long as they attribute the photo to its source (in this case, if I used this photo, I would want to include a caption saying it was created using DALL-E), this is a wonderful way to spark creative work. Experimenting with tools like this also helps students understand how to write prompts for AI that will produce the results they want; with more experience, your prompts can become more and more sophisticated.
If you don’t have access to DALL-E through ChatGPT4, there are lots of other AI tools out there, and I’ll explore several in the new module of “Becoming a Digital Storyteller”. Join me in the course and your students will be sharing powerful digital stories in no time! :)
