What is the core of your story?

Ohler (2008) suggests that Digital Story creation is aided by taking the same approach as real life; introduce a problem, challenge, or question, present opportunities for learning and growth, and lastly present opportunities for applying learning. Although the author does explore various twists on that basic approach, I whole heartedly agree with Ohler.

Fig.1. Stories are problems, transformations, and solutions (Ohler, 2008, pg.73., Fig.5.1

DST should be interesting enough to hold the learners attention, yet informative enough to reward the learner with new knowledge. But how do create this type of learning?  How do we turn Ohler's suggestions into sound pedagogical learning design? 

 "The story core is an apt metaphor for a unit of instruction" (Ohler, pg.74. para.2). Using Ohler's approach, learning creators might break up the story into units of instruction that relate to the story progression.  The idea of course is to transform the learner, allowing them to both acquire knowledge and complete learning assignment. But, in an engaging and emotionally involved way!

Fig.2. Story transitions can be instructional units (Ohler, 2008, pg.74, Table 5.1

A theme that Ohler suggests repeatedly throughout the book, there is no one way to create DSTs. I agree with Ohler on this point as well. In fact, story cores can even be written after the larger story is written as a way of ensuring the story conforms to the basic problem-transformation-solution sequence.