Digital storytelling is more than just supplementing text with technological baubles. Learners must distill essential ideas from their research, identifying reliable text and supplementing it with imagery, and synthesize this knowledge into a deliverable that evidences their mastery of the content being studied, regardless of the subject or discipline.
Interview with Joe Lambert Podcast
The founder and director of the Center for Digital Storytelling. Every community
has a memory of itself. Not a history, nor an archive, nor an authoritative record
... A living memory; an awareness of a collective identity woven of a thousand
stories. - Joe Lambert
Interview with Bernajean Porter Podcast
She talks about some of the resources available on Bernajean’s DigiTales site,
and she gives some great tips for teachers who are interested in trying a
digital storytelling project with students. Look at her Digital Storytelling Camp
page for links to specific documents that she mentions.
The founder and director of the Center for Digital Storytelling. Every community
has a memory of itself. Not a history, nor an archive, nor an authoritative record
... A living memory; an awareness of a collective identity woven of a thousand
stories. - Joe Lambert
Interview with Bernajean Porter Podcast
She talks about some of the resources available on Bernajean’s DigiTales site,
and she gives some great tips for teachers who are interested in trying a
digital storytelling project with students. Look at her Digital Storytelling Camp
page for links to specific documents that she mentions.
There have been great societies that did not use the wheel, but there have been
no societies that did not tell stories.-
Ursula K. LeGuin
no societies that did not tell stories.-
Ursula K. LeGuin
Articles
Digital Storytelling Resource Kit
Beyond Words: By the author of Digitales: the art of digital storytelling. Porter discusses the
concept of digital storytelling as well as the power of digital media to convey
visual imagery.
Becoming 21st Century Story Keepers
Bernajean Porter emphasizes the difference between telling what happens and
uncovering the personal meaning of a story.
Students weave digital tales of Oakland life:
Fifth grade students use iMovie to voice experiences and emotions of life in their neighborhood.
Telling Tales With Technology
A comprehensive site that includes storytelling background information, extensive resources, and strategies for implementation.
Does storytelling change in context of new forms of media?
The article introduces the new interactive literacy concept. Are there differences
in the reading and the writing experience with digital versus print?
Digital Storytelling Across the Curriculum
Using Digital Place-Based StorytellingTo Teach Geographical Thinking
Place-based storytelling, a new adaptation of digital storytelling, a storytelling
vehicle that combines free, user-friendly digital mapping technologies to create
online maps with stories about significant places (both historical and personal).
Digital Storytelling in the Language Arts Classroom:
The article presents an overview a digital storytelling framework and strategie for implementation.
Making a Case for Digital Storytelling:
David Jakes gives examples how digital storytelling empowers some self conscious
writers to voice their peronal stories.
Primary Sources for Digital Storytelling entice students to question and analyze
Visual Imagery and the Art of Persuasion:
The power of pictures to make conncections between images and their associated
meaning. Includes suggestions for a visual literacy project on persuation.
Preserving Indigenous Traditions Through Storytelling:
RadioKids project to preserve Hawaiian traditions. A good example for
intergenenrational projects.
- articles exploring ways to use digital storytelling in the classroom;
- cross-curricular digital storytelling lesson plans you can use right away.
Beyond Words: By the author of Digitales: the art of digital storytelling. Porter discusses the
concept of digital storytelling as well as the power of digital media to convey
visual imagery.
Becoming 21st Century Story Keepers
Bernajean Porter emphasizes the difference between telling what happens and
uncovering the personal meaning of a story.
Students weave digital tales of Oakland life:
Fifth grade students use iMovie to voice experiences and emotions of life in their neighborhood.
Telling Tales With Technology
A comprehensive site that includes storytelling background information, extensive resources, and strategies for implementation.
Does storytelling change in context of new forms of media?
The article introduces the new interactive literacy concept. Are there differences
in the reading and the writing experience with digital versus print?
Digital Storytelling Across the Curriculum
Using Digital Place-Based StorytellingTo Teach Geographical Thinking
Place-based storytelling, a new adaptation of digital storytelling, a storytelling
vehicle that combines free, user-friendly digital mapping technologies to create
online maps with stories about significant places (both historical and personal).
Digital Storytelling in the Language Arts Classroom:
The article presents an overview a digital storytelling framework and strategie for implementation.
Making a Case for Digital Storytelling:
David Jakes gives examples how digital storytelling empowers some self conscious
writers to voice their peronal stories.
Primary Sources for Digital Storytelling entice students to question and analyze
Visual Imagery and the Art of Persuasion:
The power of pictures to make conncections between images and their associated
meaning. Includes suggestions for a visual literacy project on persuation.
Preserving Indigenous Traditions Through Storytelling:
RadioKids project to preserve Hawaiian traditions. A good example for
intergenenrational projects.
“By telling our personal stories of challenges we have faced, choices we have made, and what we learned from the outcomes, we can inspire others and share our own wisdom,” Marshall Ganz
Digital stories are a way for people to explore their own feelings through the retelling of a critical incident. Critical incidents are personal events that hold significance for the individual; these events do not need to be momentous, but can tell the story of a small, everyday interaction that is remembered as significant or leads to self reflection.
Joe Lambert
Types of Stories
Interview Stories
Personal Stories
Interview Stories
Personal Stories
Seven Elements
From Digital Storytelling Cookbook Joe Lambert, et al.
Click on each element for detail
From Digital Storytelling Cookbook Joe Lambert, et al.
Click on each element for detail
The Digital Age is the Storytelling Age... we all get to tell our stories in our own
way on the great stage of the Internet...
Jason Ohler
way on the great stage of the Internet...
Jason Ohler
National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature by the Library of Congress, young adult author Jason Reynolds is bringing his storytelling to students virtually through videos and newsletters as part of his “GRAB THE MIC: Tell Your Story Program.” Reynolds is committed to empowering young writers—particularly writers of color—to tell their own stories Reynolds posts videos with writing prompts and creativity-boosting activities. Reynolds is calling his video series “Write. Right. Rite.” All together he describes it as an “express-yourself-the-way-you-want-to ritual.” In addition, Reynolds is sending a newsletter for parents and teachers, which the Library describes as a “place where Jason Reynolds can talk directly to you and share his thoughts on relevant topics of the day.”
Resources
- Tips for Better Digital Storytelling
- Get Started with Digital Storytelling
- Build Literacy through Digital StorytellingAuthentic opportunities for reading, writing, speaking, and listening
- Digital Storytelling Across the Curriculum
- Six Elements of Good Digital Storytelling Learn the fundamentals to finding success with digital storytelling.
- Advanced Thinking in Digital Storytelling Remember that less is more!
- Connecting Students to History Using primary sources and digital storytelling to connect students to history.
- Ken Burns on Storytelling Ken Burns explains what he thinks are some of the key themes in the art of storytelling. One of the things that stands out to me is his assertion that "all story is manipulation."
- Planning: Sample storyboard template
- Digital Storytelling Through Interviewing
- A Digital-Storytelling Approach to Public Service Announcements
- Four Steps to Great Content from Vimeo’s Video School
- Animating Stories
- Animated Powerpoint Stories
- Digital Storytelling 4 Kids 2013 all our participants’ ideas and projects in one place
- Educational Uses of Digital Storytelling
- Digital Storytelling a page by Shambles Guru
- Stories Come Alive a Wiki by Traci Blazoski
- Free ebooks
- Digital Storytelling Tools by Silvia Tolisano
- Effective Mobile Learning: 50+ Tips & Resources by Shelly Terrell
- Digital Storytelling in the Classroom by MicroSoft
- Film School for Video Podcasters
Examples
DigiTales: The Art of Telling Digital Stories
A site by author Bernajean Porter dedicated to instruction, resources, examples and training opportunities all related to digital story telling.
Student-created samples to get a ideas for digital storytelling you can use in your classroom.
Creative Educator video examples and lesson ideas
Digital Storytelling Through Interviewing with examples, such as interviewing an historical figure or an animal.
Visual Poetry Video example Poetry’s purposeful word choice encourages close, careful reading. Have students create digital storytelling versions of text poems to demonstrate their comprehension of the author’s word choice and intent. As they create their visual poems, students ”interpret words and phrases as they are used in a text, including determining technical, connotative, and figurative meanings, and analyze how specific word choices shape meaning or tone.” (CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.CCRA.R.4)
Stories for Change
The power of community digital storytelling rests in its ability to inspire, connect, and incite action within and between local groups; the goal of Stories for Change is to further nurture that spirit online.
Center for Digital Storytelling
Originated at U.C.Berkley, the Center espouses the principle that every
individual has a story to tell. This site contains examples, resources,
instructional materials, learning opportunities and a cookbook.
David Jakes On-line
A site by renowned digital storytelling workshop presenter dedicated to using
the tools of the digital age to advance pedagogical practice and student
learning.
JasonOhler.com
Visit Jason Ohler's site for information on his upcoming book and links to
other digital storytelling resources.
Examples in a variety of media
Book Trailers Samples | How to Student book reports, even digital ones, tend to be superficial information dumps: the title, the author, a summary, and an opinion. Instead of this sort of low-level book report, ask students to create a short, fast-paced book trailer. Much like the movie trailers students are familiar with, book trailers should be designed to hook the audience, showcasing the text in a way that motivates viewers to choose this particular book from the library Tech Head Stories extensive list of stories by adolescents and adults
StoryCorps
National project to "instruct and inspire Americans to record one another's
stories in sound." Also includes questioning kit for interviewing.
News Report video example Our students have grown up watching television. Many students spend nearly as much time watching TV than they spend in school! One of the few television program types kids do not enjoy watching is, of course, the news. Challenge your students to come up with a news report they would actually want to watch based on the content they are learning.
This I Believe
A guide with an example of using this writing format for use with
K - adult applications.
Densho
Preserved testimonies of Japanese Americans incarcerations during WW II
Capture Wales
A BBC sponsored this digital story telling site, which has individuals create
and edit their own personal stories. A great example of the power multimedia presentation can have in capturing human experience.
Bringing Digital Storytelling to the Classroom
Wide variety of examples from adults to students.
American Slave Naratives
Video Biography video example There are few tasks in school, students dread more than writing a biography. Motivating students to do their best work is sometimes difficult, especially when they realize that no one other than their teacher will see their work. To give student writing additional importance, create an audience more expansive than the walls of your classroom. Remind students that biographies aren’t always books…perhaps they have watched television shows about a favorite singer or musician or enjoyed an A&E biography about someone they admire.
Interviews Assignments that ask students to summarize and share information as a report or presentation are easily completed by copying and pasting from source materials. Asking students to present their research results as a first-person interview makes information dumping much more difficult. A typical interview is a question-and-answer session between two people, but you can expand the definition to include animals, viruses, or even a historic artifact. Interviewing non-human subjects, like the polio vaccine or the boat Washington used to cross the Delaware, provides awesome opportunities for student expression. A first-person interview requires students to recode informatio n into their own words. It helps them learn to arrange, combine, and prioritize facts and ideas. In a world awash with information, interviewing helps students realize that knowing which questions to ask — and how to ask them — is as important as knowing all the answers. Public Service Announcements sample Many of today’s important issues, like climate change and public health, cross curricular boundaries between language, science, and social studies. Tap into student passions by asking them to create public service announcements (PSA) that inform viewers about these issues and encourage them to take action. To craft an effective PSA, students must become powerful communicators who can use organization, voice, and word choice to raise awareness and change behavior. Developing a PSA also provides an authentic reason to consider audience and combine informational, narrative, and persuasive writing.
Storynory or go to iTunes -> podcasts-> Kids and Family
Audio stories. podcasts, for primary age children
This American Life
NPR show of personal humorous, adventurous and reflective
stories. Click on All Episodes at the tope.
Dana Atchley's Next Exit
The father of digital storytelling's archive.
Centre for Future Storytelling
MIT Media lab and Plymouth Rock Studios. "By applying leading-edge technologies to make stories more interactive, improvisational and social, researchers will seek to transform audiences into active participants in the storytelling process..."
Bernoulli Principle digital storytelling
more science digital stories some much better than others
Place-based storytelling
An adaptation of digital storytelling, a storytelling vehicle that combines free,
user-friendly digital mapping technologies to create online maps with stories
about significant places (both historical and personal).
article
Digital Storytelling Finds its Place in the Classroom - article by Tom Banaszewski, learn about the Place Project done with fourth and fifth grade students. This article focuses on how digital storytelling hooked children (grade 4) onto writing. It provides the step-by-step process the author used.
MapTales The user creates a story that integrates w/ a map by plotting points/locations. These "points" contain information and images that the user creates. This is a great way to share a story w/ visuals or even engage audiences w/ an exciting book report. Best of all once a Tale is create it can then be embedded into a site and shared w/ others.
University of Houston The Educational Uses of Digital Stories
Click on the Examples button for samples in numerous categories.
Digital Storytelling Institute
San Francisco based initiative. Make sure you see the Digi Award winning entries
Video in the Classroom Second grade movies
My Hero Website
A series of digital stories about the unsung heroes of this world.
Storytelling Podcast Directory
Audio stories for all ages from classics to original text.
Digitalestories
Video examples, resources and provides space to submit digital stories to for
online publication.
Creative Narrations
Students and adults tell personal introspective stories
Scott County Schools
Elementary and middle school
Moonlit Stories
Southern ghost stories read aloud.
Putting the Story into Digital Storytelling
A presentation style .pdf file that stresses the student components of creating
a digital story including the mechanics of story writing such as the elements
of performance literacy - before committing it to a digital format.
A Day in Our Neighborhood Project
The Northwestern University Collaboratory Project invites all K-12 students to participate in the A Day in Our Neighborhood to learn more about the
communities around us. You may just want to use the concept without
actually joining the online project.
ESL high school students stories
http://faculty.lagcc.cuny.edu/eiannotti/7.1/#3
http://faculty.lagcc.cuny.edu/eiannotti/Level8.1/
High School Samples
Samples from KQED contest
Youtube
Numerous examples
TeacherTube
A video site which provides educators with a place to view and upload videos. Similar to YouTube, but the site is monitored. A good site to upload student videos.
Educational Uses of Digital Storytelling
Steps for implementing digital storytelling in classrooms. Includes resources. Techszewski
Tom Banaszewski's blog is a great place to read about — and see examples
of digital storytelling over the years. He also includes links to other valuable resources in the field.
A site by author Bernajean Porter dedicated to instruction, resources, examples and training opportunities all related to digital story telling.
Student-created samples to get a ideas for digital storytelling you can use in your classroom.
Creative Educator video examples and lesson ideas
Digital Storytelling Through Interviewing with examples, such as interviewing an historical figure or an animal.
Visual Poetry Video example Poetry’s purposeful word choice encourages close, careful reading. Have students create digital storytelling versions of text poems to demonstrate their comprehension of the author’s word choice and intent. As they create their visual poems, students ”interpret words and phrases as they are used in a text, including determining technical, connotative, and figurative meanings, and analyze how specific word choices shape meaning or tone.” (CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.CCRA.R.4)
Stories for Change
The power of community digital storytelling rests in its ability to inspire, connect, and incite action within and between local groups; the goal of Stories for Change is to further nurture that spirit online.
Center for Digital Storytelling
Originated at U.C.Berkley, the Center espouses the principle that every
individual has a story to tell. This site contains examples, resources,
instructional materials, learning opportunities and a cookbook.
David Jakes On-line
A site by renowned digital storytelling workshop presenter dedicated to using
the tools of the digital age to advance pedagogical practice and student
learning.
JasonOhler.com
Visit Jason Ohler's site for information on his upcoming book and links to
other digital storytelling resources.
Examples in a variety of media
Book Trailers Samples | How to Student book reports, even digital ones, tend to be superficial information dumps: the title, the author, a summary, and an opinion. Instead of this sort of low-level book report, ask students to create a short, fast-paced book trailer. Much like the movie trailers students are familiar with, book trailers should be designed to hook the audience, showcasing the text in a way that motivates viewers to choose this particular book from the library Tech Head Stories extensive list of stories by adolescents and adults
StoryCorps
National project to "instruct and inspire Americans to record one another's
stories in sound." Also includes questioning kit for interviewing.
News Report video example Our students have grown up watching television. Many students spend nearly as much time watching TV than they spend in school! One of the few television program types kids do not enjoy watching is, of course, the news. Challenge your students to come up with a news report they would actually want to watch based on the content they are learning.
This I Believe
A guide with an example of using this writing format for use with
K - adult applications.
Densho
Preserved testimonies of Japanese Americans incarcerations during WW II
Capture Wales
A BBC sponsored this digital story telling site, which has individuals create
and edit their own personal stories. A great example of the power multimedia presentation can have in capturing human experience.
Bringing Digital Storytelling to the Classroom
Wide variety of examples from adults to students.
American Slave Naratives
Video Biography video example There are few tasks in school, students dread more than writing a biography. Motivating students to do their best work is sometimes difficult, especially when they realize that no one other than their teacher will see their work. To give student writing additional importance, create an audience more expansive than the walls of your classroom. Remind students that biographies aren’t always books…perhaps they have watched television shows about a favorite singer or musician or enjoyed an A&E biography about someone they admire.
Interviews Assignments that ask students to summarize and share information as a report or presentation are easily completed by copying and pasting from source materials. Asking students to present their research results as a first-person interview makes information dumping much more difficult. A typical interview is a question-and-answer session between two people, but you can expand the definition to include animals, viruses, or even a historic artifact. Interviewing non-human subjects, like the polio vaccine or the boat Washington used to cross the Delaware, provides awesome opportunities for student expression. A first-person interview requires students to recode informatio n into their own words. It helps them learn to arrange, combine, and prioritize facts and ideas. In a world awash with information, interviewing helps students realize that knowing which questions to ask — and how to ask them — is as important as knowing all the answers. Public Service Announcements sample Many of today’s important issues, like climate change and public health, cross curricular boundaries between language, science, and social studies. Tap into student passions by asking them to create public service announcements (PSA) that inform viewers about these issues and encourage them to take action. To craft an effective PSA, students must become powerful communicators who can use organization, voice, and word choice to raise awareness and change behavior. Developing a PSA also provides an authentic reason to consider audience and combine informational, narrative, and persuasive writing.
Storynory or go to iTunes -> podcasts-> Kids and Family
Audio stories. podcasts, for primary age children
This American Life
NPR show of personal humorous, adventurous and reflective
stories. Click on All Episodes at the tope.
Dana Atchley's Next Exit
The father of digital storytelling's archive.
Centre for Future Storytelling
MIT Media lab and Plymouth Rock Studios. "By applying leading-edge technologies to make stories more interactive, improvisational and social, researchers will seek to transform audiences into active participants in the storytelling process..."
Bernoulli Principle digital storytelling
more science digital stories some much better than others
Place-based storytelling
An adaptation of digital storytelling, a storytelling vehicle that combines free,
user-friendly digital mapping technologies to create online maps with stories
about significant places (both historical and personal).
article
Digital Storytelling Finds its Place in the Classroom - article by Tom Banaszewski, learn about the Place Project done with fourth and fifth grade students. This article focuses on how digital storytelling hooked children (grade 4) onto writing. It provides the step-by-step process the author used.
MapTales The user creates a story that integrates w/ a map by plotting points/locations. These "points" contain information and images that the user creates. This is a great way to share a story w/ visuals or even engage audiences w/ an exciting book report. Best of all once a Tale is create it can then be embedded into a site and shared w/ others.
University of Houston The Educational Uses of Digital Stories
Click on the Examples button for samples in numerous categories.
Digital Storytelling Institute
San Francisco based initiative. Make sure you see the Digi Award winning entries
Video in the Classroom Second grade movies
My Hero Website
A series of digital stories about the unsung heroes of this world.
Storytelling Podcast Directory
Audio stories for all ages from classics to original text.
Digitalestories
Video examples, resources and provides space to submit digital stories to for
online publication.
Creative Narrations
Students and adults tell personal introspective stories
Scott County Schools
Elementary and middle school
Moonlit Stories
Southern ghost stories read aloud.
Putting the Story into Digital Storytelling
A presentation style .pdf file that stresses the student components of creating
a digital story including the mechanics of story writing such as the elements
of performance literacy - before committing it to a digital format.
A Day in Our Neighborhood Project
The Northwestern University Collaboratory Project invites all K-12 students to participate in the A Day in Our Neighborhood to learn more about the
communities around us. You may just want to use the concept without
actually joining the online project.
ESL high school students stories
http://faculty.lagcc.cuny.edu/eiannotti/7.1/#3
http://faculty.lagcc.cuny.edu/eiannotti/Level8.1/
High School Samples
Samples from KQED contest
Youtube
Numerous examples
TeacherTube
A video site which provides educators with a place to view and upload videos. Similar to YouTube, but the site is monitored. A good site to upload student videos.
Educational Uses of Digital Storytelling
Steps for implementing digital storytelling in classrooms. Includes resources. Techszewski
Tom Banaszewski's blog is a great place to read about — and see examples
of digital storytelling over the years. He also includes links to other valuable resources in the field.
Tools
Video Editing
- The Stillmotion Way they focus on telling stories to which people have an emotional response. How they do that is revealed in a five part series that they published on Vimeo.The series takes you through the planning, shooting, and editing of a video. Storytelling the Stillmotion Way series isn't a how-to on the technical side of production as it is a how-to plan and think about the process of producing a great video. (www.freetech4teaching.com )
- MovieMaker 2 Click here for Tutorials
Excellent MM2 resources at: Microsoft Windows Movie Maker tips, tutorials, unique special effects, forums
and more... - Web of Stories This is a site designed to tell stories through the use of a camcorder, remember Macs have one built-in.. A person can either upload their video or record straight from their site. Users even have the ability to edit/trim their video.
- iMovie 11 Tutorials
- How to use Green Screen in iMovie
- My Simpleshow is a free tool for creating Common Craft style explanatory videos. The best aspect of My Simpleshow is the emphasis that the developers have placed on storyline planing and development. As is demonstrated in my tutorial below, students have to write a script on My Simpleshow before they can begin to use the video editing tools. video tutorial
- Plotagon is a playful new app making stories come to life, with you in the director’s seat. Write your story, choose the characters, and press play iPad | Mac and Windows
- Popcorn Maker is a free tool for crafting videos that incorporate images, remixed video clips, links, and social feeds. video tutorial
- Render Forest is an online video-maker. You can learn more about it from The ASIDE Blog
- Google Tour Builder allows users to tell stories using Google maps, images, videos, and text. It is a fantastic tool for students to use to show what they know about different topics. Maybe students are summarizing the chapters of a book and each placemark represents a different chapter. Or perhaps students create a tour to share summaries of current events happening around the world. video tutorial (freetech4teachers.com )
- DigitalStoryteller is the sister project to PrimaryAccess; where PrimaryAccess focuses on history education, DigitalStoryteller is intended for English/Language Arts instruction.
- Findery This is a public, collaborative Google Map community where users publish stories about any location in the world
- UTellStory is sort of a streamlined VoiceThread that I think is easier for both teachers and students to use. You can make slideshows with your own images or grab ones off the web and easily add a audio you record, as well as text, to it. You can make them private or public, and they’re embeddable. You can also let your slideshows be re-used and mixed by other
- StoryWeaver has two interesting you probably can use with students in class. There is the Translator tool which allows anyone with an interest in children’s stories to contribute with translating stories from the website. The way it works is east: simply select the language you want to translate to and the one you like to translate from and StoryWeaver provides you with suggestions of stories to work on. There is also the Story-Creator tool which allows students to write their own stories and share them with others. As a teacher, you can use StoryWeaver with your students to access stories for different age groups and reading levels.https://storyweaver.org.in
- Adobe Voice. Adobe Voice App allows you to record your voice, import pictures, and write text to create a short video.
- Plotagon App making stories come to life, with you in the director’s seat. Write your story, choose the characters, and press play – it's that simple.
Plotagon Website to download for a computer
Storehouse app for creating, sharing, and discovering new stories. Students can use this app to create beautiful stories to share with others. Storehouse allows them to combine photos, videos and text to design their stories. They can easily add photos and videos from their iPad Camera Roll, Dropbox, Flickr, and Instagram. video overview
i Tell a Story app Choose a picture from your photo album, tell a short story about it, add music from your library and sound effects from the small library in the app. Save the story to be played on your iPad, or email it as an .m4a audio file that can be opened with apps like iTunes or Windows Media Player
Shadow Puppet the excellent free mobile iOS app for creating digital stories/videos has just released their biggest update. Version 2.0 allows users to upload video, search the web for animated gifs/images, add music from your iTunes library, and even draw on the screen for annotating. This is a very easy tool to use and allows educators/students to "flip" a lesson, cover a topic, or introduce digital storytelling. Also, Shadow Puppet has updated their site which has lots of different lesson plans, samples, and examples of how teachers are integrating SP into their classroom.
MovieToons ideal for digital storytelling. This is a super fun and great way for students to embrace their creativity by selecting characters, backgrounds, and animations, to create their very own unique 3D digital story. A finished story can then be shared online for others to view and rate.
mysimpleshow With this web-based video tool teachers and students can make their own animated explainer video. (Also see wevideo below) It’s free to use and users can create videos that show students how to complete a task, or use it as an option for students to record a video that demonstrates their understanding. It gives both teachers and students an opportunity to create a shareable product. mysimpleshow gives users the option to choose a storyline to structure their thoughts and add images to their video. There is also the option for users to add a voiceover by recording their voice or using a computer character. The new PowerPoint import feature makes the process quicker and easier than before. There’s no need to write a script from scratch anymore since users simply upload their PowerPoint to mysimpleshow and it extracts the most relevant text setting it up in a script format.
Wideo is a nice tool for creating Common Craft-style videos. You can create animated videos on Wideo by dragging and dropping clipart and text in storyboard frames. You set the position and animation sequence for each element in each storyboard frame. When you have completed your storyboards Wideo generates a video for you.
Wideo added a new feature that allows you to build interactive buttons into each frame of your video. The buttons can be hyperlinked to any webpage that you like. When people are watching your video they can click the buttons to be taken to the webpage you want them to land on. For example, clicking the buttons in the video embedded below will take you to the website of my favorite animal rescue organizations.
Scribeasy iPad app - an environment in which students can write short stories. Students create stories on Scribeasy by first selecting a background image then dragging and dropping additional pictures onto their chosen background images. When students select objects to add to their backgrounds, a narrator reads the name of the object aloud. Once the visuals are in place on Scribeasy students then write a story about the scenes they've created. The next step is where Scribeasy shines. Scribeasy gives students a list of suggested words to use in their stories. The writing process is a timed activity. Students can choose to write for a short, medium, or large amount of time (they can extend the time if needed). Completed stories are saved in the app. Students can also save their stories to the camera roll on their iPads
StoryMapJS, users can enter images with captions and credits, and those images are tied to locations on the map. Any story that has a geographic element would benefit from the addition. In addition, the tool allows you to do what they call “gigapixel image mapping” as well. It allows users to upload a large image, then zoom into parts of the image to tell part of the story. To see a sample, visit the how-to post on their site.
TeleStory is a video-creation app that starts students with a scene, face-detecting costumes, cue cards, and special effects, and lets them create their own themed TV shows. Kids first choose a theme and then select a scene and cue card. They choose a costume (hats, wigs, glasses, helmets) that fits onto their image using face-detecting technology and then record their scene.
Imagistory is a creative storytelling app which uses wordless picture books. The idea behind the wordless books is that kids get to be the storytellers, simply by using their imaginations to tell the story using the pictures, creating it as they go. It's a new way for kids and parents/teachers to share a story together, ones which can be told a different way every time. It's also a great tool for engaging the imagination and helping to foster creativity and language skills.
Draw and Tell a drawing app for kids of all ages. Draw or color, add stickers, then talk about your drawing. Move the stickers to create an animation! Your memories and voice recording will be saved with your drawing.
Web of Stories is a site that easily allows students to tell their stories or interview a family member or friend about theirs.
Adobe Voice. This free iPad app is very user friendly and makes the storytelling process simple for children young and old. Kids can add pictures, text, and even choose from different icons to bring their stories to life. Adobe Voice has an easy recording feature for students to add their voice as narration. There is a music library and a selection of themes for users to pick out and include in their final product.
Toontastic app to create cartoon videos
Animated Powerpoint Tutorial
WriteReader is a multimedia writing platform for K - 2 teachers and students. The appeal of WriteReader is found in the collaboration between students and teachers. Students can create multimedia books that teachers log into to correct. Each page of a book has a space for students to write in and a space for teachers to write in. Teachers use the space on the page to correct spelling errors and or make editing suggestions. WriteReader books can include text, pictures, and voice recordings. Completed WriteReader books can be shared online and can be downloaded as PDFs to print. Its drawback is that the child cannot draw illustrations and must upload images.
Edventure Builder is an innovative new site that is perfect for sparking student's creativity by providing a online platform for creating: scavenger hunts, interactive stories, or choose your own adventures. Also, this is a fantastic tool that educators can use to build mobile lessons, interactive tours (think Back to School night or outside activities), and more.
The way this works is quite simple, from a browser a user can create an adventure (i.e., lesson, hunt, tour, etc) by adding text, images, video, and links. Then by clicking a button it gets published to any browser based mobile device. Best of all, are the different features that allows a user to fully customize their adventures and edit, save, and publish them easily.
Little Story Maker app Add pictures, text and audio to create a story. Three playback modes - read to me, read by myself, and auto-play which automatically turns from page to page.
Jellybean Writer is a free tool for creating picture books. Students can import pictures from their computers then write captions for each image. A variety of layout templates, background colors, and fonts are available to Jellybean Writer users. All stories can be saved online or downloaded and printed. If picture books are too simple for your students, they can skip using pictures and select one of the text only templates for the pages in their books. You do have to create an account to access the reading questions and writing tools on Jellybean Scoop. Teachers who create accounts for themselves can also create and manage accounts for their students.
Story Jumper
An online tool that makes creative writing fun for kids. Using our interactive workbook and lesson plans, teachers spark students' interest in developing and writing complete stories. Kids can then put their creativity and project skills to work in crafting their very own professionally published hard-back books! http://www.storyjumper.com/main/teacher
Infinite Canvas Built around the concept of an expandable story map with an interactive part that allows you to create a project with multiple paths, and let the viewer/reader/player make decisions that brings you along various paths of a story. video
i Tell a Story app Choose a picture from your photo album, tell a short story about it, add music from your library and sound effects from the small library in the app. Save the story to be played on your iPad, or email it as an .m4a audio file that can be opened with apps like iTunes or Windows Media Player
Shadow Puppet the excellent free mobile iOS app for creating digital stories/videos has just released their biggest update. Version 2.0 allows users to upload video, search the web for animated gifs/images, add music from your iTunes library, and even draw on the screen for annotating. This is a very easy tool to use and allows educators/students to "flip" a lesson, cover a topic, or introduce digital storytelling. Also, Shadow Puppet has updated their site which has lots of different lesson plans, samples, and examples of how teachers are integrating SP into their classroom.
MovieToons ideal for digital storytelling. This is a super fun and great way for students to embrace their creativity by selecting characters, backgrounds, and animations, to create their very own unique 3D digital story. A finished story can then be shared online for others to view and rate.
mysimpleshow With this web-based video tool teachers and students can make their own animated explainer video. (Also see wevideo below) It’s free to use and users can create videos that show students how to complete a task, or use it as an option for students to record a video that demonstrates their understanding. It gives both teachers and students an opportunity to create a shareable product. mysimpleshow gives users the option to choose a storyline to structure their thoughts and add images to their video. There is also the option for users to add a voiceover by recording their voice or using a computer character. The new PowerPoint import feature makes the process quicker and easier than before. There’s no need to write a script from scratch anymore since users simply upload their PowerPoint to mysimpleshow and it extracts the most relevant text setting it up in a script format.
- Explanation Essentials Guide, which is designed to shake up your approach to presenting and provide useful strategies that focus on clarity and explanation excellence. Click here to download the guide (PDF)
Wideo is a nice tool for creating Common Craft-style videos. You can create animated videos on Wideo by dragging and dropping clipart and text in storyboard frames. You set the position and animation sequence for each element in each storyboard frame. When you have completed your storyboards Wideo generates a video for you.
Wideo added a new feature that allows you to build interactive buttons into each frame of your video. The buttons can be hyperlinked to any webpage that you like. When people are watching your video they can click the buttons to be taken to the webpage you want them to land on. For example, clicking the buttons in the video embedded below will take you to the website of my favorite animal rescue organizations.
Scribeasy iPad app - an environment in which students can write short stories. Students create stories on Scribeasy by first selecting a background image then dragging and dropping additional pictures onto their chosen background images. When students select objects to add to their backgrounds, a narrator reads the name of the object aloud. Once the visuals are in place on Scribeasy students then write a story about the scenes they've created. The next step is where Scribeasy shines. Scribeasy gives students a list of suggested words to use in their stories. The writing process is a timed activity. Students can choose to write for a short, medium, or large amount of time (they can extend the time if needed). Completed stories are saved in the app. Students can also save their stories to the camera roll on their iPads
StoryMapJS, users can enter images with captions and credits, and those images are tied to locations on the map. Any story that has a geographic element would benefit from the addition. In addition, the tool allows you to do what they call “gigapixel image mapping” as well. It allows users to upload a large image, then zoom into parts of the image to tell part of the story. To see a sample, visit the how-to post on their site.
TeleStory is a video-creation app that starts students with a scene, face-detecting costumes, cue cards, and special effects, and lets them create their own themed TV shows. Kids first choose a theme and then select a scene and cue card. They choose a costume (hats, wigs, glasses, helmets) that fits onto their image using face-detecting technology and then record their scene.
Imagistory is a creative storytelling app which uses wordless picture books. The idea behind the wordless books is that kids get to be the storytellers, simply by using their imaginations to tell the story using the pictures, creating it as they go. It's a new way for kids and parents/teachers to share a story together, ones which can be told a different way every time. It's also a great tool for engaging the imagination and helping to foster creativity and language skills.
Draw and Tell a drawing app for kids of all ages. Draw or color, add stickers, then talk about your drawing. Move the stickers to create an animation! Your memories and voice recording will be saved with your drawing.
Web of Stories is a site that easily allows students to tell their stories or interview a family member or friend about theirs.
Adobe Voice. This free iPad app is very user friendly and makes the storytelling process simple for children young and old. Kids can add pictures, text, and even choose from different icons to bring their stories to life. Adobe Voice has an easy recording feature for students to add their voice as narration. There is a music library and a selection of themes for users to pick out and include in their final product.
Toontastic app to create cartoon videos
Animated Powerpoint Tutorial
WriteReader is a multimedia writing platform for K - 2 teachers and students. The appeal of WriteReader is found in the collaboration between students and teachers. Students can create multimedia books that teachers log into to correct. Each page of a book has a space for students to write in and a space for teachers to write in. Teachers use the space on the page to correct spelling errors and or make editing suggestions. WriteReader books can include text, pictures, and voice recordings. Completed WriteReader books can be shared online and can be downloaded as PDFs to print. Its drawback is that the child cannot draw illustrations and must upload images.
Edventure Builder is an innovative new site that is perfect for sparking student's creativity by providing a online platform for creating: scavenger hunts, interactive stories, or choose your own adventures. Also, this is a fantastic tool that educators can use to build mobile lessons, interactive tours (think Back to School night or outside activities), and more.
The way this works is quite simple, from a browser a user can create an adventure (i.e., lesson, hunt, tour, etc) by adding text, images, video, and links. Then by clicking a button it gets published to any browser based mobile device. Best of all, are the different features that allows a user to fully customize their adventures and edit, save, and publish them easily.
Little Story Maker app Add pictures, text and audio to create a story. Three playback modes - read to me, read by myself, and auto-play which automatically turns from page to page.
Jellybean Writer is a free tool for creating picture books. Students can import pictures from their computers then write captions for each image. A variety of layout templates, background colors, and fonts are available to Jellybean Writer users. All stories can be saved online or downloaded and printed. If picture books are too simple for your students, they can skip using pictures and select one of the text only templates for the pages in their books. You do have to create an account to access the reading questions and writing tools on Jellybean Scoop. Teachers who create accounts for themselves can also create and manage accounts for their students.
Story Jumper
An online tool that makes creative writing fun for kids. Using our interactive workbook and lesson plans, teachers spark students' interest in developing and writing complete stories. Kids can then put their creativity and project skills to work in crafting their very own professionally published hard-back books! http://www.storyjumper.com/main/teacher
Infinite Canvas Built around the concept of an expandable story map with an interactive part that allows you to create a project with multiple paths, and let the viewer/reader/player make decisions that brings you along various paths of a story. video
Audio Tools
- Podcasting Resources
- AudioBoo Create audio files and find archived files of experts and storytellers
- Audacity Windows and Mac downloads for Audio editing You will also nee the Lame download for converting to mp3. After you go to either the Windows or Mac download site scroll down to find the lame encoder download. The first time you export to mp3 you will have to navigate top where you saved the lame file. Recording and Editing with Audacity
A screencast about recording with Audacity audio editing software. There are accompanying screen shots and commentary on the Web site. 5 Great Video Tutorials on How to Create Podcasts Using Audacity - Podomatic Recording & Searching Podcasts with Podamatic
- SoundCloud create podcasts and add comments. that appear as the recording plays.Click the Upload button to record or upload a recording. tutorial
- Vocaroo-Really popular and easy podcast tool
- myBrainShark-Make free podcasts up to 15 mins long
FindSounds
Free sound effects for videos, Powerpoints, podcasts, and plays.
Free Sounds
SoundzAbound - Royalty free music accessed online from anywhere
SoundGator There are twenty-three recording categories that you can browse through to find the perfect sound for your project. You do have to register on SoundGator in order to download recordings.
FreePlayMusic.com
Internet Archive
Creative Commons Audio
History and Politics Outloud
For more extensive audio resources go to the multimedia link on the Resources page
Slide Show Tools
Photo Story 3
Free simple to use slide show program from Microsoft. You can add text and
audio to your slide show.
Voice Thread
A collaborative multimedia slide show where people can discuss and respond
to images. All browser-based. VoiceThreads: Extending the Classroom with Interactive Multimedia Albums article with lesson ideas. Tutorial pdf and here is a starter sheet
edvoicethread.com is a filtered educational site from Voice Thread. There is a one time $10 fee. Ideas for using Voice Thread | 100 ways to use Voice Thread in education
Narrable is a neat service for creating short narrated slideshows. It is kind of like VoiceThread mashed with Animoto.
UtellStory is a new service for creating and sharing audio slideshows. To create and share your story through UtellStory you can upload pictures, add text captions, add audio narration to each slide, and upload a soundtrack to support your entire story. Completed projects can be embedded into your blog, emailed to your friends, or shared through your favorite social networking sites. Watch UTellStory's introduction here.
Lumen5 Short videos from jounalistic sites (including Ed Week and Edutopia) and create from scratch have included images overlaid with text, accompanied by music. They’re very engaging, and I’ve wondered how they create them.
The History Project is a service described as StoryCorps With Timelines. It is designed to help people record and share personal stories in a timeline format. Each event on a timeline can include multiple pictures, text, and audio that you either record in the service or upload from a previously made recording. The History Project added a new format in which users can share stories. Vignettes are short slideshows of up to twelve images with minimal text. The slideshows automatically display in full screen at web addresses that are automatically assigned to them.
Imagistory free iPad app This is a "wordless" picture book where students can record their own narration of the story that they select. As they open the book, the story begins to record through the iPad's microphone. Once a story is finished it can then be saved and played back or record a new version of your story. This is a great app for the younger kids to introduce them to digital storytelling and get their creative juices flowing.
Adobe Voice. This free iPad app is very user friendly and makes the storytelling process simple for children young and old. Kids can add pictures, text, and even choose from different icons to bring their stories to life. Adobe Voice has an easy recording feature for students to add their voice as narration. There is a music library and a selection of themes for users to pick out and include in their final product.
StoryMap JS is a tool for creating mapped stories. On StoryMap JS you create slides that are matched to locations on your map. Each slide in your story can include images or videos along with text. As you scroll through your story there are simple transitions between each slide. StoryMap JS integrates with your Google Drive account. To get started with StoryMap JS you have to grant it access to your Google Drive account. StoryMap JS will create a folder in your Google Drive account where all of your storymap projects will be saved.
Applications for Education
One of the best examples of StoryMap JS for classroom use is found in the Manifest Destiny storymap featured on the StoryMap JS homepage.
Heganoo is a tool that allows you to build multimedia placemarks on a map. Your completed map can be displayed in a variety of formats including a slide-by-slide format that allows viewers to see placemark information as slides while viewing the map in the background. Placemarks in your map can include pictures, videos, and text. Check out the sample American Revolution map embedded below. Applications for Education
Heganoo, like tools similar to it, could be a good tool for students to use to create stories about historical events and current events that involve multiple locations.
Vuvox
An excellent tool for students to use to create multimedia presentations. Students could use Vuvox to create a documentary-style slideshow that includes images and video.tive slide shows. Interactive capabilities.
Messagehop combine photos with animated text. Not limited to the amount of text you can input. video tutorial
Meograph story (click here to watch one about women's rights in the USA) you will notice that it is very similar to a watching a narrated Google Earth tour. That is because it is based on the Google Maps and the Google Earth browser plug-in. As the story plays you can stop it to explore additional content in the forms of videos, texts, and images.
An innovative new site for four dimensional storytelling that has an educational port
Free simple to use slide show program from Microsoft. You can add text and
audio to your slide show.
Voice Thread
A collaborative multimedia slide show where people can discuss and respond
to images. All browser-based. VoiceThreads: Extending the Classroom with Interactive Multimedia Albums article with lesson ideas. Tutorial pdf and here is a starter sheet
edvoicethread.com is a filtered educational site from Voice Thread. There is a one time $10 fee. Ideas for using Voice Thread | 100 ways to use Voice Thread in education
Narrable is a neat service for creating short narrated slideshows. It is kind of like VoiceThread mashed with Animoto.
UtellStory is a new service for creating and sharing audio slideshows. To create and share your story through UtellStory you can upload pictures, add text captions, add audio narration to each slide, and upload a soundtrack to support your entire story. Completed projects can be embedded into your blog, emailed to your friends, or shared through your favorite social networking sites. Watch UTellStory's introduction here.
Lumen5 Short videos from jounalistic sites (including Ed Week and Edutopia) and create from scratch have included images overlaid with text, accompanied by music. They’re very engaging, and I’ve wondered how they create them.
The History Project is a service described as StoryCorps With Timelines. It is designed to help people record and share personal stories in a timeline format. Each event on a timeline can include multiple pictures, text, and audio that you either record in the service or upload from a previously made recording. The History Project added a new format in which users can share stories. Vignettes are short slideshows of up to twelve images with minimal text. The slideshows automatically display in full screen at web addresses that are automatically assigned to them.
Imagistory free iPad app This is a "wordless" picture book where students can record their own narration of the story that they select. As they open the book, the story begins to record through the iPad's microphone. Once a story is finished it can then be saved and played back or record a new version of your story. This is a great app for the younger kids to introduce them to digital storytelling and get their creative juices flowing.
Adobe Voice. This free iPad app is very user friendly and makes the storytelling process simple for children young and old. Kids can add pictures, text, and even choose from different icons to bring their stories to life. Adobe Voice has an easy recording feature for students to add their voice as narration. There is a music library and a selection of themes for users to pick out and include in their final product.
StoryMap JS is a tool for creating mapped stories. On StoryMap JS you create slides that are matched to locations on your map. Each slide in your story can include images or videos along with text. As you scroll through your story there are simple transitions between each slide. StoryMap JS integrates with your Google Drive account. To get started with StoryMap JS you have to grant it access to your Google Drive account. StoryMap JS will create a folder in your Google Drive account where all of your storymap projects will be saved.
Applications for Education
One of the best examples of StoryMap JS for classroom use is found in the Manifest Destiny storymap featured on the StoryMap JS homepage.
Heganoo is a tool that allows you to build multimedia placemarks on a map. Your completed map can be displayed in a variety of formats including a slide-by-slide format that allows viewers to see placemark information as slides while viewing the map in the background. Placemarks in your map can include pictures, videos, and text. Check out the sample American Revolution map embedded below. Applications for Education
Heganoo, like tools similar to it, could be a good tool for students to use to create stories about historical events and current events that involve multiple locations.
Vuvox
An excellent tool for students to use to create multimedia presentations. Students could use Vuvox to create a documentary-style slideshow that includes images and video.tive slide shows. Interactive capabilities.
Messagehop combine photos with animated text. Not limited to the amount of text you can input. video tutorial
Meograph story (click here to watch one about women's rights in the USA) you will notice that it is very similar to a watching a narrated Google Earth tour. That is because it is based on the Google Maps and the Google Earth browser plug-in. As the story plays you can stop it to explore additional content in the forms of videos, texts, and images.
An innovative new site for four dimensional storytelling that has an educational port
Story Timelines
Our Story Designed for families and classrooms to record a time line of events in their lives,
this online tool serves the classroom teacher as an electronic time line for a collection of "stories." Each event on the "playable" timeline is a "story."
Dandelife Generate a timeline of any kind of event in your life, write as blog-like entry,
apply tags, attach images, videos, bookmarks form other web service sites.
Mapskip "It is an ancient human instinct to share our life stories with others, as the paintings and hand prints in stone-age caves show. And many of our stories are about places. Where we fell in love, had the dream vacation, took that great picture or, well, joined the rebellion. And then there are the many other places that anchor our lives - where we live, eat, work and have fun. Join the MapSkip community in exploring the world through shared stories and pictures about all the places in our lives."
Our Story Designed for families and classrooms to record a time line of events in their lives,
this online tool serves the classroom teacher as an electronic time line for a collection of "stories." Each event on the "playable" timeline is a "story."
Dandelife Generate a timeline of any kind of event in your life, write as blog-like entry,
apply tags, attach images, videos, bookmarks form other web service sites.
Mapskip "It is an ancient human instinct to share our life stories with others, as the paintings and hand prints in stone-age caves show. And many of our stories are about places. Where we fell in love, had the dream vacation, took that great picture or, well, joined the rebellion. And then there are the many other places that anchor our lives - where we live, eat, work and have fun. Join the MapSkip community in exploring the world through shared stories and pictures about all the places in our lives."
eBooks
Storybird (gr. K-5)online publishing and stories by others you can read. Also has the capabilities to write cooperative stories. Professional artwork but limited to one picture to page.
Story Creator 2 (gr. 3-6) online publishing with the capabilities for adding animation, sound effects and recorded narration.
Story Jumper (gr. 1-6) online and printout publishing. Wide collection of clip art and the capability to import photos and clip art.
Story Maker (gr. 2-6) online publishing with movement animation features
The Art of Storytelling is a website hosted by the Delaware Museum of Art. On the site students can learn about works of art. The better part of the site are the tools for creating short audio stories by using elements of artwork, text, and voice. In Tell a Story students select a work of art, write a short story about it, then record their own narration of the story. In Picture a Story students select a scene, choose characters, add props, write their stories, then record narration for their stories. Both tools have drag and drop editors that make it easy for students to rearrange and alter the size of elements in their stories.
Little Bird Tales - One of the most popular sites for digital storytelling that allows students to create their own art and record their voice. Also, there is a excellent iOS app available for mobile learning.
Dr. Seuss Story Creator- Choose music, text, backgrounds and feature some of your favorite Dr. Seuss characters
Where Did the River Go- Students read interactive story adventure then can change the story
Moo-O - A site that has students use their own photo inside of a digital story.
my StoryMaker - A very fun site for creating a digital story by adding lots of elements such as: characters, objects, backgrounds, and more.
Storybird (gr. K-5)online publishing and stories by others you can read. Also has the capabilities to write cooperative stories. Professional artwork but limited to one picture to page.
Story Creator 2 (gr. 3-6) online publishing with the capabilities for adding animation, sound effects and recorded narration.
Story Jumper (gr. 1-6) online and printout publishing. Wide collection of clip art and the capability to import photos and clip art.
Story Maker (gr. 2-6) online publishing with movement animation features
The Art of Storytelling is a website hosted by the Delaware Museum of Art. On the site students can learn about works of art. The better part of the site are the tools for creating short audio stories by using elements of artwork, text, and voice. In Tell a Story students select a work of art, write a short story about it, then record their own narration of the story. In Picture a Story students select a scene, choose characters, add props, write their stories, then record narration for their stories. Both tools have drag and drop editors that make it easy for students to rearrange and alter the size of elements in their stories.
Little Bird Tales - One of the most popular sites for digital storytelling that allows students to create their own art and record their voice. Also, there is a excellent iOS app available for mobile learning.
Dr. Seuss Story Creator- Choose music, text, backgrounds and feature some of your favorite Dr. Seuss characters
Where Did the River Go- Students read interactive story adventure then can change the story
Moo-O - A site that has students use their own photo inside of a digital story.
my StoryMaker - A very fun site for creating a digital story by adding lots of elements such as: characters, objects, backgrounds, and more.
Unique Tools
AnMish - A fun site to create a puppet, record audio, and then embed into a site to tell a
story.
Digital Films - A nice site for creating a digital animated story and then embedded into a site/blog to share it with others.
Meograph - An innovative site for four dimensional storytelling that has an educational portal.
Primary Access - An interesting site for creating a digital story with historical stock footage.
MapStory empowers a global community to organize knowledge about the world spatially and temporally. With MapStory, people of all kinds turn into Storytellers who can create, share, and collaborate on MapStories and ultimately improve our understanding of global dynamics, worldwide, over the course of history. Watch intro video on home page.
Stage'D - An unique site for creating a CGI rendered scene
Infinite Canvas (iPad app app) Built around the concept of an expandable story map with an interactive part that allows you to create a project with multiple paths, and let the viewer/reader/player make decisions that brings you along various paths of a story. video
story.
Digital Films - A nice site for creating a digital animated story and then embedded into a site/blog to share it with others.
Meograph - An innovative site for four dimensional storytelling that has an educational portal.
Primary Access - An interesting site for creating a digital story with historical stock footage.
MapStory empowers a global community to organize knowledge about the world spatially and temporally. With MapStory, people of all kinds turn into Storytellers who can create, share, and collaborate on MapStories and ultimately improve our understanding of global dynamics, worldwide, over the course of history. Watch intro video on home page.
Stage'D - An unique site for creating a CGI rendered scene
Infinite Canvas (iPad app app) Built around the concept of an expandable story map with an interactive part that allows you to create a project with multiple paths, and let the viewer/reader/player make decisions that brings you along various paths of a story. video
Scripting
The Scribe Initiative
Digital storytelling resources for video and podcasting.
My Simpleshow is a free tool for creating Common Craft style explanatory videos. The best aspect of My Simpleshow is the emphasis that the developers have placed on storyline planing and development. As is demonstrated in my tutorial below, students have to write a script on My Simpleshow before they can begin to use the video editing tools.
Story Starting Prompts
Writing Prompts for Social Studies and History
More story starters
Ideas for Digital Storytelling Across the Curriculum
Story Map This site has 4 maps for students to choose to design templates for them to create stories, these maps include: character map, conflict map, resolution map, and setting map.
Celtx a cross-platform media application that provides support for the entire pre-production process. It does storyboarding, character development, and so much more.
DVolver can make you a director in minutes. You choose your character, scene, background, title, music and you only add what you want your characters to say.
Video Project Checklist
Storybricks Storybricks works online if you have the Unity web player installed. Storybricks provides you with settings and characters that you can use to weave a narrative. All of your characters can have emotions and relationships with other characters. You make the emotions of one character respond to the actions of another. The way this is done is similar to creating a game in Scratch/Alice Storytelling by dragging-n-dropping commands on top of each other to build commands.
Digital storytelling resources for video and podcasting.
My Simpleshow is a free tool for creating Common Craft style explanatory videos. The best aspect of My Simpleshow is the emphasis that the developers have placed on storyline planing and development. As is demonstrated in my tutorial below, students have to write a script on My Simpleshow before they can begin to use the video editing tools.
Story Starting Prompts
Writing Prompts for Social Studies and History
More story starters
Ideas for Digital Storytelling Across the Curriculum
Story Map This site has 4 maps for students to choose to design templates for them to create stories, these maps include: character map, conflict map, resolution map, and setting map.
Celtx a cross-platform media application that provides support for the entire pre-production process. It does storyboarding, character development, and so much more.
DVolver can make you a director in minutes. You choose your character, scene, background, title, music and you only add what you want your characters to say.
Video Project Checklist
Storybricks Storybricks works online if you have the Unity web player installed. Storybricks provides you with settings and characters that you can use to weave a narrative. All of your characters can have emotions and relationships with other characters. You make the emotions of one character respond to the actions of another. The way this is done is similar to creating a game in Scratch/Alice Storytelling by dragging-n-dropping commands on top of each other to build commands.
Storyboards
Storyboard That - Excellent web tool for students to visual tell a story through a storyboard. This is ideal for digital storytelling as well as brainstorming new ideas. Browser-based, no paper
Planning: Sample storyboard template
Five Tools for Creating Storyboards to Plan Videos and Presentations
Storyboard Generator - Create scripts or use the ones at the site. Storyboard the script with step by step instructions.
Storyboard That is a nice tool for planning and creating stories online. Storyboard That provides templates in which you can create your stories in a comic strip style. To help you create your story Storyboard That provides dozens of scenes, characters, and text bubbles to fill your storyboard's frames.
Template | Template2 | Template 3 | Organizer | Template 4
storyboarding worksheets here!
Storybuilder. Storybuilder is a free service for planning screen plays and other stories. In the testing that I did of it, it was easy to use and could be a great tool for high school and college students. On Storybuilder you can write your stories in a series of virtual sticky notes. Your corkboard can be arranged in columns for each act and scene in your story. If you would like to try some tools that elementary and middle school students can use, take a look the following four options.
Story Map is a free interactive story planning tool from Read Write Think. Story Maps provides four templates for outlining stories. To use the templates students title their stories then choose one of four templates to outline their stories. The four template choices are conflict, setting, character, and resolution. Students can print their completed templates.
ACMI Storyboard Generator provides templates with video directions for creating a storyboard from scratch. Alternatively, students can build a storyboard without using a template at all. Students needing a little inspiration for a story can consult some of the examples showcased under the "themes" tab and view the showcased videos.
Storyboard That is a nice tool for planning and creating stories online. Storyboard That provides templates in which you can create your stories in a comic strip style. To help you create your story Storyboard That provides dozens of scenes, characters, and text bubbles to fill your storyboard's frames. Each element that you drag into your storyboard's frames can be re-sized, rotated, and re-positioned.
Cube Creators provide templates designed to break the writing process into six distinct parts. There are templates for writing biographies, mysteries, short stories, and a blank template that you can customize. Students enter the required information into the online template. When the template is completed, it can be printed with lines for cutting and folding to create an actual cube.
Storyboard That - Excellent web tool for students to visual tell a story through a storyboard. This is ideal for digital storytelling as well as brainstorming new ideas. Browser-based, no paper
Planning: Sample storyboard template
Five Tools for Creating Storyboards to Plan Videos and Presentations
Storyboard Generator - Create scripts or use the ones at the site. Storyboard the script with step by step instructions.
Storyboard That is a nice tool for planning and creating stories online. Storyboard That provides templates in which you can create your stories in a comic strip style. To help you create your story Storyboard That provides dozens of scenes, characters, and text bubbles to fill your storyboard's frames.
Template | Template2 | Template 3 | Organizer | Template 4
storyboarding worksheets here!
Storybuilder. Storybuilder is a free service for planning screen plays and other stories. In the testing that I did of it, it was easy to use and could be a great tool for high school and college students. On Storybuilder you can write your stories in a series of virtual sticky notes. Your corkboard can be arranged in columns for each act and scene in your story. If you would like to try some tools that elementary and middle school students can use, take a look the following four options.
Story Map is a free interactive story planning tool from Read Write Think. Story Maps provides four templates for outlining stories. To use the templates students title their stories then choose one of four templates to outline their stories. The four template choices are conflict, setting, character, and resolution. Students can print their completed templates.
ACMI Storyboard Generator provides templates with video directions for creating a storyboard from scratch. Alternatively, students can build a storyboard without using a template at all. Students needing a little inspiration for a story can consult some of the examples showcased under the "themes" tab and view the showcased videos.
Storyboard That is a nice tool for planning and creating stories online. Storyboard That provides templates in which you can create your stories in a comic strip style. To help you create your story Storyboard That provides dozens of scenes, characters, and text bubbles to fill your storyboard's frames. Each element that you drag into your storyboard's frames can be re-sized, rotated, and re-positioned.
Cube Creators provide templates designed to break the writing process into six distinct parts. There are templates for writing biographies, mysteries, short stories, and a blank template that you can customize. Students enter the required information into the online template. When the template is completed, it can be printed with lines for cutting and folding to create an actual cube.
Rubrics
Digital Media Guides | Rubric | Personal Narrative | Storytelling |
Comprehensive | Checklist
Digital Media Guides | Rubric | Personal Narrative | Storytelling |
Comprehensive | Checklist
Videos
Book Creator The important feature in this video is how students integrate their own artwork into an ebook.