Digital Storytelling: What it is… And… What it is NOT

I was lucky to have shared my childhood bedroom for a few years with my grandmother, when she had come to live with us after an illness. At bedtime, she would tell me stories of her parents and three brothers and growing up in East Prussia, fleeing to the West after WW2 and the things that occupied her mind. I was hooked on storytelling. Humans are natural storytellers. Maybe as part of a natural process, we tend to stick first to the familiar and “substitute” our task (see Ruben Puentedura’s SAMR model). Over the years, I have seen in classrooms and created myself many stories, that are: merely substitutions to what I could/have done/told in analog wayscreated in isolation, without any connections to a larger concept, idea or communitycreated only to be read by a teacher for a grade, without the possibilities of ever reaching a larger audience for feedback or being able to take its place as a puzzle piece of a larger picture/story Examples: Examples: Example: Related: Digital Storytelling • Digital Storytelling

Web Tools for Teachers: Digital Storytelling There are a lot of great digital storytelling tools on the web. The tools below are free, easy to use, and they do what they say they will do: Animoto– Educators can apply for a free Animoto Plus account for use in the classroom. Its powerful features can be used to create stunning presentations incorporating images, video clips, music and text. Capzles– Create rich, multimedia experiences with videos, photos, music, blogs and documents. Creaza Cartoonist– Cartoonist is an online tool to create cartoons or personal digital stories, consisting of professional backgrounds, characters, props, images and text. Digital Films– Unleash your creativity and make your digital film for free! Dvolver Movie Maker– As it turns out, people have a lot to say, and they like to say it with animated characters. Fakebook– “Fakebook” allows teachers and students to create imaginary profile pages for study purposes. Flipbook! fotobabble– The ultimate personal e-card. Go! My Story Maker– Simple digital story maker.

Story Creator Reviews With Story Creator you can easily create beautiful story books containing photos, videos, text, and audio all in one gorgeous collection. Story Creator truly brings your best stories to life and easily allows you to retell and share your most memorable moments. Story Creator offers a magical way to enjoy your personal pictures, videos, and experiences with family and friends. Even kids will love this app because it is so easy to use. Added over 16 unique layouts to add photosAdded ability to add stickersAdded unique colors for better drawingsAdded ability to customize thickness of line drawings Creating stories is fun, simple, and easy… even a child can do itSupports gorgeous photos and videosAdd Photos from device, Dropbox, Flickr, Picasa, or FacebookCan add text and audio recordings with every pageSupports text highlights – which makes is it easy for kids to learn how to readIt’s super easy to share stories with others and copy stories across devicesShare stories via email with one click

YouTube vs. Vimeo, What's the Difference? At TechSmith, our goal is to help our users take advantage of the power of video in their daily jobs. But, making the video is just half of the equation. Choosing where you host your video is one of the most important decisions you’ll make in the planning process. Today, we’ll pit YouTube vs Vimeo! YouTube vs Vimeo Two of the most popular hosting platforms today are YouTube and Vimeo. The Communities The first question I always ask myself before I ever push record on my camera: who is my audience? YouTube’s community is large, with over 1 billion users that watch hundreds of millions of hours of content – each day! Membership Vimeo offers four membership options: Basic (free), Plus ($59.95/year), Pro ($199/year), and Business ($599/year); and they each have different levels of storage and support as you can see in the chart below. Alternately, YouTube is completely free with unlimited storage when it comes to hosting. Updating your Video Copyrighted Material Advertising Analytics So…. Related

YouTube vs. Vimeo, What's the Difference? At TechSmith, our goal is to help our users take advantage of the power of video in their daily jobs. But, making the video is just half of the equation. Choosing where you host your video is one of the most important decisions you’ll make in the planning process. Today, we’ll pit YouTube vs Vimeo! YouTube vs Vimeo Two of the most popular hosting platforms today are YouTube and Vimeo. I work with video everyday in my current role and have faced this decision many times. The Communities The first question I always ask myself before I ever push record on my camera: who is my audience? YouTube’s community is large, with over 1 billion users that watch hundreds of million hours of content each day. On the other hand, Vimeo, to which TechSmith is a preferred partner, has a much smaller community. Membership Vimeo offers three membership options: Basic (free), Plus ($59.95/yr), and Pro ($199/yr); and they each have different levels of storage and support as you can see in the chart below. So….

Jamestown Bitmoji Project with @MatthewFarber - Teacher Tech Matthew Farber (author of “Gamify Your Classroom“) shared with me a project his student did using Bitmoji’s to represent the story of Jamestown. This project hits many of the things I value: Integrates technology, not just uses tech.Uses real things that students can relate to.Provides choice.Allows students to be creative.Asks students to communicate their ideas.Lowered fear of risk taking by not having all the elements graded.All students are doing different things.Allow students to figure things out.Values what kids value. The design of the lesson incorporates student interests such as Bitmoji. The Assignment This is the assignment Matthew posted in his Google Classroom: Storyboarding Jamestown: Storyboards are how movie directors plan before filming scenes. YOUR ASSIGNMENT: Pixar is updating Disney’s Pocahontas to be more accurate and you are one of the storyboard artists (artwork is not graded). Additional Information Matthew shared the background of Pixar’s creative approach.

Adobe Slate – Make your words and images move on the App Store Plan a Better iMovie Trailer with These PDFs Here are a few trailers made by teachers and students. Next to each one is the iMovie trailer template it uses. My Dream Destination - Italy uses the Expedition template.Verbs uses the Superhero template.Properties of Ionic Compounds uses the Adrenaline template.The Giver Book Trailer uses the Adrenaline template.Project-Based Learning uses the Swashbuckler template.Stylus Status uses the Retro template. Because trailers are so short, the information you convey has to be concise. iMovie’s templates do not leave much room for text. And, the more you write, the smaller the text becomes and harder it is to read. iMovie provides an outline and storyboard for each template. To help plan trailers with more original text and shots, I’ve created a fillable PDF for each template. Each PDF is fillable, so you can open in an app like Adobe Reader or Preview and easily add your own text.

Adobe Voice – Show your story on the App Store Story Wars Amazon.com: Movo LV10 Battery-Powered Lavalier Clip-on Omnidirectional Condenser TRRS Microphone for Apple iPhone, iPad, iPod and Samsung Galaxy Smartphones, Cameras, Camcorders, Recorders: Musical Instruments