Task+1--Digital+StoryTelling

====How would you define **Digital Storytelling **? Take a minute to think about what it might mean. It has become an important part of writing for many students and there are literally scores of web sites that are designed to allow kids to write digitally. Here's a great introduction. ====

Here is another ex[|planation with resources].


====One of the very first and easiest to use Digital Storytelling tools you might use is called Animoto. It is a very easy to use resource. At its easiest level, it is a slideshow with music created by others. It can be made more personal by recording voices to go along with this but that's pretty complicated. You can find it at [|Animoto for Teachers]. Go ahead and view the video there and look at the case studies. Teachers get something else that costs for free and it's super. We know a way that teachers whose students don't have email accounts can access it using their teachers gmail account (another reason we had you create the gmail accounts.) ====

Here's a tutorial about using Animoto.media type="youtube" key="-bGSEwza5gc?rel=0" height="155" width="280"
====**NOTE TO TEACHERS OF STUDENTS UNDER 13. THESE ARE TWO PLACES TO GET DISPOSABLE EMAIL ADDRESSES. THE CHILD USES THIS ADDRESS AND CAN PICK UP ANY NECESSARY MAIL HERE BUT DOES NOT HAVE TO GIVE ANY OTHER INFORMATION. One site is [|Mailinator .] ****Another site is [|TempInBox].Still another is [|MailCatch].** ====

Another tool for digital storytelling that is very similar but lets you add text is and now voice-overs is
==== [|Flixtime] Here is a[| link from Free Technology] for Teachers that gives you more information. Note that you could use Flickr images or others from Creative Commons, your own pictures, pictures from places like [|NASA] many other places for making these digital stories. These would be great for foreign language use or Book Reviews although there are other tools that might be easier for Book Reviews. ==== ====Before you have your students put together a movie, you might want to have them explore is the [|Digital Storytelling Toolkit.] ====

====Another very good site is [|Creaza Education]. These are web-based creative tools. There is a Mindmapping tool, a Cartoonist tool, and both a Movie Editor and Audio editor. ==== ====If you go to their [|education page], each of the listed items has a tutorial. Click through each one. In Middle and Upper School the students should be able to work through the tutorial and do the suggested project. In Lower Division, the children would probably need some instruction but would like the tool very much. ====

Another Powerful tool is [|GoAnimate For Schools] –
====Handout – Getting Started With GoAnimate For Schools ==== = =

====Students like using this resource. You can try it out for free but if you want to use it with your students, contact your Technology Coordinator so they can set something up for you. The paid educational version has privacy for the under 13 set and there are no images that might not be appropriate for them to use. ====

====If you have pictures of artwork that you want to present as a visual gallery, check out [|Hello Slide] Here is an educational video produced using Hello Slide.media type="custom" key="18939084"To use this resource, the students could make a PowerPoint and when it is finished, save it as a .pdf. Then they upload it to HelloSlide and type the accompanying text for each slide. Hello Slide does the rest. Even though it says it is empty, you will get to something by clicking in the picture. Notice that this tool has the computer do the reading. This might be fun to use when you don't have time to have every child read what he/she wrote into the microphone. ====

====<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">Another is a tool called " <span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">[|We Tell Stories--Fairy Tales"] <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">. This is a guided writing experience. It would work at several levels and also could be used for a target language. ====

====<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">Another recently discovered tool is something called[| FlipSnack.]It is an easy to use cool tool for a project such as the second grade did recently. They did research reports with pictures and text. We scanned them into the computer, made them into a PowerPoint and then saved them as a .pdf file. If you don't know the easy and quick way to do both of these tasks, see your technology coordinator or email me so I can show you how. Then we uploaded them to FlipSnack and I embedded them in the second grade blog site. Here [|is an example.]The number of free ones you can make is limited but buying enough for a whole class to use is inexpensive. ====



====<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">New storytelling tools keep cropping up (which makes me believe that this is a powerful tool). That being said, this is not a selection for the high school crowd. One is <span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">[|Storybird] <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">.This tool can be used collaboratively as well as by one person. I think it would be great for world language learning or some creative storytelling. It is not often that kids get pictures and have to make up a story to go with them. Here is a taste of Storybird's uses.

media type="youtube" key="T00YjRBIcIw?rel=0" height="250" width="336" align="center"

====<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">Another tool is [|Storyjumper]. Storyjumper is very new but is adding the ability to publish the stories, according to their website. A more limiting but still useful tool is called [|My StoryMaker.]It is more restricted to the characters and scenes available in its scope but it might be a good place to start your class's adventure. Another site that I recently discovered is [|Beeclip] This is the part for students and teachers. ====

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<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">and I really like its interface.
====<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">The next site is a 3-D storymaker. It is called [|Zooburst]and it allows stories to be made in 3-D. What intrigues me about this is that students could turn on their webcams (which are in all Berkeley Bundles) and put themselves in a story. Features are still being added to this and I encourage those of you who are doing this class for the second time to try something like this. ====

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====<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">[|Pic-Lits] is a site where a picture is on the screen and a bank of words is below it. Students try to put relevant words in the correct order in order to capture the essence, story, and meaning of the picture.Students can choose to only drag words from the word bank to create their sentence or compose a sentence freestyle. The ability to create free style sentences makes it a great exercise for world language students as well as they can try to describe the picture by looking at the English word, thinking of the second language word and getting the order right to tell the story in the picture. If you don't have computers for every student, show the picture on your computer, use the capture tool to show the word bank and have students make their own stories on paper. These pictures can also be used as an interactive whiteboard activity and students can take turns coming to the front and seeing how many different sentences the class can make. ====

====<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">Rosa, here is a site just for [|Digital Storytelling in World Languages]. ==== = = = = ====<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">And Jeff and Rosa, t[|his site could]be used by your writers. If you find one you like, your technology coordinator has a budget and expertise that you can use. Please see that person before starting a project like this and it will make your life much easier. It has a storyboard and students build their own story in Spanish for you, Rosa, or in English. Or your students might like cartooning using a tool like Pixton. One of its advantages is that it has assessment tools with it. Check[| it out here.] ====

====<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">When students set out to make digital stories, they need media that is free of constraints. Here is a site that has media that they can use. Be sure to speak with students about copyright laws. This is from CogDog Blog. ====

====<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">If you are really wanting to learn everything about digital stories; that is if that is the one topic you want to concentrate on in this class, you could spend all your time at this Wiki about Digital Storytelling. ====

====<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">Most of these resources are more useful for project work for older students. While younger students can certainly make movies, the possibilities where students have depth of content seem more suited to older students. Movie making falls into this category and many schools and teachers use movie making as a part of class projects that make content come alive for their students. You may have heard that teaching someone is one of the most powerful ways to "make learning stick" and with cell phone cameras and inexpensive video cameras, it's something worth exploring. All divisions have sets of digital movie cameras so lack of equipment is not a problem for us. It has been replaced by Windows Live Movie Maker. A [|Windows Live Movie Maker tutorial] is available here. The ipads are also useful for making movies. ====

====<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">A recently discovered site is [|Jux]. It allows you to make a sort of Poster picture, videos and other sharing tools using photos. It is very easy to use. Here is a very quickly made poster here--[|my engineer daughter on Take]Your Kid to Work Day. ====

====<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">T[|his site has resources and links to tutorials] for most of the digital storytelling tools out here. Each one of these has a handout that shows you how to sign up for the resource. ==== ====<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">Another kind of interesting site for both English and Language teachers is the [|GrabbaBeast] site. You could have your students go there and create a beast and then write a descriptive paragraph or two. The pictures can be downloaded and posted around the room. A really fun thing to do would be post the pictures and the paragraphs separately and have students try to figure out which picture it is based on the descriptive narrative. Or post them on a blog and do the same thing. ==== ====<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">There are many resources for digital storytelling and I don't want to overwhelm you. If you want more, here is a [|page filled] with favorites of someone else. ====

====<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">While you can always do a storyboard with paper and drawing tools, here is a very easy to use[| digital storyboard.] ====

This image is from [] ====<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">A word of caution. You should have your students plan their movie or digital storytelling project with a [|storyboard]-r It is the step your students will hate doing but it is the way real movie makers do their work and it is also a way to get them into the higher order thinking skills. So make one step of your project turning in a completed storyboard. And these are easy to add as another criterion on your project rubric. Putting all your grading eggs in the end of project basket sometimes is harder to justify since we are working with kids. I always like to have some "checkpoints" along the way for projects like this. You can also [|download storyboard paper here.] ==== Jason Ohler has some [|other paper] here in a different format. ====<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">Managing a project like this can be difficult. Here is one teacher's blog about the[| joys and struggles of her digital storytelling] .====

====<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">If you decide you want to spend the whole class credits working on digital storytelling, here is a [|newly published set of information] about it by Nik Peachy. There are more resources here than you can shake a stick at!====

====<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">I can't finish this without making some attempt at giving you some assessment advice. Since I am not an expert in this area, I am referring you to others. ====

====<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">Here is one site for you to check. [|Jason Ohler] has some good ideas here. (And now a new book if you really get into this). Remember that you need to give feedback as you go along, conference with your students. Have your grading rubric reflect progress, not just the "final" product. [|Rubistar] is a site that allows you to create rubrics for your projects andyou can use some of th e [|traits here for digital stories]<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">Digital Storytelling rubrics. Here are many [|rubrics for assessment] of these sort of projects. BernaJean Porter shares [|some assessment]tools here. ====