Storytelling has always been a significant part of history, but the means through which the stories have been told has evolved with each civilization. From the oral histories presented by bards in ancient courts, to the works of scribes during the Renaissance, to newspapers, CNN, and now the Internet, personal narrative has been used to communicate the events of the past. Digital media now combines tradition with technology and allows students to tell stories through voice, text, images, audio, and video.
Digital stories allow students to take a linear series of events and turn them into a multidimensional experience. It encourages them to communicate, collaborate, and research as well as to infuse media into the process. A plethora of tools exists to create these projects - both in terms of software as well as hardware - and all of them enable students to gain a deeper understanding of history as they explore the most effective way to retell it.
Digital Storytelling ToolsCreating a digital story could be as simple as using a presentation tool such as Apple’s Keynote or Microsoft PowerPoint, or as complex as a full video project with Apple’s iMovie or Microsoft MovieMaker. However, there are also a variety of web-based tools that enable students to create unique user experiences as they tell their stories.
source: http://edtechteacher.org/index.php/teaching-technology/presentation-multimedia/digital-storytelling
Digital stories allow students to take a linear series of events and turn them into a multidimensional experience. It encourages them to communicate, collaborate, and research as well as to infuse media into the process. A plethora of tools exists to create these projects - both in terms of software as well as hardware - and all of them enable students to gain a deeper understanding of history as they explore the most effective way to retell it.
Digital Storytelling ToolsCreating a digital story could be as simple as using a presentation tool such as Apple’s Keynote or Microsoft PowerPoint, or as complex as a full video project with Apple’s iMovie or Microsoft MovieMaker. However, there are also a variety of web-based tools that enable students to create unique user experiences as they tell their stories.
- PhotoStory3 - A free download for Windows computers, this program provides an easy way to edit videos. More information can be found on the Microsoft site.
- Animoto - This intuituve and powerful web-based application provides basic but impressive multimedia features. Animoto offers music and professional-looking special effects to add to your photos and text. Students can sign up for a free account and access Animoto from any Mac or PC with an Internet connection.
- ComicLife - With this program, students can easily tell their stories through their own comics. This program works on all platforms and is relatively inexpensive. For a quick project, a 30 day free trial is available.
- StoryBird - Another free, web-based application, StoryBird allows students to read, write, and collaborate on digital picture books. Thousands of illustrations have been contributed to this online community, and all authors can integrate them into their written pieces. Completed stories can printed as books and shared via the Internet.
- Digital Vaults - This new tool from the National Archives allows students to create their own accounts and then build a story using digital resources directly from the National Archives. They can search through historical collections and even build their own collections of resources. Each image contains historical information that can be added as captions. The movie making tool includes soundtrack options as well as basic editing functions. With a free login account, students can save their work, and completed projects can be emailed or shared via hyperlink.
- VoiceThread is a great Web-based digital storytelling program that enables users to upload pictures or documents, record accompanying audio (or video) commentary, and invite others to record commentary as well. Its simple combination of visual and recorded media is perfect for creating multimedia presentations in a relatively short time frame using simple tools. With VoiceThread teachers and students can create virtual tours, report on books they've read, comment on historically significant photographs, debate a topic, and more. Its uniqueness lies in the ease in which audio commentary can added to images and documents and the ability to add multiple commentaries to a single artifact.
- Glogster is a powerful online poster creation platform with an easy drag-and-drop interface and enables students to create interactive, aesthetically appealing, and media-rich posters. With Glogster students create "Glogs," an online multimedia poster made with text, images, graphics, music, video and more. Glogster EDU is an advertisement-free educational community wherein educators set up a "“virtual classroom” for their students. By default Glogs are private unless a teacher designates them as “public,” and students are assigned randomly generated login information and passwords. No student is identified by name. As such, Glogster EDU helps address issues of inappropriate content and undesirable contact with those outside an educational community.
- Kerpoof Create fully animated comics online with Kerpoof. Choose from a library of scenes and characters, add animation, movement, as well as music and speech bubbles to bring a story idea to life. Extremely intuitive menu bar and helpful video tutorials make this tool quite useful. A key feature is a Teacher Account that allows teachers to register students and create classes where students can collaborate on creations.
source: http://edtechteacher.org/index.php/teaching-technology/presentation-multimedia/digital-storytelling