Home Tags Posts tagged with "digital storytelling"
Tag:

digital storytelling

digital tales for remote learners
Content Areas

Digital Stories for Remote Learners

by Miguel Guhlin
written by Miguel Guhlin

You’ve heard of audio books, but what about video books? The phrase doesn’t quite roll off the tongue. But in spite of that, many educators are looking for video versions of popular stories they can share to encourage students to engage with stories in a new way. In this blog entry, we’ll explore several sources of multimedia, digital tales for remote learners.

The Power of Digital Stories

Have you read Gene Zion’s story of Harry, the Dirty Dog? If not, Betty White’s reading of an old favorite of mine will get your tail wagging. That’s the power of digital stories, to bring to a child the power of another human’s voice and interest in a story. Take a moment to listen to Betty White read the story.

digital stories

Listen online: https://www.storylineonline.net/books/harry-the-dirty-dog/

Let’s take a look at some sources of online stories you can share with your students.

Story Source #1: Storyline Online

This is a phenomenal resource of fifty-seven digital stories and all are completely free. The narrators are top notch, and each story comes with a teacher’s guide. For example, the guide for Harry, the Dirty Dog focuses on Grades K-2. Predictions, which is one of Reciprocal Teaching‘s Fab Four, are encouraged.

Storyline Online (@StorylineOnline) features apps for Android, iOS, and the Chrome browser. The stories and apps are free and will remain so.

Did You Know?

Sign up for one of our Google Certified Educator certifications. You’ll learn about more than Google Meet, as well as earn 12 CPE hours per course. Use these courses to get Google Educator certified. Find out more online.

Story Source #2: Audible Stories

We know listening to stories has the same benefit as reading with one’s eyes. Audible Stories is now offering, at no charge, a large collection of stories which are organized into a variety of categories, such as the following:

  • Littlest Learners
  • Elementary
  • Tween
  • Teen
  • Literary Classics
  • Folk and Fairy Tales for All

Digital Tales for remote learners

Their stories are also available in various languages including French, German, Spanish, Italian, and more. During COVID-19 crisis, Audible offers these at no cost.

Story Source #3: Storynory

Storynory has a variety of stories and tales in video format as well as in audio and text. They are also accessible via the  iOS or Android app that you can get on your device. Students can read the story on the screen while listening to the audio recording, enhancing their reading and listening skills.

Digital Tales for remote learnersStorynory describes itself in this way:

Storynory has been giving free audio stories to the world since November 2005. We are a podcast and a website with audio streaming. Some months we serve around a million downloads of our mp3 files (stored on Libsyn). All our content is free.

Another source of audio books is Loyal Books. They offer classic titles in audio format. You can often find the text version online since most are in the public domain.

Story Source #4: David Walliams

Author David Walliams is sharing stories through March and April, 2020, releasing an audio story every day.

Digital Tales for remote learners

“All those stuck at home with their kids may be able to relate to ‘_The World’s Worst Children_’!” as David Walliams revealed that he’d be sharing his stories with the nation.  (Source: Good Housekeeping)

You can get started with Grubby Gertrude. Try not to laugh too much at this delightful tale.

Story Source #5: EPIC!

Looking for a free source of books and audio books? Check out Epic! which offers free teacher accounts through June 30, 2020. It’s easy to get set up as a teacher and then add your students. Creating the students’ accounts is as easy as copying and pasting their names into a text box.

You can find quite a bit of content online, and your students will have easy access.  Here’s some of the content, featuring audio and video books:

Story Source #6: Vook

Teachers get a year free of access to Vook. This offer is also open to home school educators. From their website:

“Vooks brings children’s books to life with animated illustrations, read-a-long text and narrated story. The ad-free platform features a variety of titles that have been engaging students all across the world. Whether being used as part of the lesson or to wind class down, Vooks is a fun and versatile tool for the classroom.

Learn more about Vook content:

Looking for more stories? Be sure to check out authors online. Like David Walliams, many such as Kate Messner will read their books online.

Image Source

Feature image. screenshot by author.

0 comment
2 FacebookTwitterPinterestLinkedinEmail
ball of twine
Coding/Computer ScienceEnglish Language ArtsSTEM/STEAM

Humanities Go Digital: Coding and Storytelling

by Miguel Guhlin
written by Miguel Guhlin

At a recent mini-conference in Houston, Danica Botts (@TeachingNBotts) introduced me to the concept of “digital humanities.” She then modeled how a coding website could be used to craft an online story. In this blog entry, we’ll explore various ways that you can use coding tools to tell a story. Before we do that, let’s clarify what is meant when I say, “humanities go digital.”

Defining Digital Humanities

Danica shared the definition of digital humanities with audience members: “An academic field concerned with the application of computational tools and methods to traditional humanities disciplines such as literature, history, and philosophy.” To simplify this definition,  “…brings digital tools and methods to the study of the humanities with the recognition that the printed word is no longer the main medium for knowledge production and distribution”

What are some ways that you can bring digital tools to the task of knowledge production and distribution? Danica suggested one solution I had never encountered before. Let’s take a look at it and how it could be used.

Introducing Twine

“Twine is an open-source tool for telling interactive, nonlinear stories,” as reported on The Twinery website. A longer explanation explains the concept further:

You don’t need to write any code to create a simple story with Twine, but you can extend your stories with variables, conditional logic, images, CSS, and JavaScript when you’re ready.

Twine publishes directly to HTML, so you can post your work nearly anywhere. Anything you create with it is completely free to use any way you like, including for commercial purposes.

This amazing tool is available online at Twinery.org. It is available via your web browser (e.g. Chromebooks), as well as installable on your Windows, MacOS, and/or GNU/Linux. The install software is available in both 32-bit and 64-bit flavors. One of the neat aspects of Twine is that you can embed HTML at its simplest level or enhance it with embed code from YouTube, Vimeo, or Javascript.  Students are able to explore the humanities, such as storytelling or narratives, while coding and then publish their work online.

Encouraging Computational Thinking

“Computational thinking is vital for raising the level of achievement, preparing students for global competitiveness and blending academics with real life, they have made the resources below free to all educators,” says Carolyn Sykora in this ISTE publication. Learning to program can be daunting. Introduce students who love crafting stories to beginning coding with Twine. It may open doors that computer science cannot open alone.

Did You Know?

ISTE has put together a Computational Thinking Toolkit replete with videos and print resources. You can watch a short video to introduce you to the concept of computational thinking.

Twine Online Tutorials

You can find a variety of online tutorials on Twine tool online. An online guide is available. The creator of these videos is Adam Hammond, who has many more resources available.

Creations at The Twinery.org

Looking for some examples of what you can make at the Twinery? Remember, with Twine, you can make interactive stories a la Zork or more. One key benefit of Twine is that you can use it to introduce students to computational thinking with a straightforward interface.

Here are a few examples:

  • Crypt Shyfter: This is one of several games that appear in the Crypt Shyfter series. While the link takes you to a gaming website, what’s amazing is that the underlying interface was created in Twine.
  • Before the End of the World: Adapted from the description: Before the End of the World is a Twine game. It was created to explore how minor differences in context can change one’s actions. It helps the reader see how these changes impact the reader’s perception of the story.

Creation

Ready to give it a try? You will definitely want to watch a few video tutorials first. Creating a simple story, even as a choose your own adventure, is quite simple. For example, here are some of my efforts:

Here’s the opening canvas of Twine. You can add an initial passage, then link to subsequent passages by placing words in double brackets

Here’s what the story looks like. I’ve embedded an image, too:

You can customize the look and feel of the text and images using cascading style sheets (CSS). Want to read this three act story in its entirety?

Humanities Go Digital

Blending digital tools that combine coding and the humanities makes representing ideas new and fresh. You can easily use Twine to create choose your own adventure stories, documentaries, and more, even a novel introduction to a new unit of study. The added value, as opposed to using a Google Sites or other graphical user interface (GUI), is that you have the flexibility to a wide variety of embed code.

0 comment
0 FacebookTwitterPinterestLinkedinEmail
customer service
STEM/STEAMTechnology Applications

TCEA Responds: Teaching Digital Media

by Miguel Guhlin
written by Miguel Guhlin

Dear TCEA Responds:

Earlier this week, my high school principal told me I would be teaching digital media. School is starting and I’m not sure what to do next. Can you get me started? This is an area I have little or no experience in.

-Jan

Dear Jan:

“Breaking your own mold can only make you stronger and more confident to reach higher levels in your professional and personal life,” says Dr. Elizabeth Lombardo, psychologist and author of “Better Than Perfect” as cited by Thomas Oppong. Thomas suggests that the only time you are actually growing is when you are uncomfortable. Certainly, your situation qualifies as an opportunity to break your own mold. “Seek out discomfort. Be deliberate about doing things that push your limits magnificently. Difficulty helps you to grow,” advises Thomas.

Pushing your limits does not mean you have to be alone. You can push your limits in collaboration with a vast network of fellow educators. Let’s explore some tips and ideas to get you started.

tcea responds

Tip #1 – Grow Your Network

If you are not using Twitter as a professional learning network (PLN), then begin now to follow teachers who are concerned with teaching digital media in high school. To get you started, I have compiled a list of twenty-three folks on Twitter you can follow and connect with. Or, if you prefer, just view the Twitter list “HSDigitalMedia” that I have prepared for you. I will add to this list over time, and you are encouraged to contact people on Twitter to grow your network to facilitate just-in-time professional learning.

Tip #2 – Champion the Value of Teaching Digital Media

Teaching digital media and video in a classroom is important for several reasons. Here are a few from Brown University:

  • Increase student engagement: Students working on digital media assignments feel a deeper sense of empowerment as they act as producers–rather than just consumers–of meaning and knowledge.
  • Help students work through difficult concepts: If students are making media, digital tools help them express concepts using multimodal representations.
  • Promote critical awareness: Students must be prepared to critically understand and interpret meaning presented in various forms.

“Research has shown that connecting educational experiences to real-life opportunities is an effective way to get students excited about tcea respondswhat they’re learning,” say Kristin Houser and Karla Lant (Futurism). Digital media combined with project-based learning and STEM topics can engage students. Engaged students learn more and do more in class. In addition to PBL activities, Stephen Solomon urges you to consider these strategies:

  • Adopt inquiry-based strategies. One example includes Genius Hour , which encourage students to engage in passion-based learning aligned to specific learning goals.
  • Adapt service-based learning for class projects: Foster a service mentality and a sense for real-world effectiveness by building service learning into lesson plans and units.

These three strategies (PBL, Inquiry-based Strategies, and Service-Based Learning) offer great learning opportunities. They provide fodder for creative digital media projects.

Tip #3 – Use a Range of Technologies

While you may be tempted to embrace expensive technologies to teach digital media, aim small. You can model the use of mobile device technologies (e.g. green screen apps) that can have a big impact. These small creations can get your class started, then be incorporated into more expensive production tools.

Online curriculum

Software Resources

  • Free Adobe Alternatives
    • Scribus: Create great-looking, print-ready posters, newsletters, and magazines
    • GIMP: Refine your photos or create your own artwork from scratch; includes support for Photoshop plugins
    • LightZone: A digital darkroom for converting, editing, and managing photos in batches or individually
    • Inkscape: A versatile open source vector editor that’s ideal for hobbyist illustrators and web designers
    • Unsplash: Professional-quality stock photos in the public domain – totally free to download and use

Some more audio and video editing tools:

Image Editing Tools

Worried that you have too much to learn? Remember that there are many resources available online for free. Your job is to curate those resources, create situations that engage student learners, and assess growth. You do not have to be the expert in everything! Let the students learn from each other as they grow.

Tip #4 – Build Towards Certification

In a TCEA interview with Mark Simmons (Sabine Pass ISD Director of Technology), he advocates a continuum of learning opportunities that lead towards certification. It’s not enough for your students to learn digital media tools. They need to be able to make a living with these tools.

Graduates should qualify for employment as web designers, graphic artists/designers, multimedia specialists, web developers, web content specialists, media specialists, information specialists, digital media specialists, animation specialists, interface designers, and many new jobs yet to be defined in this expanding field. (Source)

Consider establishing a partnership with a local college/university. Begin with the end in mind and then build your digital media course with assistance. Here are some examples:

And, finally…

Tip #5 – Embrace Digital Media as a Tool for Digital Storytelling

Learning to use digital media tools is only one aspect. Another component, perhaps more important than technical expertise, is learning how to tell a compelling story using digital media. Rely on resources like these below to have your students start telling and showing their own powerful stories.

It can be daunting to begin a new class. Remember that you will need to start with relevant TEKS and design a syllabus. Then, set up specific projects that solve an overarching problem or are service-based learning oriented. You’ve got this!

 

0 comment
0 FacebookTwitterPinterestLinkedinEmail
digital storytelling
Digital LiteracyEnglish Language Arts

Telling Our Stories

by Lori Gracey
written by Lori Gracey

Storytelling is such a critical component of being human, even in today’s modern world. It’s one of the ways we connect with other people, allowing us to share our hopes and dreams, our fears and worries, and our experiences and plans. It brings us together and emphasizes what we have in common and so can help us bridge any divide. But good storytelling is not an inherited trait; it must be taught and practiced.

Teaching Digital Storytelling

As the teacher, working with your students on digital storytelling doesn’t always have to be a lengthy, involved process. Sometimes, a good story is short and somewhat spur of the moment. Students can create a very brief story about something funny that happened to them yesterday, a favorite memory around a holiday, or a wish that they have. Their story can be jotted down, lightly edited by their peers, and then created quickly using just audio or a few pictures. It can be simple, an easy way to connect with others.

Once created, it is imperative that the story is shared with someone other than just the teacher. So before assigning the work, think about how you will publish their creations. Will it be to their individual blogs or a class website? How about to the campus homepage or via social media like a class Twitter account? Can they be included in the next parent communication? Any of these solutions, and others you may think of, are great, as long as a large audience can access them.

Digital Storytelling Tools for Any Device

Regardless of the length of the story, the technology we have available in our schools today makes telling it even more powerful and far reaching. Here are some good resources for your students to use to share their stories, regardless of their device.

  • Storybird Studio – Wonderful storytelling resource that is free for educators. K-5 students can create picture books while secondary students write long-form chapter books and poetry. Free artwork is included, which can help start the creative juices flowing. And students can publish their stories on their website, along with reading stories written by others. A Chrome extension is also available.
  • Google Story Builder – No Google account or registration is required to use this tool. Students enter up to 10 characters’ names and then type in their story. They can add music from the site along with a title. Once that’s done, they are given a short URL to their published story. As the teacher, if you log in with your Google account, you can create a story starter and then share the URL with your students for them to complete. For your most advanced authors, try the Master Edition. A famous writer will start the story off for your students to complete. He/She may even drop in and add a line or two throughout the writing.
  • Online Voice Recorder – Record up to seven minutes of audio with this very simple to use website.
  • StoryTop Story Maker – Using the drag-and-drop interface, students can create simple cartoon stories using the provided graphics and their text and ideas. No account is required to create and share the stories. A Chrome extension is available, as well as a Chrome app.
  • Biteable – The World’s Simplest Video Maker – And they mean it. Create a free account, select a template, add your own content (including text, photos, colors, and sound), and then share it via YouTube, Facebook, or Twitter. A Biteable logo/watermark is added to your finished product in the free version.
  • Adobe Spark – For very short stories with powerful impact, consider using Adobe Spark on either the web or via the iOS app.
  • My Storybook – Primarily for younger authors, this tool does require that the user have an email address and a free registration to the site.
  • Smore – While normally thought of as an electronic newsletter creator, Smore can be fabulous for creating short stories as well. Students can use the free version with the creation of an account. Or the teacher can purchase a license for just $59/year.

No matter what platform you choose, it is important that we teach our children how to share the amazing and inspiring stories of what they are creating and learning each day. How will you help them?

 

0 comment
0 FacebookTwitterPinterestLinkedinEmail
Good TeachingWeb 2.0 Tool

Become a Storymaker: Creating Engaging Digital Tales

by Miguel Guhlin
written by Miguel Guhlin

When I first participated in Joe Lambert’s digital storytelling workshop, my father had just passed away. Creating a digital story, Garbed in Silver, a combination of narrative and images, helped me cope with the grief of his death. It also helped me reconnect with some of my best memories, allowing me to create a remembrance for my young son that endures today on YouTube and Teachercast video hosting sites. Digital storytelling can be a powerful way to connect with others. In this blog entry, we explore digital storytelling resources and tips.

Join the ongoing TCEA Microsoft Innovative Educator (MIE) SkypeChat via your mobile device or online. Explore and share concepts at the intersection of teaching, learning, leading, and technology!

1) Finding Digital Storytelling Resources

Looking for digital storytelling resources? There are quite a few available online. Here are my top three favorites:

Each of these contains digital stories that connect at a visceral level. And some, like We Are StoryMakers, invites the work of writers, actors, and media enthusiasts to create with a simple directive: you have five minutes to create a narrative and then record it.

2) Storytelling Keys

“In oral culture,” shares Joe Lambert, “we humans learned to retain stories as epigrams, or little tales that had a meaningful proverb at the end. In our current culture, many of us have not developed an epigrammatic learning equivalent to these processes.” Yet it’s not just about creating stories that are entertaining; it is about creating stories that transform us. As Vyasa says, “If you listen carefully, at the end, you’ll be someone else.” To accomplish that, I like to think that stories engage both our experience and beliefs, as Gretchen Bernabei demonstrates in this image, and helps us reflect and transform our perception of what has happened in our lives.

digital storytellingThere are various approaches to storytelling. The oral storytelling approach focuses on a beginning event, a middle with multiple events, each summarized by an image that captures our attention, until it reaches a turning point, moves to falling action, and ends. This story structure can be used for a lot more than just oral storytelling, of course. To prepare for this type of approach, Joe Lambert suggests creating a “memory box.”

Of course, it is easier to collect images, videos, and sound in one virtual space (e.g. Google Drive, OneDrive, Dropbox) than ever before. A few tools I recommend for creating a digital memory box include the following:

  • OneNote + Office Lens: These two free apps, which work on a multitude of mobile devices, allow you to store text, audio, images, and embed videos, and could easily be used to collect information. The Office Lens app lets you digitize content, snap a picture of paper items or photos, and save them to OneNote, a digital notebook. With OneNote’s built-in digital ink, students can easily fill in the chart and storyboard their digital story. The teacher can take those student creations, combine them with the final products, and publish them on Docs.com as a OneNote Notebook (which is free for everyone and works great on iPads, Chromebooks, Windows/Mac computers, and Android).
  • Google Photos + Google Drive:  With these two apps, you can save photos or videos taken with your device to Google Photos, saving content online. Google Drive offers unlimited hosting for GoogleApps for Education (GAFE) users, so you can easily drop videos and images there.
  • Collecting images can be straightforward with mobile apps like Camera Awesome (iOS and Android), Camera MX (Android), and Google Camera. Image annotation becomes easy with Annotate (iOS), Photo Editor by Aviary (Android and iOS), SnapSeed (iOS and Android), as well as EyeEm Camera and Photo Filter (iOS and Android). Don’t be afraid to take advantage of green screen apps (DoInk for iOS and Green Screen Pro for Android) to further enhance photos, making your own greenscreen with a $1.00 Dollar Tree store green plastic tablecover.

 

3) Find Photos That Make You Care

“Is that your son?” asked a friend when I showed him the digital story I had made of my Dad. The picture showed my son, perched like a king, in my Dad’s lap. Both were grinning, the picture such an attention grabber that even now I find it hard to look away. If you are looking for examples of photos that hold your gaze, check out the IPPAwards.com site. You can also find a wealth of images in free, public domain, or available for re-use online.

Note: Want to learn more about becoming a story maker? Be sure to join Miguel Guhlin at TCEA’s Tots and Technology Conference taking place this summer in both Galveston and Frisco, Tx!

4) Combine Images and Audio into a Digital Story

“Little strokes” said Benmin Franklin “fell great oaks.” Epigrams like this one powerfully send the message that you have achieved something, overcome adversity if it comes at the end of your digital story. If you can’t make one up, find the right epigram to borrow, properly cited, of course. Practice telling your story aloud, using the pictures as your guideposts; keep your wisdom brief.

Apps like Shadow Puppet EDU, Adobe Voice, and Storymaker 2, as well as MS Office Mix (Windows/Mac) enable you to combine content in powerful ways. The process is straightforward, but the key lies in creating epigrams that will stick in people’s minds. Include music only if it enhances your story; otherwise let your voice, or silence, and images make the message clear.

Conclusion

All of us are carrying countless stories in our mobile devices, in the moments that we felt compelled to capture with a camera. And those moments call to our spirit, seeking to liberate words that lay afraid in our minds. Digital stories can set you free.

0 comment
0 FacebookTwitterPinterestLinkedinEmail
digital storytelling
Web 2.0 Tool

Getting Started with Digital Storytelling

by Dr. Bruce Ellis
written by Dr. Bruce Ellis

Digital storytelling is the method of using technology to share your narrative. The tools that students use can run the gamut from very simple presentation tools that just use audio recordings and photos to more complex creations requiring screencasting and appsmashing. If you are just getting started and trying to figure out the best tool for your students, then consider the following sites to acquaint you with some of the more popular tools used:

 

Regardless of which tool(s) you use, consider the following to help ensure your students’ success:

  • What do you want them to do with the end product? Will their stories be shared in a public online place for a wider audience or just viewed from the device on which they are created? Your answer to these questions will narrow the field of possible options.
  • Younger students, or students that may be open to distractions, will do better if you have them use tools that have fewer bells and whistles. These no-frills tools (such as 30hands Starter) minimize distractions and help students focus on the content of their story.
  • Have students plan their digital story prior to using the apps/websites. Consider using a template such as the 8 panel (Word) template, the film and video projects (Zipped) template, or the TCEA storyboard (Google Doc) template. Look through this Google search of completed storyboards and select a few to share that are relevant and appropriate for your content as examples.
  • Provide your students with a rubric to hold them accountable and guide them through the assignment. Consider using this general storytelling rubric, one of Rubistars rubric templates, or Kathy Schrock’s digital storytelling rubric.

 

Digital storytelling is a great way for students to demonstrate understanding of the content and in a context that makes sense to them. After all, we all love to both hear and tell stories. You should find that your students are more motivated to do their work when given the option to use digital storytelling as an assignment choice. Let us know your favorite digital storytelling tools and how your students used them to create amazement in your classroom.

0 comment
0 FacebookTwitterPinterestLinkedinEmail