Building and Storytelling with Technology

What motivates you to be creative? What motivates our students to be creative and express themselves in writing? Legos as well as other story starters can be great motivation for telling digital stories using the iPad or other digital storytelling tools. Get hands-on with Legos and using a structured storytelling model, the Ohler story transformation process, to create and write stories with impact. 

Why Use Digital Stories?

• information literacies including identifying and synthesizing relevant material
• technology literacies including seamlessly working with a variety of hardware and software tools (cameras, audio recorders, apps) to construct a digital story
• visual literacies including integrating appropriate media in support of a written narrative
• oral/aural literacies including reading a story in first person and selecting complementary music for a story
• social literacies including communicating one’s story and sharing in accepted outlets

Technologies for Digital Stories:

Technology Tools to Create Comics/Graphic Novels:

• Comic Life 3 - $4.99 (iOS)
  
• Strip Designer - $2.99 (iOS)
• PhotoComic - $.99 (iOS)
• Halftone - Free (single frame) (iOS)
• Halftone 2 - $1.99 (iOS) 
• Storehouse - Free - visual storytelling - images and phrases (not a comic) (iOS)
• Comic Book - $2.99 (iOS)
• Comic Book Camera - Free (single frame - black and white) (iOS)
• Photo Comic Bubbles - Free (iOS)
• Lego Story Visualizer - Must have story starter kits (iOS)

Technology Tools that Create a Full "Movie" - narration, images, video clips, transitions, annotations/captions, music, etc.

• Videolicious (iOS)
  
• Shadow Puppet EDU (iOS)
  
• Adobe Voice (iOS)
  
• iMovie $4.99 (iOS)
  
• SonicPics $1.99 (iOS)

Other Technology Tools that Can Be Used to Tell Stories:

• Build with Foldify and Create Digital Stories with the Characters (iOS)
  
• Videoscribe - $5.99 (iOS)
• Lego Movie Maker - Free Stop Motion (iOS)
• Voicethread and 30hands (narrated PowerPoint style video) - Free (iOS)
• Storyrobe - $.99 (iOS)
• Explain Everything, Educreations, ShowMe - Whiteboard Movies - Free (iOS)
• PixnTell - Free/Lots of Upgrade Requests (iOS)
• Animoto - Free - (iOS and Desktop)
• Create characters with Modio or settings with Blockify and a 3-D printer - Free (iOS)

Methods of Digital Storytelling:

• Using a traditional story arc or story pyramid - exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, conclusion - all with characters who experience conflict and tension
  
• Demonstrating learning from a reading or research in the form of a story, documentary, etc.
  
• Short narratives with multi-media elements
  
• Use story starters or "hands-on" building activities to jump start story telling i.e. through Legos, Play-Doh, 3-D printing, etc.
• The Ohler storytelling method: