Digital Storytelling involves combining three or more of these elements: voice, music, still or video images, text, and technology tools to tell a story.
DigiTales: The Art of Telling Digital Stories - This site includes many resources, including a downloable page for sample storyboards.
Productivity Tools Recommended for Digital Storytelling
**Digital Story Productivity Tools, An Animoto Video by G.A. Ruth Nicole Hall**
Animoto - Web 2.0 tool requires a subscription unless you are okay with a free-trial branded video - IMPORTANT: Animoto has a free educator account that will allow you to create unbranded videos.
Audacity - This is a free audio editor (requires download).
Educreations - Record your voice and iPad® screen to create dynamic video tutorials or other teaching tools. (App available)
emaze - Online presentation tool
Garageband - Apple software for recording
Fotobabble - A free Web tool using photos and recorded voice
Go! Animate - Web 2.0 tool in cartoon format (free for 14 days)
iMovie- Video editing software for the Mac platform (requires download)
PhotoStory - Video editing software from Microsoft (requires download)
Prezi - This tool allow for "movement," embedding video or other Web 2.0 tools such as Xtranormal, and spotlighting keywords and concepts.
Storybird - A collaborative Web 2.0 tool for creating storybook format digital stories
VoiceThread - Educators can set up a free account for this Web 2.0 tool.
Yodio - This tool allows uploading of digital photos, recording voice with your phone, publishing, and sharing free of cost.
Brainstorming, Mind-mapping, and Storyboarding Tools
**Web 2.0 Tools for Storyboarding, An Animoto Video by G.A. Ruth Nicole Hall**
Elementary:
Bubbl.us - Upper elementary students who have previously used mind-mapping tools will be able to use this one for brainstorming.
Cacoo - This free online collaborative drawing tool offers a history feature that allows participants (and reviewers) to easily note individual contributions. This tool can be used in a linear fashion for storyboarding.
Padlet - (formerly Wallwisher) - This is a free online tool which allows you to build your own wall of information. It is excellent for storyboarding. You can group your posts together. It is user friendly and visually appealing.
Popplet - This free online collaborative tool automatically labels the originator of each entry. The tool allows a user to create up to five Popplets at a time.
Middle and High School:
Mind42.com - This site is easy to join and use for collaborative brainstorming. (There was a bit of a learning curve for me in using the composing/editing features.) Mind42 offers great export options.
Mindomo - This is a feature-rich mind mapping application (free basic memberships are available) for experienced or mind-map users.
Infographic Tools
Canva
Pictochart
Smore
The American Memory Project (A Project of the Library of Congress) - The images on this site are arranged in categories. Note: "It is the researcher's obligation to determine and satisfy copyright or other use restrictions when publishing or otherwise distributing materials found in the Library's collections. Transmission or reproduction of protected items beyond that allowed by fair use requires the written permission of the copyright owners. Researchers must make their own assessments of rights in light of their intended use."
Creative Commons You can search Google and Flickr images from this link. Be careful. Not all of the Flickr or Google images this site retrieves are copyright-free. Don't assume; read copyright information. You can also search for music and videos.
Discovery Education This copyright-free clip art is organized by topic.
Fotopedia This site is a gold mine for diversity! Check out the stunning photographs from cultures around the world. Give the photographers credit and everyone wins!
Free Clip Art Pics These cartoons by Curtis D. Tucker are copyright-free for non-commercial use. (The rules say "no more than ten per Web site.)
Google Images!!! For copyright-free Google images, go to Google Advanced Image Search – Select appropriate “usage rights."
MorgueFile This site provides search by subject copyright-free photographs, some of which require that you cite the source of the images you use. (The goal of the site is to promote the subscribing photographers' work.)
Pics4Learning This site provides copyright-free images for teachers and students for classroom, fundraising, or Web distribution purposes.
Pixabay This searchable site offers over a million copyright-free images and videos. (Although they can be used for non-commercial purposes without attribution, I require students to cite and link to the original image.)
Public Domain Photos This site provides copy-right free images and clip art in the public domain with Creative Commons licensing for personal or commercial use.
Teaching with Primary Sources (A Project of the Library of Congress) - The American Memory Project is part of this vast collection.
Sources for Copyright-free Music:
The challenge with recommending music sites is that the fine print regarding terms of use is sometimes very fine and applies to particular songs rather than to all works downloadable from the site. I have used Creative Commons to search for copyright-free music.
Audionautix offers copyright-free, no registration, no subscription music.
Free Sound offers just that, free sounds -- not songs!
Incompetech asks for donations for their royalty-free music.
Musopen.org is a non-profit site that allows registered users 5 standard-quality free downloads a day without copyright restrictions.
Purple Planet has royalty-free music that can be used in projects that include Web distribution.
Tips for Creating Properly Formatted Reference/Works Cited Slides:
One way to get around a program that does not provide you with the opportunity to format your citations correctly is to:
1. Keyboard your citations on a PowerPoint slide (or two or three). You will want to use a legible font size so the number of slides is dependent on the length of your references. Format your citations properly according to the style you are using.
2. Save each individual slide as a .jpg file.
3. This gives you one or more image files that you can upload into your program.
If this strategy will not work for the tool you are using, you can use quotes (that's what newspapers do).
If your tool allows you to post information in the "Comments" section underneath your presentation, please do that as well! See the example at: Coteachers: Step Out of the Box - Together! (Click on the "comments" tab and "more" to see the full Works Cited.)
Don't Put Your Future @ Risk by Judi Moreillon (Pictochart)