Digital Storytelling Resources (Link Post)

Kids always have a story to tell! Kids are also interacting with the world in creative and engaging ways at all times.  Technology has now become an easily accessible, extremely engaging, and often powerful tool for students to document the world around them.  My blog has an early childhood focus and flare because that is all I really know.  I have been either a teacher or educational technologist in early childhood for the past 12 years and I have been amazed by the kid-friendly developments in technology, especially mobile technology. When technology can be literally in the hands of young children, it truly opens the world up in amazing ways. Kids can create books about field trips, organize photos into movies and slideshows, and turn their amazing writer's workshop stories into stop-motion movies. I will provide links for anyone interested in starting a digital storytelling adventure below. The links will include some of my favorite tools and how they were utilized in my classroom. I will also include some student examples and links to more amazing resources.  Enjoy exploring and send me any questions or comments in the comments section below. 

Happy Storytelling, 
- Jake 


Highlighted App Links (My Favorites!) 

​Explain Everything 
​This is a screencasting app that allows for students to record what is happening on their screen within the app. It is great for explaining their work or telling their stories.  It is such a versatile app that you should check out. 

Chatterpix 
Chatterpix is an app where kids can make anything talk by simply taking a picture of the "something" drawing a line for mouth and recording their voices!  Such a great app for beginning digital storytelling. 

Book Creator 
Book Creator is an amazing app and totally my favorite! It allows students to build stories through drawing and typing while exploring different colors and fonts. The stories can be saved as an ebook, video, or pdf!  

iMovie for the iPad
iMovie is an amazing resource for students to create videos on their iPads. On the iPad it is drag and dropped based for easy use. 

iMotion 
iMotion is an app that easily allows kids to create stop motion videos! Kids can write stories and then recreate them in stop-motion animation! 

DoInk's Green Screen
DoInk's Green Screen app allows kids to create green screen videos in seconds! All you need is the app and a blue or green background and kids can transport their stories all over the world and universe. 

Video Links with My Class 

(iPad Focused Videos) 
Creating Stories in Explain Everything 
In this video, I will talk about how I have kids use avatars they created in Explain Everything to do basic storytelling and sharing of their writer's workshop pieces. It has some basic animation and shows a quick and easy way for kids to put voice to their writing.

Publishing Stories with Chatterpix app and Book Creator app.
In this video, I will show how primary teacher can use the apps Chatterpix/Chatterkid coupled with Book Creator to publish their favorite writer's workshop pieces. It will highlight fun and engaging ways for students to add voice and personality to their writing.

Creating Stories with DoInk's Green Screen app and iMovie 
Take a glimpse at a recent unit where we combined the hilarious stories of Robert Munsch, green screen, and first grade story tellers to make curricular magic (well the kids think green screen is magic)! Enjoy watching!

Publishing Stories with Stop-Motion and iMovie 
In this video, I will highlight the apps Lego Movie Maker and iMovie for the iPad to show how your primary students can publish their final writer's workshop pieces.

Student Example Lists of Links Above: 
A video highlighting a multi-app approach using Explain Everything, Chatterkid, and iMovie for the iPad
​Student uses Green Screen by DoInk to publish a story in writer's workshop. 
Student publishes a fiction story in the iPad app Explain Everything. 
Students created a stop motion video story using Lego Movie Maker and then wrote the story in writer's workshop! This one is titled Crazy Car Dealership! 21st century learning!

Other Resources 
Kathy Schrock's Guide to Everything: Digital Storytelling Across the Curriculum
​Kathy's posts are always jammed packed with resources.  She does a wonderful job or curating a stellar list of digital storytelling resources.  I especially enjoyed her tie to the common core standards which will be useful to teacher's teaching in a standards based environment. 

List of free digital storytelling resources
This article is also jammed packed with resources.  The article has resources for websites as well as apps and links to many other articles and lists. I would check out the links to the apps Toontastic and Puppet Pals. Those are great resources I have used in class. They are great for primary levels and are very engaging. 

How to Use Digital Storytelling in Your Classroom - Edutopia
This list blog gives such tips and advice on how to integrate digital storytelling into classrooms. I especially enjoyed reading the encouraging steps of "see technology as a tool and not a learning goal" as well as "learn by trial and error".  As someone who has used a lot of technology in my classroom, I have learned that tinkering while not being afraid to fail is a pivotal part of our growth as educators. I failed big and failed often as I integrated technology, but by not giving up I found some pretty remarkable tools that transformed the learning in my classrooms.  This article really hits home with my core beliefs about technology integration.