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The secret of storytelling through animas

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Humans are storytelling animals. We thrill to an astonishing multitude of fictions on pages, on stages, and on screens -- murder stories, sex stories, war stories, conspiracy stories, true stories and false. We are, as a species, addicted to story. But the addiction runs deeper than we think. We can walk away from our books and our screens, but we can never walk away from story. For humans, story is like gravity: an inescapable field of force that influences everything, but is so omnipresent that we hardly notice it. Here are 10 hidden ways that story saturates our lives.

1. Neverland. Children play at story by instinct. Children don't need to be tutored in story. We don't need to bribe them to make stories like we bribe them to eat broccoli. Children pretend even when they are hungry, even when they live in squalor. Children pretended in Auschwitz.

2. Dreams. Dreams are, like children's make believe, an innate form of storytelling. Researchers conventionally define dreams as "intense sensorimotor hallucinations with a narrative structure." Dreams are, in effect, night stories. The most conservative estimates suggest that we dream in a vivid, story-like way for more than six solid years out of a 70-year lifespan.

3. Fantasies. And we don't stop dreaming when we wake up. Studies suggest that daydreaming is the waking mind's default state. Whenever our minds aren't occupied with a demanding task, they get bored and screen little films where all of our vain, dirty wishes -- and all our worst fears -- come true. We spend up to eight hours per day fantasizing -- 1/3rd of our lives on earth.

4. Religion. Religions are made out of stories. Flip through the holy books of any religion and you will be flipping through an anthology of stories: The Fall, the Flood, the Archangel Gabriel seizing Muhammad by the throat, Prometheus stealing Olympian fire. Throughout the history of our species, sacred fiction has dominated human existence like nothing else. Religion is the ultimate expression of story's dominion over our minds.

5. Song. We listen to about five hours of music per day: elevator music, movie scores, commercial jingles, and all the stuff we mainline into our brains through earbuds. The most popular music tells stories about protagonists struggling to get what they want -- most often a boy or a girl. Singers might work in meter and rhyme, and alongside guitarists and drummers, but that doesn't alter the fact that the singer is telling a story -- it only disguises it.

6. Video games. Video games may become the 21st century's dominant form of storytelling. The games allow us to be the rock-jawed hero of an action film or a fleshed-out character inside interactive role playing games (RPGs) like The World of Warcraft. Players describe the experience of playing RPGs as "being inside a novel as it is being written."

7. TV commercials. Television shows -- like Law and Order and Survivor -- give us story. And they are liberally peppered with breaks where we are given more story. Social scientists define television commercials as "fictional screen media"; they are half-minute short-stories. A TV commercial rarely just says that a laundry detergent works well, it shows that it does through a story about an overworked mom, rascally kids, and a laundry room triumph.

8. Conspiracy theories. Conspiracy theories -- feverishly creative, lovingly plotted -- are fiction stories that some people believe in. They exert a powerful hold on the human imagination not despite structural parallels with fiction, but in large part because of them. Conspiracy theories are ripping good yarns that translate with telling ease into wildly popular entertainment: novels like Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code and James Elroy's Underworld USA trilogy; films like JFK and The Manchurian Candidate; television shows like 24 and The X-Files.

9. Non-Fiction. We gravitate to non-fiction that is most like fiction in drag (e.g., truthy reality shows and memoirs). Ever since the rise of the "new journalism" in the 1960s, non-fiction writers have felt free to pillage fiction technique, and now most long form journalistic efforts strive for suspenseful, character-driven narratives. When we call good journalism "good" we are evaluating not only its insights and its accuracy, but how well it approximates the narrative grip of fiction.

10. Life stories. A life story is "a personal myth" about who we are deep down -- where we come from and how we got this way. They are our identity. But psychological research shows that our memories constrain our self-creation less than we think, and they are constantly being distorted by our hopes and dreams. Until the day we die, we are living the story of our lives. And, like a novel in process, our life stories are always changing, evolving, being edited, rewritten, and embellished by an unreliable narrator.

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Storytelling Animals: 10 Surprising Ways That Story Dominates Our Lives

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Humans are storytelling animals. We thrill to an astonishing multitude of fictions on pages, on stages, and on screens -- murder stories, sex stories, war stories, conspiracy stories, true stories and false. We are, as a species, addicted to story. But the addiction runs deeper than we think.

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Humans are programmed to find a story in everything we see. Every picture, word or sentence, no matter how simplistic, is imbued with deeper meaning. This hardwiring helps our brain understand, contextualize and retain details about the world around us.

For that reason alone, it is only logical that good stories can also function as potent strategic business tools - ways and means to communicate marketing ideas, change perceptions, forge emotional connections, and alter behaviors.

But in recent years, the term "storytelling" has become overused and overprescribed by marketers. In reducing this powerful mechanism to an industry buzzword, it simultaneously became the de facto answer to nearly every challenge faced in digital advertising and an excuse to avoid responsibility for solving those problems.

At last year's Advertising Week, I noticed the rampant jargonization of "storytelling" and started to jot down each instance of its use. By mid-morning on day one, my hand was sore, well before storytelling was called upon to fix ad blocking, low CTRs (click-through rates), ineffective branding, and viewability.

Great storytelling illuminates

Cave paintings in France 30,000+ years old depict men being chased by bulls; oral histories in Australia date back 10,000+ years; and the great Sumerian Epic of Gilgamesh is over 4,000 years old. We have always made sense of the world with story.

While our capacity to tell stories hasn't changed, our capabilities to tell them have moved on from cave paintings to campfires to social media posts and beyond. All advertising should strive to tell a story, but without a sturdy foundation built upon a fundamental structure, storytelling quickly becomes another empty construct.

In a paper published in "The Journal of Marketing Theory and Practice" in 2014, marketing professors Keith Quesenberry and Michael Coolsen conducted a two-year analysis of 108 Super Bowl commercials. Their findings indicate that the structure and complexity of an ad's storytelling were actually what inevitably predicted its success, independent of the ad's content.

Furthermore, ads using Freytag's Pyramid - a theory describing the typical five-part dramatic arc as it was employed in ancient Greek and Shakespearean drama - were the most popular.

So what is "storytelling" when you're trying to sell a product instead of a play? The most important thing for us marketers to remember when we tell stories is that they take on many forms - they can be long episodic epics or six-word sentences; something that the viewer participates in or passively absorbs; they can be read, heard, or seen.

A story is simply a narrative structure that describes an event or sequence of events.

That being said, the difference between a bad story and a great one, or even a good story and a great one, is so vast it cannot be quantified. Great campaign stories are not only well-crafted, but also draw from these four key elements, which every marketer should strive to incorporate:

A beginning and an end. Any writer will tell you; the key to hooking a reader is to get them invested in the storyline as quickly as possible. Create a tension (or problem) and then, over the course of the narrative, give it resolution.

Most often in marketing, the problem is one that can be resolved by the product being sold (click here to purchase!). The "beginning" and "end" can be contained within a single element (e.g., a video) or can be stretched across the entire flight of the campaign.

Emotion. Initiating an emotional connection through sympathy, envy or intrigue not only pulls an audience into the story but creates emotional memories about your product far more powerful than facts or truths that are committed to memory. From there, moving them from one emotional state to another as the narrative unfolds only increases a powerful connection with your product and brand.

Authenticity. The story needs to speak a truth to the brand it is representing and the audience it's speaking to. Not only because it will make the story more compelling, but because in the digital space, more than any other medium, people are wont to call "B.S." on anything that rings false.

Relatability. Ensure that the story has a connection to the consumer - for example, through the problem being solved, the characters featured, or the time period that is highlighted.

The best way for marketers to use stories is to imbue their product with meaning and purpose through their telling. How that happens is up to the marketer.

Storytelling is not a magic wand

Storytelling is the most powerful tool in a marketer's toolbox when wielded properly. But it is increasingly being called upon to fix problems that need different solutions, especially as the number of places your message needs to be grows exponentially, as do the formats available to employ.

It is not something that can (or should) fix a single KPI. Storytelling should be baked into the campaign as it is being created to stimulate a stronger connection with your brand. That stronger connection will then lead to better metrics such as branded recall, view-through rate, and conversions.

A video or banner ad with a compelling storyline, or ideally one that is part of a larger compelling storyline, will likely have better performance metrics than one that does not - a rising tide will float all boats.

But that's not the point. It misses the broader scope and implications (the forest) by prescribing the tactic to fix a single problem (a tree).

It is not a quick fix. At its heart, all advertising seeks to create a connection with consumers that spurs an action. As the amount of advertising grows and diversifies, there is more work that needs to be done to sew the different elements together into a single narrative. This takes significant time, effort and forethought.

This part of the planning process is so crucial that an entirely new advertising field has been created to address it: Communications Planning. This function ensures that marketers are using the most impactful placements to communicate an idea, coordinating the elements of the campaign to create a narrative, and adapting the marketer's information to different environments to make sense.

It is not something that can be applied retroactively. By the time storytelling is being prescribed as a solution, it's often too late. Ensuring that the creative and media planning processes spur an articulate narrative and campaign rollout is paramount to your message and how it manifests in the world.

Now that we've established what a good marketing story is and isn't, let's delve into the best ways to tell those stories in digital media.

Six secrets to digital storytelling

1. From Sequential to Simultaneous Communications. Way back when, the path of communications from the brand to the audience was linear and direct, reflecting the analog nature of media.

This changed with the advent of digital media - where there's a concurrent communication of story elements that come together to form one concept. In literature, we call this "disruptive narrative," and its presence in digital media has big implications for how brands communicate with people.

2. From Owned to Shared Supply Chain. Brands no longer control the entire communications supply chain, or the sequence of processes that make up the creation, production and distribution of communications to consumers.

Digital advertising allows for a level of interaction among marketers, consumers and the media where all three are partners, or even co-creators, in the advertising experience. Often, the brand and its agency control the first part of the communications supply chain, the media controls the second, and the consumer the third.

3. From Linear Storytelling to Systemic Story-Building. Brands must engage in systemic story-building, layering communications to form a single narrative vs. the linear storytelling of the past. With systemic story-building, the brand creates the base layers of communication, including the core idea and video executions, but increasingly this is complemented with content co-created with media partners or created by consumers.

4. From Kinescope to Kaleidoscope Content. Embrace the myriad of content creators and their role in getting your message to consumers. In the past - as with linear storytelling - there was only one source for messages about your brand or product. Now, content creators and their platforms for distribution (e.g., YouTube, Facebook, Snapchat) have altered the communication supply chain.

Consumers expect to see your message interpreted by "the internet" - plotlines and characters transformed in exciting ways, narrative sequences morphed. In some cases, people create their own narratives that advertisers can join, whether on social media or news feeds.

5. From Incite to Insight. No matter the product, brand, medium or budget, insights that isolate true problems lead to advertising that addresses them and breaks through. People are exposed to more messages per day than ever before in history; their default setting is "ignore" and so they cannot simply be exhorted to act.

Research your product, your consumer, your proposition to them, and the mediums where you plan to speak with them, and search for insight to achieve the breakthrough necessary to create an impact with consumers.

6. From Craftsman to Craft Guild. Now, more than ever, we need to craft messages to the moment and medium where they will be placed. Given the extraordinary amount of advertising clutter, the bar is set nearly impossibly high for those who create today's multifaceted campaigns.

Viewers of content have become experts at using technology to curate their own media experience. They expect brands to not only keep pace, but also add value to their content streams and to do so on personal terms - wherever and whenever individuals want to engage. Brands and their agencies must master - or employ masters of - a broad range of modern communication tools and techniques.

More stories and less jargon

Whether aspirational or anecdotal, the present art of "storytelling" has been reduced too often to jargon - bobbing in a sea of generic solutions and platitudes aimed to counter ineffective digital advertising.

While creating a compelling narrative may very well be the answer to many a challenge, truly unleashing the power of storytelling potential requires more than glib proclamations; it requires a nuanced, focused, deeper understanding of how to marry the opportunities made available by digital technology with the fundamentals of an ancient craft.
Opinions expressed in this article are those of the guest author and not necessarily Marketing Land. Staff authors are listed here.
About The Author

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Humans are programmed to find a story in everything we see. Every picture, word or sentence, no matter how simplistic, is imbued with deeper meaning. This hardwiring helps our brain understand, contextualize and retain details about the world around us.

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Educators! Learn how to use Pixton in the classroom. Set up your classroom and begin teaching any subject in minutes through the super-power of comics.

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Free Comic Strip Maker - Create Comic Strips Online | Canva

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Create and share your own brilliant comic strips for free with Canva’s amazingly simple online comic strips maker.

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Toondoo.com and Toondoospaces.com have been shut down permanently, effective immediately.

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Your request appears to be from an automated process

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I love the game but there is this one bug so I can't play when you put in a internet photo it takes the whole photo and you can't cut it out I hope this bug is fixed in the future but otherwise the game is great

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‎Create your own unique shows with animation and audio in real time! Simply pick out your actors and backdrops, drag them on to the stage, and tap record. Your movements and audio will be recorded in real time for playback later. This app is as fun as your own creativity.

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Animate your life! Download today!

Tellagami is a mobile app that lets you create and share a quick animated video called a Gami.

A Gami can be an exciting tweet or status update. It can be a fun way to tell a story. It can be a thank you message or a vacation postcard. It can be a birthday greeting, party invite or cool way to share photos. The possibilities are endless!

EASY TO USE
Create a Gami in 3 easy steps:
1 - Customize a character and choose your background
2 - Record your voice or type a message for your character to say
3 - Share your Gami on Facebook, Twitter or send via text or email

FEATURES
* Mix and match your character & background
* Record your voice or type a message
* Resize character and place it in the scene
* Personalize with a photo background
* Share via Facebook, Twitter, email or SMS
* View Gami as a web URL on all devices

MOBILE-FIRST
* Create, customize and share from your iPhone or iPad with intuitive touch menu and controls
* Use your iPhone or iPad camera to easily insert a photo background or pick a photo from your camera roll
* Doodle on the background with your finger or stylus
* Record your voice with your iPhone or iPad mic

WAYS PEOPLE ARE USING A GAMI
* Greetings & Invites - Tell a story, liven up a blog, introduce someone
* Education -Teach a lesson, create a book report, share a vacation
* Business & Marketing - Pitch an idea, sell a product, showcase a company

Educators: Download the Tellagami Edu app! Tellagami Edu is a paid version of the Tellagami app loaded with features that allows classrooms to use the app without in-app purchases. Learn more at https://tellagami.com/edu

Version 1.4.6

Added workaround for minority of devices having issues with voice recording on iOS 8. Voice recording is working again on all devices. Thanks for your patience!

NOTE: Tellagami apps aren't compatible with iOS 11. Stayed tuned for updated info.

Cool App!

I like this app a lot, it makes giving video demonstrations for class a lot easier because you can choose the way your avatar looks, and you can record your own voice, or type in words and there is an automated voice. I personally love this app because I can use an avatar on the screen instead of myself. For a free app I think it is great, but without the extra features it does make it very hard to make a personalized project or video. I would definitely recommend paying for the full version.

Disappointed

This app used to be one of our favorites in school. Many of our teachers used it last year with students and were very pleased with it. It WAS great. Now it is useless!!! I agree with the disappointment from many users. I understand you want to make money, but the changes to features that were once offered in the free version to In-App Purchases make you look greedy. That's what I have told many of our teachers. In the future, don't offer something for free and then take it away. You should have left the app features as they are in the free version and would have received more In-App purchases from current users. I will not use or promote this app now. This app does not deserve the 1star due to poor customer relation.

Ehh

No like this app but i think it should have better features. Such as text. I think you should be able to write the text and then pick your voice. Also, I think the happy should seem a little more.... HAPPY! Other than that I really like this app. One more thing. I think you should be able to get to pick the size of your brush because what if your trying to do something small, you can't because the darn thing doesn't let you!!!!!

Information

Seller

Tellagami Labs Inc.

Compatibility

Requires iOS 6.0 or later. Compatible with iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch.

Copyright

© Tellagami Labs Inc.

In-App Purchases

1. Text-To-Speech Pack (4 male voices, 4 female voices) $1.99

2. Character Customization Pack (hair, tops, bottoms, shoes for male/female) $1.99

3. 90-Second Gami Pack $0.99
more

Family Sharing

With Family Sharing set up, up to six family members can use this app.

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‎Animate your life! Download today! Tellagami is a mobile app that lets you create and share a quick animated video called a Gami. A Gami can be an exciting tweet or status update. It can be a fun way to tell a story. It can be a thank you message or a vacation postcard.

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imagistory - creative storytelling app for kids

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Imagistory - Creative Storytelling App for Kids on the App Store

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Read reviews, compare customer ratings, see screenshots, and learn more about Imagistory - Creative Storytelling App for Kids. Download Imagistory - Creative Storytelling App for Kids and enjoy it on your iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch.

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Comic & Meme Creator - Apps on Google Play

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All-In-One app for creating funny meme, cartoon, comic, anime and manga. With a huge gallery of characters, objects, backgrounds and memes, you can create something new every day and show it to your friends.Features:- Huge collection of characters, objects and backgrounds.- Share your comics inside the app with other users.- LIKE, COMMENT and FOLLOW other comic makers.- Share your comic on Facebook, WhatsApp, Twitter, Email and more.- Export comic as image strip or animated GIF.

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Video Editor - Android Apps on Google Play

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The best way to create, edit, and publish videos. We are now Editors' Choice!

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Animoto Video Maker - Apps on Google Play

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Make fun videos wherever you are, with photos and video clips from your phone or tablet. Choose from one of our sleek video styles, add a song, and you're done! Share via email, Twitter, or Facebook and impress the socks off your friends and family. Millions of downloads and counting!

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Slideshow with digital images

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Microsoft's Photo Story is a free Windows program that lets you create audiovisual presentations out of your photos and images. You can quickly crop, rotate, and edit your pictures; personalize them with captions and titles; and add sound effects, narration, and background music. Photo Story saves your presentations as WMV files you can play on your PC or convert using a third-party video converter. Finished files can be small enough to send by email, too. Many Windows users already have it; those who don't can download and install it or repair their current installation, if necessary. We looked at the latest release, Photo Story 3.

Photo Story 3 opens with a wizard offering three choices: Begin a new story, edit a project, or play a story. With no stories to edit or play, we started with the first option. However, in the lower left corner of the program's window is a small Help button that opens a fairly large Help file that many users may prefer as a starting point since it explains every step and even offers extras such as tips and tricks, accessibility options for individuals with disabilities, and a Glossary. In any case, the program's wizard made each step easy even for beginners. We imported some images and arranged them on the film strip. A main window displays selected images and let us crop and rotate them, correct color levels and red eye, and apply a variety of visual effects from a drop-down list. An Auto Fix feature automatically corrects color, contrast, and red eye, too. Photo Story's wizard offers lots of advice, such as telling us that removing the black borders from our images with the Remove Black Borders tool would improve its on-screen appearance. A selection tool ensures that the right part of your photo is retained. We added text, narration, and music, and saved our project with lots of playback options.

Presentations created with Photo Story 3 are great for weddings, birthdays, and other celebrations. With a little time and effort, this surprisingly versatile tool can tell all kinds of stories. It's a hidden gem in Windows.
Editors' note: This is a review of the trial version of Photo Story 3 3.0.1115.11.

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free photo story 3 for windows downloads

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Microsoft's Photo Story is a free Windows program that lets you create audiovisual presentations out of your photos and images. You can quickly crop, rotate, and edit your pictures; personalize them with captions and titles; and add sound effects, narration, and background music.

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Educational Uses of Digital Storytelling

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About this Site

The Goals of this Website
The primary goal of the Educational Uses of Digital Storytelling website is to serve as a useful resource for educators and students who are interested in how digital storytelling can be integrated into a variety of educational activities. The site was originally created in 2004 and faculty members and graduate students in the Learning, Design and Technology Program at the University of Houston College of Education continue to maintain the site and add new content. Our long term goal is to make the Educational Uses of Digital Storytelling website a comprehensive clearinghouse of information for both those just starting to use digital storytelling as well as for educators, graduate students and researchers who want to deeply explore the many facets of this educational technology tool.

The EUODS Website in 2004

The EUODS Website in 2008

The Current EUODS Website

August, 2021

It is with mixed feelings that I am announcing that I have retired from the University of Houston after more than 25 years as a faculty member. I first created the Educational Uses of Digital Storytelling website in 2004 because I was interested in how digital storytelling could be used by students and teachers and I thought that a website would be a great way to share my passion for this emerging use of technology. Over the years I have enjoyed watching digital storytelling gain greater acceptance as a valid teaching and learning tool and am gratified to see the number of visitors to this website continue to grow. So, it is with a small sense of sadness that I will no longer be involved in the Educational Uses of Digital Storytelling website.

However, it is with a great deal of pleasure that I will be handing over the website to Dr. Bulent Dogan, a former doctoral student who worked with me and who is now a Clinical Assistant Professor of Learning Design and Technology in the University of Houston's College of Education. In fact, Bulent was the first of many of my doctoral students who conducted research on the effectiveness of digital storytelling as a teaching and learning tool. Bulent is extremely knowledgeable in all aspects of digital storytelling and I am certain that he will not only maintain the website but will take it in new directions that will make it an even more useful resource for students and educators as well as anyone who is interesting in learning more about the digital storytelling process.

Sincerely,
Bernard Robin, PhD.

By the way, Bulent's contact information is shown below and I am certain that he will be delighted to hear from you.

Email: bdogan@uh.edu
Web: http://distco.org
Web: http://www.itechstem.org
Social: Twitter@drbulentdogan

Educational Fair Use
Although we stress to our students that they should try to create their own materials for use in their digital story projects, some of the digital stories contained on this site include still images, audio files, music and video clips that were found on the Internet using commonly available search engines, websites such as YouTube, as well as from television broadcasts, commercial VHS tapes and DVDs. We hope that these digital stories can serve as examples to educators of how the power of accessible multimedia can be used to engage students in today's K-12 and higher education classrooms and excite them about the possibility of creating their own digital stories.

Permission to Use Material from this Site
Permission is granted to all educators and students who wish to use or link to any material on the Educational Uses of Digital Storytelling Website, including text, images, digital stories and other resources, for personal, educational, and/or non-commercial purposes. Please note that if material is published in print or online, appropriate attribution to this site is required and should include the following information:

Dogan, B. (2021). The Educational Uses of Digital Storytelling Website
University of Houston College of Education
http://digitalstorytelling.coe.uh.edu

Contact Information
Questions or comments about this website or any materials found on the site should be emailed to Bulent Dogan, EdD. at: bdogan@uh.edu

News & Announcements

August, 2021

It is with mixed feelings that I am announcing that I have retired from the University of Houston after more than 25 years as a faculty member. I first created the Educational Uses of Digital Storytelling website in 2004 because I was interested in how digital storytelling could be used by students and teachers and I thought that a website would be a great way to share my passion for this emerging use of technology. Over the years I have enjoyed watching digital storytelling gain greater acceptance as a valid teaching and learning tool and am gratified to see the number of visitors to this website continue to grow. So, it is with a small sense of sadness that I will no longer be involved in the Educational Uses of Digital Storytelling website.

However, it is with a great deal of pleasure that I will be handing over the website to Dr. Bulent Dogan, a former doctoral student who worked with me and who is now a Clinical Assistant Professor of Learning Design and Technology in the University of Houston's College of Education. In fact, Bulent was the first of many of my doctoral students who conducted research on the effectiveness of digital storytelling as a teaching and learning tool. Bulent is extremely knowledgeable in all aspects of digital storytelling and I am certain that he will not only maintain the website but will take it in new directions that will make it an even more useful resource for students and educators as well as anyone who is interesting in learning more about the digital storytelling process.

Sincerely,
Bernard Robin, PhD.

By the way, Bulent's contact information is shown below and I am certain that he will be delighted to hear from you.

Email: bdogan@uh.edu
Web: http://distco.org
Web: http://www.itechstem.org
Social: Twitter@drbulentdogan

Digital Storytelling MOOC (Massive Open Online Course) on Coursera

Powerful Tools for Teaching and Learning: Digital Storytelling is a free 5-week MOOC that introduces educators to digital storytelling and explores ways that educators might use this technology tool to enhance their students' learning experience. The MOOC will provide a solid foundation in the basic components of digital storytelling with tutorials, example stories and links to additional readings. The MOOC will also provide hands-on opportunities for learners to create their own digital stories.

The MOOC is free and the only requirement for participating is a PC or Mac desktop or laptop computer, an Internet connection and an interest in learning to use digital storytelling tools and techniques to support teaching and learning across different grade levels and multiple content areas. This MOOC is intended for K-12 teachers in all disciplines, although it is open to anyone with an interest in digital storytelling. Course participants will use WeVideo, a web-based video editing program to create a digital story that can be shared online.

Teachers in the state of Texas may be eligible to receive Continuing Education Units if they complete the major requirements of the course.

Powerful Tools for Teaching and Learning: Digital Storytelling is offered on a continuing basis and may be joined every few weeks..

For more information or to enroll in this MOOC, please go to:
https://www.coursera.org/course/digitalstorytelling

Digital Storytelling MOOC

Powerful Tools for Teaching and Learning: Digital Storytelling is a 5-week MOOC that introduces educators to digital storytelling and explores ways that educators might use this technology tool to enhance their students' learning experience. The MOOC will provide a solid foundation in the basic components of digital storytelling with tutorials, example stories and links to additional readings. The MOOC will also provide hands-on opportunities for learners to create their own digital stories.

The MOOC may be taken for free or as a paid signature track student who will gain greater access to course content and peer feedback.

This MOOC is intended for K-12 teachers in all disciplines and at all grade levels, although it is open to anyone wishing to learn to use digital storytelling tools and techniques that can be used in educational, personal or professional contexts. Course participants will use WeVideo, an inexpensive web-based video editing program to create a digital story that can be shared online.

Texas teachers in the United States may be eligible to receive Continuing Education Units if they complete the major requirements of the MOOC.

Powerful Tools for Teaching and Learning: Digital Storytelling is scheduled to begin on September 8, 2014 and end on October 12, 2014.

For more information or to enroll in Powerful Tools for Teaching and Learning: Digital Storytelling, please go to:
https://www.coursera.org/course/digitalstorytelling

For more information about Massive Open Online Courses, please see: The Ultimate MOOC Handbook
http://www.accreditedschoolsonline.org/resources/moocs/

Permission to Use Material from this Site

Permission is granted to all educators and students who wish to use or link to any material on the Educational Uses of Digital Storytelling Website, including text, images, digital stories and other resources, for personal, educational, and/or non-commercial purposes. Please note that if material is published in print or online, appropriate attribution to this site is required and should include the following information:

Robin, B. (2020). The Educational Uses of Digital Storytelling Website
University of Houston College of Education
http://digitalstorytelling.coe.uh.edu

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Educational Uses of Digital Storytelling

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The Goals of this Website The primary goal of the Educational Uses of Digital Storytelling website is to serve as a useful resource for educators and students who are interested in how digital storytelling can be integrated into a variety of educational activities.

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Windows Movie Maker is an easy-to-use video editor that has been surprisingly stripped down to its most basic features in the most recent versions of Windows Vista and Windows 7.

Luckily for you, now there's a standalone version with all the goodies from the original Windows Movie Maker. It's called Portable Windows Movie Maker and can be run from a USB drive.

Portable Windows Movie Maker works just like the original one. You can create attractive multimedia presentations that include not only your favorite shots and video clips, but also some nice video and transition effects that will add a professional touch to your creation.

The program is dead simple to use. Import all the media you'd like to use in your presentation into the interface and drag it on the timeline (or storyboard, if you prefer it that way). Then add as many effects as you like, and check how everything looks in the preview window.

Portable Windows Movie Maker includes more than a hundred transitions and 76 video effects, plus a handy tool to make titles or credits. That said, bear in mind that this program is intended for people with little or no experience in video edition, which means that more advanced users may find it a bit too limited.

Once your work is finished, you can export the video to several different formats in various sizes, depending on where you want to use it: publish it on a website, recording it to a CD or simply saving it to your hard drive are some of the options included.

Portable Windows Movie Maker helps you create your own video presentations with your favorite photos, video clips and some nice transition effects.

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Windows Movie Maker is an easy-to-use video editor that has been surprisingly stripped down to its most basic features in the most recent versions of Windows Vista and Windows 7. Luckily for you, now there's a standalone version with all the goodies from the original Windows Movie Maker.

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Free for teachers and students...just type text and add characters

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Want to try the easiest and most fun way to create animated movies ever invented?

This is how easy it is

1. Choose a scene

2. Create your own actors

3. Write your story and let Plotagon make it come to life

4. Save your masterpiece and share it with the world!

Plotagon is an award-winning storytelling tool for all ages. With this app, you essentially have an animation studio in the palm of your hand.

What's on your mind?

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Turn your story into a movie with Plotagon.

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Online Storyboarding

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Rostering

Compatible with popular learning management systems such as Google Classroom, Clever, Canvas, ClassLink, and Schoology, Storyboard That makes organizing your students, classes, and assignments a breeze. In addition, sharing assignments with students and keeping track of their progress is as easy as clicking a button.

Real Time Collaboration

Knowing how to work together is an important part of a child's education. Students will love working in pairs and in small groups on the same storyboard!

Want your students to add writing to their storyboards? We've got tons of options for speech and text.

The storyboard creator free trial for teachers allows you to try out all of the premium features for two weeks. Thousands of copyable activities, worksheets, and posters are yours to use and keep in your storyboard library. Educators love Storyboard That because it helps students process and understand the information in a deep, meaningful way. When students storyboard, they are actively engaged in the learning process and can make connections between the text and their own lives.

Storyboards also promote higher-level thinking by encouraging students to synthesize information and think critically about what they have read. Finally, storyboards are a great way to assess student understanding because they provide a visual representation of student learning.

Storyboard That is the perfect tool for novel lesson plans and activities because it's so easy to use and extremely versatile. With Storyboard That, you can create a wide variety of storyboards such as the story from the main character's perspective, or any other character's point of view.

By combining the storyboard maker with your lesson plans, you can adhere to the curriculum and required standards, while ensuring that your students will be engaged and excited to learn. Another added bonus is that our premade lesson plans are aligned with the Common Core!

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Free Storyboarding Software - Online Storyboard Creator | StoryboardThat

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Create storyboards with our free storyboard software! ⚡ Try 1 month for $1 ✩ Filmmakers, teachers, students, & businesses all love using ❰Storyboard That❱ for storyboarding & comics online!

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Create stopmotion videos, animations, and claymations! Just setup your scene, shoot a frame, adjust and repeat. Once you're done this app will automatically string together all the frames into a .mov movie that you can export to your Gallery or play in VLC.

Feature highlights:
* HD resolutions
* Grid Overlay
* Onionskin Overlay
* Local playback
* Export to Gallery (Available on devices running Android 4.0 or newer)
* Upload to YouTube (Exported videos can be uploaded from the video Gallery)

Permissions Explained:
* Camera - for taking pictures.
* Wake Lock - To keep the screen on while taking pictures.
* Storage - for saving your Stop-Motion videos to your external storage (SD card)

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Stop-Motion - Android Apps on Google Play

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Create stopmotion videos, animations, and claymations! Just setup your scene, shoot a frame, adjust and repeat. Once you're done this app will automatically string together all the frames into a .mov movie that you can export to your Gallery or play in VLC.

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Read reviews, compare customer ratings, see screenshots, and learn more about iStopMotion for iPad. Download iStopMotion for iPad and enjoy it on your iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch.

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Click below to download template in PDF format

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Click below to download template for Word

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Click below to download template for Pages

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A place to create and print digital stories

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StoryJumper: #1 rated site for creating story books

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Easiest way to create, narrate, and publish your own hardcover and paperback books. Read and listen to books from our worldwide community.

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Great place to start your story

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Single picture with words

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‣ A K1-k12 online teaching tool for literacy skills

‣ Easy to use, creative, interactive, and FREE 24/7

‣ Unique and Inspiring; using photography and keywords

‣ Global appeal & usage with multiple subjects

‣ High-quality, safe content for sharing

‣ Appropriate for all demographics

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‣ A K1-k12 online teaching tool for literacy skills ‣ Easy to use, creative, interactive, and FREE 24/7 ‣ Unique and Inspiring; using photography and keywords ‣ Global appeal & usage with multiple subjects ‣ High-quality, safe content for sharing ‣ Appropriate for all demographics

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Storyboard generator

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Community of digital stories

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UtellStory - Tell Stories, Share Topics, Make Impact

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A multimedia storytelling and sharing community.

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Digital book creator

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Storybird - Read, write, discover, and share the books you'll always remember.

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Become a better writer with Storybird's creativity tools. Online courses, challenges, and reader feedback will help you improve your writing.