A LIST OF THE BEST FREE DIGITAL STORY TELLING TOOLS FOR TEACHERS

A LIST OF THE BEST FREE DIGITAL STORY  TELLING TOOLS FOR TEACHERS 

1- ZimmerTwins

It is all about creative storytelling. ZimmerTwins is a web2.0 tool that allows students to give vent to their imaginative powers and exercise their storytelling skills from early stages to advances ones.

2- Digital Story Telling in The Classroom
This section provides resources and materials for teachers to use with their students in storytelling. It helps students personalize their learning and  perform better. Students can use these materials to create a movie or interactive slideshow to tell their stories.

3- Story Bird
This is an awesome website that allows students and teachers to create short art inspired stories to read, share or print out.

4- Someries
Someries is a fantastic  storytelling site . It has  a continuous flow of new stories, read aloud by kids . The stories are all made by kids and for kids,  learners of English can benefit a lot from this site too . Some of the videos in Someries are subtitled so that kids can both read and listen to what they read .

5- PicLits
This is another awesome website where students can choose a picture and start drawing or writing a text on it to create a story.

6- Generator
This is a creative studio space where students explore the moving image and create their own digital stories to share with others.

7- Capzles
This is where you and your students can create rich multimedia stories with videos, photos, music, blogs and documents. It is really awesome.

8- Slidestory
This is a free digital story telling tool that students can use to combine sharing pictures and narration to create awesome presentations and stories to share with others.

9- Domo Animate
This is one of the best tools online for digital story telling. It allows students to create animated stories and provides them with a wide variety of background and characters to use.

10- Animoto
This is also a very popular tool but its paid versions offer much more than its free basic plan that only allows for creating 30 second videos. These videos can combine images, songs, and text.

11- Smilebox
This is a great website that provides hundreds of customizable designs for students and teachers to create their own stories that can comprise photos, videos, words and music.

12- Make Belief Comix
As its name suggests, this tool allows users to create stories out of comic strips and share them with others The process is very easy to use and above all student friendly

13- Creaza
Creaza has a nice tool called Cartoonist where students can create their own stories using cartoonic characters. Watch the video in there to learn how to use it.

14- Pixton
This is a tool that lets users create stories out of cartoons and provided characters. It is so much fun and students will definitely love it.

15- Voice Thread
This is a collaborative, multimedia slide show that holds images, documents, and videos and allows users to navigate slides and create their own stories.

16- Comic master
This is a great website that allows users to create graphic novels and stories to share with others. It provides everything from templates to sharing tools, you just put in your ideas and creativity.

17- Picture Book Maker
As its name suggests, this tools lets you create your very own children's book using a set of beautiful templates and pages.

18- Bubblr
This is a tool to help you create comic strips using photos from Flickr.com. Just search for the pictures you want and then add your bubbles.

19- Pinball
This is another great website for students and teachers to create digital stories. It has a set of tools to fire out ideas, mix them, and make quick decisions.

20- Mapskip
This website features several stories based on locations on  Google map. The purpose is to create a weave of stories about the places in our lives. Users can join in for free and start marking up places in Google Maps with their own stories and photos. They can also browse each others' stories and can rate and discuss them.

21- ZooBurst
This is another great digital storytelling tool that lets anyone easily create his or her own 3D pop-up books. It has two plans one is basic and free and the other is paid and has more advanced features.

http://www.educatorstechnology.com/2012/06/list-of-best-free-digital-storytelling.html

Educational Uses

Digital Storytelling as an Effective Instructional Tool for Teachers
There are numerous ways that Digital Storytelling can be used in education. One of the first decisions to be made when deciding to use this tool in the curriculum is whether an instructor will create the Digital Stories or have their students do it. Some educators may decide to create their own stories and show them to their students as a way to present new material. An engaging, multimedia-rich digital story can sever as an anticipatory set or hook to capture the attention of students and increasing their interest in exploring new ideas.

Teacher-created digital stories may also be used to enhance current lessons within a larger unit, as a way to facilitate discussion about the topics presented a story and as a way of making abstract or conceptual content more understandable. While many educators still lack a cohesive plan for integrating multimedia into their instruction, a growing number of teachers are interested in exploring ways to engage their students by including images, audio and video elements in their instruction. Research has shown that the use of multimedia in teaching helps students retain new information as well as aids in the comprehension of difficult material. And Digital Storytelling can provide educators with a powerful tool to use in their classrooms.

Digital Storytelling as an Effective Learning Tool for Students
Digital Storytelling can also be a potent tool for students who are taught to create their own stories. After viewing example digital stories created by their teachers or other story developers, students may be given assignments in which they are first asked to research a topic and then choose a particular point of view. This type of activity can generate interest, attention and motivation for the "digital generation" students in today’s classrooms. The process can capitalize on the creative talents of students as they begin to research and tell stories of their own as they learn to use the library and the Internet to research rich, deep content while analyzing and synthesizing a wide range of content. In addition, students who participate in the creation of digital stories may develop enhanced communications skills by learning to organize their ideas, ask questions, express opinions, and construct narratives. It also can help students as they learn to create stories for an audience, and present their ideas and knowledge in an individual and meaningful way.

In addition, when digital stories are published online, students have the opportunity to share their work with their peers and gain valuable experience in critiquing their own and other students’ work, which can promote gains in emotional intelligence and social learning. Digital Storytelling appeals to students with diverse learning styles and can also foster collaboration when students are able to work in groups, and provides value in enhancing the student experience through personal ownership and accomplishment.

What is Digital Storytelling?

What is Digital Storytelling?

Digital storytelling at its most basic core is the practice of using computer-based tools to tell stories. There are a wealth of other terms used to describe this practice, such as digital documentaries, computer-based narratives, digital essays, electronic memoirs, interactive storytelling, etc.; but in general, they all revolve around the idea of combining the art of telling stories with a variety of multimedia, including graphics, audio, video, and Web publishing.

As with traditional storytelling, most digital stories focus on a specific topic and contain a particular point of view. However, as the name implies, digital stories usually contain some mixture of computer-based images, text, recorded audio narration, video clips, and/or music. Digital stories can vary in length, but most of the stories used in education typically last between 2 and 10 minutes. The topics used in digital storytelling range from personal tales to the recounting of historical events, from exploring life in one’s own community to the search for life in other corners of the universe, and literally, everything in between.

Despite its emphasis on computer technology, digital storytelling is not a new practice. One of the field’s most noted pioneers is Joe Lambert, the co-founder of the Center for Digital Storytelling (CDS), a nonprofit, community arts organization in Berkeley, California. The CDS has been assisting young people and adults in the creation and sharing of personal narratives through the combination of thoughtful writing and digital media tools since the early 1990's. 

Another pioneer in the field, British photographer, author, and educator Daniel Meadows defined digital stories as “short, personal multimedia tales told from the heart.” The beauty of this form of digital expression, he maintained, is that these stories can be created by people everywhere, on any subject, and shared electronically all over the world. Meadows added that digital stories are “multimedia sonnets from the people” in which “photographs discover the talkies, and the stories told assemble in the ether as pieces of a jigsaw puzzle, a gaggle of invisible histories which, when viewed together, tell the bigger story of our time, the story that defines who we are.”

Researcher and digital culture consultant, John Seely Brown described digital storytelling this way:
I’m particularly interested in Digital Storytelling, in new ways to use multiple media to tell stories and in the ability of kids, who are now growing up in a digital world, to figure out new ways to tell stories. They have the ability to build interpretive movies very simply and to lay sound tracks around the content. They condition or “sculpture” the context around the content. The serious interplay between context and content is key to what film—and rich media in general—are about.

Today the use of digital storytelling is being practiced in neighborhood community centers, schools, libraries and businesses, by novice technology users to those with advanced skills. In the field of education, teachers and their students, from early childhood classrooms through graduate school, are using digital storytelling in many different content areas and across a wide range of grade levels. 

http://researchguides.library.wisc.edu/digitalstorytelling

English Short Stories For Kids - English Cartoon With English Subtitle

Digital Storytelling

A reading and vocabulary test prepared with LESSONWRİTER

PHRASAL VERBS WİTH LİVEBİNDERS

Click here to open this binder in a new window.

">

THE WEB 2.0 TOOLS WİTH LİVEBİNDERS

Click here to open this binder in a new window.

">

Why Use Diigo in Education?

Why Use Diigo in Education?

Diigo lets you do more than just bookmark web pages online. For instance, if you install the Diigo toolbar, or toolbar button, you have the ability to highlight text and pictures in a variety of colors, or add sticky notes to a bookmarked page. With this feature you can annotate web pages with thoughts, ideas or additional information. All these notes are saved for the next time you access the saved bookmark, and anyone else you share the bookmark with, (students or teachers), will also see your annotations. It is a great way to focus attention on a large article.

Diigo lets you take screenshots of bookmarked pages to visually remind yourself of the page content, and archive the page so that if the content changes, or is removed, you will always have the original page that you bookmarked. Saved sites can be tagged for easy searching, organized into lists, or presented as a slideshow. Your Diigo bookmarks can be public, or private, and there are numerous options for sharing with individuals, groups or social networking sites like Twitter or Facebook. A recent iPhone App will even allow you and your students to access stored bookmarks on an iPod Touch in the classroom. With the iPhone app you can download bookmarks for offline browsing. So, you really can achieve a lot by using social bookmarking in education.

How Can I Use Diigo With My Class?

·        Diigo's commitment to helping teachers use social bookmarking in education is evident with their educator accounts. If you join Diigo, and apply for a free educator upgrade, you become eligible for some additional features created just for teachers. You can bulk create student accounts, with or without the use of student email addresses. Teachers are often concerned about the safety of their students online, and rightly so. With Diigo Educator accounts, the privacy settings, by default, limit communication to that of classmates and teachers only. Lastly, students in the same class are automatically set up as a group, so all saved bookmarks can instantly be shared with peers.

·        he real bonus of using social bookmarking with your class is the ease that you can work on project based learning tasks. Teachers can share annotated bookmarks with a class to research a given topic. Students can perform their own research, and share a useful website with the class. Bookmarks can be accessed just as easily at home, as at school, and online discussions can be had over the merit of a suggested site, or its usefulness to the class project. Bookmarks can be organized within group to cover several different projects, and the chance to archive for next year's class is a great time saver for teachers.

·        There is a lot to like about Diigo, as its potential in the classroom is clear to see. There should be no debate about whether or not there should be social bookmarking in education. The opportunity to give your students the opportunity to learn in a safe, collaborative environment such as this, is something that all educators should consider.

http://www.brighthubeducation.com/teaching-methods-tips/62228-using-the-bookmarking-and-annotation-site-diigo-in-your-classroom/

Technology in the Classroom

What is Social Bookmarking?

What is Social Bookmarking?

There are many potential uses for social bookmarking in education. However, you may be asking yourself just what it is. Social bookmarking is a way to save, store, group, and share Internet bookmarks online. It allows you to have access to your favorite bookmarks on any computer with Internet access, so even if you are away from home, or work, you can still find and use the sites you value most. Social bookmarking sites also give you the option of joining a group of like minded people, following, or being followed by, individuals who collect similar types of bookmarks to your own.

   

http://www.brighthubeducation.com/teaching-methods-tips/62228-using-the-bookmarking-and-annotation-site-diigo-in-your-classroom/

TEDxÖresund - Elza Dunkels - Internet safety for children

How Do YOU Define Yourself Lizzie Velasquez at TEDxAustinWomen //Great Success against Cyberbullying...

E-security and E-safety- why they are important to Education

E-security and E-safety- why they are important to Education

   E-security and E-safety are key aspects in helping to get the balance right between allowing a school to make the most out of technology whilst keeping pupils, staff and school data safe.

E-security

   So what is E-security and how do I ensure my school is protected?  The growth of technology, the internet and our continued reliance on them has opened up many opportunities for schools to take advantage of. The internet offers a wealth of resources and information for teachers and pupils alike and the advances in technology saves schools time and money by making day to day tasks simpler. However along with these opportunities comes risks and e-security is about protecting against these potential dangers.

Without investing in e-security measures schools will leave themselves vulnerable to threats. Here is a brief summary of some of the measures schools can put in place to protect their networks:

Antiviruses and spyware protection

  These help to protect computers and networks against potentially harmful viruses, Trojan horses, worms and spyware. Viruses can damage or completely erase files from your school’s network and computers.

Spyware are programs that secretly collect information from your computer and can also change settings on your network without your consent. Their aim is to usually collect passwords, card numbers and other confidential and sensitive information

Anti-virus and spyware protection packages are available that can be put in place to run daily scans or run in the background continually. These scans can help to identify threats, remove them and prevent against future threats and viruses.

Firewalls

Firewall hardware or software can be used to protect the network by acting as a barrier. Before the information coming from the internet hits your school network the Firewall checks if the information poses any risks and either blocks it or allows it to pass through to the computer network. This can help protect your school against damaging viruses and hackers.

Regular reviews of their filtering systems and Firewall settings must be carried out by schools to make sure that inappropriate webpages are blocked

Strong Passwords

Using strong passwords is another way that schools can help keep confidential information safe. There is multitude of advice on how to create strong passwords. Microsoft recommends changing passwords regularly, using at least 8 characters and using a variety of characters.

Other recommendations include not using predictable patterns, song lyrics or personal information. Instead try using phrases that only you know and use letters and symbols to represent each word that way you are less likely to forget it. The school should educate their staff on the best practises on keeping passwords safe.

Back ups

   To ensure that schools don’t lose important data back-ups should be made. If harmful viruses do manage to cause damage to the school computer network then backups can help to recover this information. Back-ups should be carried out regularly and they can be set up to be completed automatically. 

E-safety

   Along with E-security schools must also invest time and money in E-safety. 

What is E-safety and why is it important?

   Each school should have an E-safety policy that covers not only internet technologies but also electronic communications including Wi-Fi, mobile phones and game consoles. The internet is an incredible resource but left unmanaged it poses risks.

Schools must educate their staff and pupils to develop skills to help them evaluate online material in a critical way to ensure that they keep themselves from harm. School staff must also be educated on e-safety, through professional development sessions, to protect the pupils, themselves and a school as a whole.

E-safety’s importance is now rated so highly that Ofsted review schools for their e-safety policy and measures during their inspections. A school’s e-safety policy needs to be reviewed and updated regularly to ensure that they keep up with the ever-changing digital landscape. It must be shared with staff, pupils and with the wider community of the school including parents, Governors and volunteers.

There is a wealth of materials and lesson plans out there to educate children on how to protect themselves when using Social Media, against cyber bullying and helping them to understand their digital footprint.

http://www.schoolscool.co.uk/esecurity-and-esafety-why-they-are-important-to-education

Web 2.0 Tools

Internet Safety - Newsround Caught In The Web (9 Feb 2010)

E-Safety

If You're Happy | Super Simple Songs //for teaching if clauses to children