Simulations in the Classroom

Examples of Games & Simulation in the Classroom : Preschool Lessons

Games and Simulations

Story of All Summer ın a Day with Storybird

https://storybird.com/chapters/398257/edit/

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.