Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day…

As I’ve mentioned, I was able to raise some funds to purchase some Flip camcorders and digital cameras for my classes to use.  Though I’ve had students create some VoiceThread presentations using simple storyboards, and many of my students have created very simple online slideshows,  I thought I should spend some time learning a bit about digital storytelling.  Our new equipment creates some great opportunities to create more complex “learning objects” and, though them, more ways for students to develop their English and higher-order thinking skills.

I knew of some resources, and contacted others who are far more experienced than me in this venue, in order to come-up with another “The Best…” list.

The main criteria for a resource to be included on this list was that it was practical and accessible to someone just exploring the topic.

Here are my picks for The Best Digital Storytelling Resources:

Digital Storytelling Part 1 from the great Langwitches blog is a good place to start. She includes examples, background on the importance of storytelling cultures, and practical advice.  It’s worth reading the other posts in her series, too.

Here’s a good short description on Özge Karaoğlu’s blog about why she used digital storytelling with her English Language Learner students.

The rest of this post will be filled with resources on how to make digital stories that can range in difficulty. But I really like this simple project from Educational Snippets — it doesn’t get much easier than what she did.

Here’s a list of Digital Storytelling resources from the Kenton County Schools. One of the things I like about this site is that there are some very simple examples of worksheets (like storyboards) that can be printed-out and used for the simplest and most complicated story you want to make.

What’s My Story: Using Drama and Technology For Storytelling is a good Slideshare presentation showing the steps behind making a good digital story.

Jason Ohler has some good hand-outs on digital storytelling.

Langwitches has a great tutorial on how to use Voice Thread, a popular digital storytelling tool. There’s also a Voice Thread For Education wiki filled with examples and advice. This page will lead you to a simple PowerPoint presentation on how to set-up and create a Voice Thread.

Mathew Needleman has two excellent resources on video storytelling — an online presentation he’s created and several other tutorials. I think a Digital Storytelling Blog Carnival that Mathew hosted is also helpful.

Kevin Hodgson has a good post titled When Stories Go Digital. He also recommends Profiles In Practice,a site developed by the National Writing Project and Pearson on digital storytelling.

Kevin suggests a site showing films by teacher George Mayo’s students is worth a look.

Kids Vid is a source of information on telling stories with video in the classroom.

Alan Levine at CogDogBlog has developed a nice page of online storytelling resources.  He tells the same story about his dog using many of the tools.  Looking at the many versions really gives you an excellent idea of the differences between the applications.

Storytelling Creed is a good SlideShare presentation on Digital Storytelling.

Making A Case For Digital Storytelling is an article by David Jakes that appeared in Tech & Learning. Here is another link to all of David’s great digital storytelling resources.

The Educational Uses Of Digital Storytelling is filled with excellent resources.

I’m quite impressed with this online interactive storyboarding tutorial. It comes from “Learning and Teaching in Scotland.” The English is very accessible to ELL’s.

This resources shares a simple list of the best topics for a digital story.

Kevin Hodgson has recently written two very useful post about digital storytelling — Using a Complex Science Concept for Writing and Storyboards with Digital Science Picture Books.

I think this article on Advanced Thinking In Digital Storytelling is a useful one.

Lee Kolbert has created a very nice slide presentation on how to use VoiceThread.

An Educator’s Guide To VoiceThread is a simple step-by-step PDF document showing how to use the great VoiceThread application.

It’s amazing how much great storytelling advice Scott Simon from National Public Radio fits into a three-and-a-half minute video.

Here are 63 printable Storyboard templates.

You might also find these previous “The Best…” lists particularly helpful with digital storytelling:

The Best Ways For Students To Create Online Animations
The Best Ways To Make Comic Strips Online
The Best New Sites Students Should Use With Supervision
The Best Ways For Students To Create Online Videos (Using Someone Else’s Content)
The Best Ways To Create Online Slideshows

As always, feedback is welcome.

If you found this post useful, you might want to look at previous “The Best…” lists and also consider subscribing to this blog for free.

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