Elementari is new tool to create stories or presentations.
It’s free – for now, at least – and they are developing classroom features for teachers.
The interface is similar to PowerPoint or Google Slides, and it has an image and sound effects library (that’s limited for now, since it’s brand new). It also has the ability to record your own voiceover.
I created a simple one, which you can view here. Unfortunately, however, none of my recorded audio, sound effects or animation appeared in the final product. That could be due to my messing-up, a malfunction of the site, or a combination of the two (Addendum: Check out the comments section for a response from Elementari about these issues).
If those features can work, this could be useful tool, especially if they eventually add the ability to embed your creation elsewhere and do add those classroom management tools.
For now, I’m adding it to The Best Ways To Create Online Slideshows.
UPDATE:
They just let me know about this update:
We’ve just released a new version of the website! New features include Elementari Classrooms. Any user can create a classroom with up to 30 students for free. Students can be created without emails or can signup and join with a class code. Teachers are in control and are required to approve of any students stories published to the public.
We’ve also added more illustrations with over 8000+ illustrations. We’re still working on some features of classrooms including a classroom library where teachers can showcase their students’ work all in one place.
Dear Larry and readers! This is Nicole, co-founder of Elementari. Thanks Larry, for the featured article!
Elementari will always have a free tier especially for teachers! Eventually we’ll have a paid tier to access exclusive assets and features but we’ll always keep a free tier because we want everyone to have fun creating and sharing stories!
In order to play the voice overs, you’ll need to go to the “Event Graph” side of the page to code your events. I went through your example story and played your voiceovers so you can take a look. You can also “remix” a project you like to see how it works (it copies it to your drafts for you to modify). I will also be creating video tutorials soon!
We’ve developed a Curriculum Guide that goes through more about Elementari, standards, sample activities, and how we teach computational thinking. We’re currently looking to partner up with teachers to work through our classroom features! You can find the guide at https://elementari.io/files/CurriculumGuide.pdf#view=FitV
Embeds are coming! We’ve been testing them and they should be out in the share panel in the following days~
Finally just to see what kind of cool stuff you can create, here’s a choose-your-own-adventure story! https://www.elementari.io/stories/BgarhVsplO/
Thank you! And please let me know if there’s any questions (and we love feedback!)
Thank you! I’ve added a link in the post to your comment.
We’ve just released a new version of the website! New features include Elementari Classrooms. Any user can create a classroom with up to 30 students for free. Students can be created without emails or can signup and join with a class code. Teachers are in control and are required to approve of any students stories published to the public.
We’ve also added more illustrations with over 8000+ illustrations. We’re still working on some features of classrooms including a classroom library where teachers can showcase their students’ work all in one place.
I’d love to know what you think 😀