Digital Storytelling Tools

Hello everyone, this week I would like to show you some digital resources to create stories and comics in class. There are several free tools that you can use with your students, but I would like to focus on just two, which are Storybird and DomoAnimate. Moreover, at the end of the post I will add a short list with other digital tools that I have been testing.

First of all, I would like to highlight that telling stories is a powerful way to communicate with others. Besides, if we combine this with a suitable digital tool the result is an amazing learning experience in which the student get involve with a higher degree of motivation. Furthermore, it has many benefits for the students such as:

• It Develops creativity, critical thinking and problem solving abilities.
• It encourages writing and emotional literacy at the time that they express their feelings.
• They are challenging to use High Order Thinking Skills in order to create their stories.
• It develops their decision-making and their communicative skills.
• It helps the student to reflect their acquisition of knowledge and promotes independent learning.

These are just some of the benefits of promoting this practice in the classroom. Besides, as I said before there are many free tools to create digital stories for educational purposes, for example:

•    Storybird:

It is a fantastic tool to foster the students to write not only stories, but also poetry. I discover this resource thanks to my teacher Raquel, and I was amazed since the first time that I visit the website. It consists on make up your own books, and includes a huge variety of illustrations that you can use. In fact, these draws can be perfect to contextualize you poems or stories, or even to find the inspiration to start your book. 

Apart of that you can also share you creations and printed. It also includes the possibility for teacher to create a task or assignment online, and the students are able to finish it at home or wherever they are because the interface is compatible for tablets and smartphones. As far as I’m concerned, it is the most intuitive to use and also the results are simply amazing.

•    DomoAnimate:

It is not as artistic as the previous tool, but it provides students much more freedom and flexibility at the time to create their stories. Furthermore, It is has two options:

1. Create a slideshows, in which you can upload some random pictures related to something that you work in class and children should create the story from it. Another way to work with this option is to let the children freedom to invent a story and then helps them to find the pictures to illustrate it.
2. Domo Animation Studio, which in my opinion it is the more creative option. It has a library of backgrounds, characters, music and random animation effects to create your video story.

As I said at the beginning of the post, here you have the link of some of the digital tools for teacher that I like most:

• ZimmerTwins, similar to Domo Animate.

• Piclist, you choose a picture and create a sentence or a quote to accompany the image.

• Animoto, you can combine images, songs and text in a video, but the free version is only 30 second videos.

• Zooburst, to create 3D popup books (check the video in my post about technology).

• MakeBeliefsComix, to create stories out of comic strips. It is very easy to use in class.

• Comicmaster, it is a bit more complete than the previous one.

 If you want more information about digital tools, please do not hesitate to contact me.

See you in the next post!!!

Can Technology Encourage Children’s Literature?

Hello everyone, today I would like to rise a question, can we use technology to promote children’s literature?. I must confess that I support the integration of the technological advances into the classroom, but always following the guidelines of the CLIL approach. In fact, I believe that it can be an extremely useful resource and I will try to show you along this post.

First of all, we need to stand out two words, “use vs. integrate”. Why?, because I think its necessary to know the difference between use the technology and integrate it into the classroom. During my practicums I realized that most of the teachers just use the technology. This means that they only tend to instruct the students through the technology, using the Cd of the book or just writing randomly in the IWB (Interactive White Board). These types of activities usually have a minimum direct interaction of the learner. However, the integration of the technology refers to those activities, which engaged and promote children interaction and cooperative learning, enriching the overall understanding of the topic. This integration involves something new for the student, such as interactive books, web making software, augmented reality and so on.

Furthermore, the integration of these tools in the curriculum, improves exponentially students' learning processes and outcomes, promoting higher-order thinking and problem solving skills. However, you should be selective and choose the most suitable apps according to your aims and the level of your students (or kids).

Secondly, as far as I know, there are a wide range of free tools that you can use in primary school to enhance children’s literature. But, how can we integrate those tools?. The key fact is, involve the students in the process and as a result you will catch their attention. The student has to be able to manipulate them, and become creators and critics instead of just consumers. But always, you should scaffold the process to guide the activation of the schema and the assimilation of the contents that you want to work through it. Consequently, the materials have to be more learner-centre. 

Nevertheless, you have to be careful because there are some apps that can distract children from the real target. For instance, here you have a video about the beautiful and catchy digital book, “The Tale of Peter Rabbit” by Beatrix Potter. Please, Watch it and then try to answer this simple question: Do you remember what it said on the third page?. I don't think so, but I’m sure that you remember all the things that you can manipulate in it.  That is why you should be selective, because not always the most beautiful is the most appropriate. 

In my opinion, a good example of one app to enhance literature in class is Zoobrust. In fact, I recently discover it and, from my point of view, it is amazing and easy to work with. The special fact of this app, is that you can create stories in AR(Augmented Reality). Here you can see a video about a story that my group and I have created in class and that I have adapted for this platform:

Last but not least, I would like to recommend you this website, where you can find hot news about interesting apps. After all of these facts, are you willing to accept the challenge of the new technologies?, and if you are working with it, do you use or integrate it in the class?.

Thank you for visiting my blog and If you want more information or have any doubt, please do not hesitate to contact me.