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Apple. (2011, January 3). Keynote. Mac App Store. Retrieved October 2, 2022, from https://apps.apple.com/us/app/keynote/id409183694?mt=12
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Erdoğan, M. (2020, June 1). Towards the end of the school year I have my #filmstudies students create fully independent projects utilising concepts I've taught them throughout the year. here is an example of a final project from one of my students.#animation @procreate #imovie#everyonecancreate #ADE2019 pic.twitter.com/VPRUvaY8C4. Twitter. Retrieved October 2, 2022, from https://twitter.com/MrErdoganEDU/status/1267334651640598529?s=20&t=o4-oj4Nj0zifc2C75C2BVw
Erdoğan, M. (2021, June 15). 🎞💡have you ever used #googleslides and @wevideo to create an #animation?After making your slides, export as PDF and import directly into #WeVideo, then add music and sound FX to finish your video!#digitalstorytelling #edtech#edchat #stopmotion #everyonecancreate #ade2021 pic.twitter.com/6pppeerbsl. Twitter. Retrieved October 2, 2022, from https://twitter.com/MrErdoganEDU/status/1404653098820194304?s=20&t=Aouz2gPu7DCbequIvc8thA
Hayden, B. (2020, January 19). #keynote - the gift that keeps on giving! create moving scenes linked to interpreting #imagery to immerse #youngreaders in their texts. all assets created in keynote alone using layers, sketched #animation cycles exported into gifs as well as other builds. #AppleEDUchat #EdTech pic.twitter.com/5uvip1qon3. Twitter. Retrieved October 2, 2022, from https://twitter.com/BenHaydenEDU/status/1218928533654921222?s=20&t=ga8qRhEC4x10atDHOMB57g
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Justin Brown - Primal Video. (2021). IMovie Tutorial for Mac - The Complete Guide! YouTube. Retrieved October 2, 2022, from https://youtu.be/mKx2MkE74kw.
Justin Brown - Primal Video. (2022). Adobe Premiere Pro Tutorial for Beginners - Complete Guide! YouTube. Retrieved October 2, 2022, from https://youtu.be/2cdpBq5EYFI.
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Kline, J. (2022, May 5). Watch closely. and watch the whole thing. the power of wevideo templates...#edtech #edutech #greenscreen #video pic.twitter.com/pibjxfwybl. Twitter. Retrieved October 2, 2022, from https://twitter.com/EDUcre8ive/status/1522068317523124225?s=20&t=xt_iw9_i7sgr0PslYdJI7w
Kline, J. (2022, September 24). ⚡️🔟 things #students can easily do with @wevideoedu 💪deep #creativity voice, choice, agency. #video #education pic.twitter.com/pxprl4wyoh. Twitter. Retrieved October 2, 2022, from https://twitter.com/EDUcre8ive/status/1573710972140736512?s=20&t=B4XVqDfj-KP9SKcUoe-HCw
Kristina Holzweiss & @Demco School Library Planner. (2022, September 29). Today in our Syosset High School Television studio...@wevideoedu @wevideo @canva #greenscreen #education #teachertwitter #teacher #librarytwitter #tlchat @jeadigitalmedia @iste @nyscate pic.twitter.com/ojb9zjnwg6. Twitter. Retrieved October 2, 2022, from https://twitter.com/lieberrian/status/1575493225619464192?s=20&t=p4Tm_IB8dCKlg5dacorYeQ
Lab, A. I. S. D. M. F. (2022, September 29). 6th grade investigating careers through #Makerspace classes making @thrively strength celebration videos w/@wevideo! focusing on creating for AV this week! can't wait to see how they capture footage of their future projects & progress as makers! @annaisdctesteam #iheartaisd pic.twitter.com/xpermbhqjg. Twitter. Retrieved October 2, 2022, from https://twitter.com/AISD_Makerspace/status/1575303595620171777?s=20&t=p4Tm_IB8dCKlg5dacorYeQ
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Mr. Erdoğan. (2020). Intro To Clips. YouTube. Retrieved October 2, 2022, from https://youtu.be/3hYxW0-jsIg.
Ortiz-Ospina, E. (2019, September 18). The rise of Social Media. Our World in Data. Retrieved October 2, 2022, from https://ourworldindata.org/rise-of-social-media
Primary, M. (2016, October 11). P6 were working with green screen across the school today. they used signalong to tell autumn poems. @padcaster @doinktweets #sharingskills pic.twitter.com/j2ufzsnjcr. Twitter. Retrieved October 2, 2022, from https://twitter.com/MayfieldPS/status/785860308145410048?s=20&t=ZrhcRfVpy_BdjelGNnTAIA
Primary, M. G. (2021, January 27). Year 5 have created explanation videos for short division using #AppleClips. fantastic creativity which showed great understanding of the maths involved. #clips #appleeduchat @appleedu @the_atlp PIC.TWITTER.COM/Q0YJ8IR0IH. Twitter. Retrieved October 2, 2022, from https://twitter.com/mgcps_b75/status/1354454014230986752?s=20&t=bIpRJYkd4MfBOHY3v3FQtg
Spicer, S. (2022, September 13). The 3 stages of the film production process. FXhome. Retrieved October 2, 2022, from https://fxhome.com/blog/the-3-stages-of-film-production#:~:text=The%20film%20production%20process%20can,grading%2C%20and%20visual%20effects).
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Thompson, K. (2022, September 26). Today language class was all about Terry Fox. reading, worksheet, and then onto making a wevideo with the information🏃🏼😄! @wevideoedu pic.twitter.com/am8ds6gbqp. Twitter. Retrieved October 2, 2022, from https://twitter.com/MrsThompsoncrew/status/1574496544078045184?s=20&t=o9jfvU8GzpqGnsyeZuWyww
Todd Rigney, I. T. (2022, September 28). Great things are happening at @MMAFAHISD! dance teacher ms. Bujung got a hands-on training session learning how to use @wevideo so that her students can use their @dpvils chromebooks to create personal dance presentations. another 'grand jeté' on our #houstonisdvils journey! pic.twitter.com/vjyano4ehq. Twitter. Retrieved October 2, 2022, from https://twitter.com/Todd_Rigney/status/1575234432281124864?s=20&t=rU4VDGxinwNblrenrMAgKg
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Below I have shared the case study relating to Digital Storytelling, and some of the steps and tech needed. I've included some examples of some tools and possible ways teachers can incorporate digital storytelling into their practice, as well as effective steps needed to begin creating digital stories.
The purpose of Digital Storytelling is to support students creativity and teach students a new method of digital communication. But what is Digital Storytelling? Digital Storytelling is a "catch-all" phrase that can describe a variety of forms of storytelling with digital tools. Stop-motion animation, video diaries, vlogging, music videos, and a multitude of other forms could constitute examples of Digital Storytelling. In addition, the types of tools that one would use to engage in Digital Storytelling varies widely in complexity, accessibility, and age suitability.
For a great introduction to Digital Storytelling, watch the video example on the right, titled "What is Digital Storytelling?"
But why is Digital Storytelling Important? With the significant rise in social media platforms in the last 15 years, people are getting their information through video more and more than sources that offer text-based news. Media-rich sites like YouTube, TikTok, Twitter, and many others have been a place of growing traffic for millions of viewers. Therefore, Digital Storytelling is an important form of communication for the 21st century and it is important for us to arm our students with these skills to be effective communicators for their futures.
The video on the right, titled, "Digital Storytelling in the Classroom", does a great job of summing up the importance of learning how to communicate through digital stories.
There are a wide variety of apps and tools that can be used to create digital stories. The most common would be an iPad. Having an iPad gives you the ability to use a wide variety of specialty apps, as well as use the built-in camera to record any needed footage; the iPad is truly a powerhouse tool for Digital Storytelling.
If you don't have access to an iPad, and you are using ChromeBooks instead, one tool that is excellent for this set-up is the "OkioCam" by OkioLabs, (seen in the picture on the right), which is an external USB camera which has a variety of functions that would support digital storytelling in the classroom, including stop-motion animation, time-lapse recording, and simple video recording.
Below I have shared a more in-depth walk-through of 6 apps, including Clips, GreenScreen, Keynote, Slides, iMovie, and Procreate. And I discuss possible advantages and disadvantages of for these apps to be used as a tool for Digital Storytelling, as well as a personal difficulty rating scale.
Clips is a free app from Apple, that provides an easy way to start creating media easily on an iPad. Clips is only available on iOS devices from Apple, meaning, iPads and iPhones.
When using Clips, users can easily record directly while in the app, or important pictures and video already saved on the device.
After recording or importing, you can add visual effects, music, subtitles, and "posters" to your video (which are like chapter headings for video), then easily export to share with others.
Clips is one of the easiest apps to begin to use for Digital Storytelling, and is a great app for beginners. However, it does require an iOS device to use, and is not accessible on options like ChromeBook, MacBook, or non-iOS platforms. Therefore, if you do not have access to these devices, you will need to look for an alternative to Clips for Digital Storytelling. This is why I have given Clips an Easy/Beginner difficulty rating. For more info about Clips, you may visit the official Apple page here.
GreenScreen by DoInk is a paid app available for iOS devices only, and allows users to film themselves in front of a green screen which can provides various creative effects.
To use the GreenScreen app by DoInk, all you need is an iPad and a greenscreen. However, green paper, a green painted wall, or even green clothing would allow you to use this app in fun and unique ways. As you can see in the example tweet on the right, students are transporting themselves to another world through the use of this app. You
After paying the $5 fee, the GreenScreen app is incredibly easy and accessibly to use, and appropriate for all ages and a wide variety of Digital Storytelling applications, with limited need for supervision from teachers. For these reasons, I have given it an Easy/Beginner difficulty rating.
Keynote is Apples free presentation building app and is available on iOS devices, as well as MacOS.
Although Keynote is primarily a presentation app, it has a variety of features that allow you to explore your creativity within the app. The built in transitions and object animation features allows for creative uses and effects that you can have in your presentation, specifically the "magic move" feature. Using this functionality in a creative way allows for very unique results, as demonstrated in the tweet on the right, using features that aren't available in other presentation apps, like Google Slides.
Since Keynote is an app specifically for iOS devices, the barrer of entry is having either an iPhone or iPad. However, if you have one of these devices, Keynote is quite an easy app to use and gives you powerful features.
Although it takes a significant amount of effort and skill to produce an animation demonstrated in the included tweet, the potential interesting creations through the use of simple tools is undeniable. For these reasons, I have given Keynote a difficulty rating of Easy/Beginner.
Google Slides is a free app as a part of the suite of apps offered from Google, and is accessibly on a variety of platforms and devices.
When using Google Slides for Digital Storytelling, one would basically be creating a digital version of those old fashion "flip books" by creating every frame individually, then each slide in the slide deck would have to be exported and imported into some type of video editor to be able to play it smoothly like a video. In the example on the right, this tweet states that "after making your slides, export as PDF and import directly into WeVideo" which is what converts the slides into video. After turning the slides into a video from the frames, students would then have the ability to add music or sound effects to add finishing touches to the video before exporting finally as a video.
Google Slides is very easy and accessible to use, however, using it for this method is quite tedious and challenging. Additionally, it is not forgiving, as any mistakes part way through would carry forward throughout the animation, and if a student would want to fix anything, the would have to find the original frame with the mistake, then fix it in every slide moving forward.
For example, if 100 frames have been made for the animation and there's a mistake in frame 34, all slides from 34 to 100 would need to be fixed.
Therefore, I have listed using Google Slides for Digital Storytelling a moderate/intermediate difficulty rating, as some previous knowledge is needed, it is challenging to make detailed animations, and managing the files afterwards to turn it into an actual video can be cumbersome.
Procreate is a very popular paid app for iOS devices that highly talented animators and professional digital artists use to create impressive pieces of art or animations.
Procreate is used to hand draw art. The app gives you the ability to have "layers" with your art, and for anyone interested in using Procreate for animation, they would use those layers, as frames in an animation. So instead of using multiple layers to create one piece of art, like how many artists do, the layers each become a fully completed frame in an animation, with approximately 12 or 24 frames per second of animation, depending on the chosen frame rate. If a higher frame rate is the goal for the animation, it would require more individually completed images to be hand drawn.
Since the animations that would be produced with an app like Procreate would be fully hand drawn, similar to the old style Disney movies, this would be a very challenging app to use for Digital Storytelling, and only the most experienced and passionate artists would benefit from using this app as an option for Digital Storytelling. This is why Procreate has been listed with a Challenging/Advanced difficulty rating.
iMovie is one of the leading beginner video editing apps that is available free from Apple on all Apple devices. For more information on iMovie, you may view the Apple
To use iMovie, you first need to have a variety of types of clips or media filmed or added to your device. Upon starting a new session you would import this media into your new iMovie project, and bring the media on to the "timeline" so that you may start editing the clips together into a final video.
Anyone with an iPad or Mac computer can use iMovie for free, and it is recommended that anyone who wants to begin to create digital stories learn how to use iMovie as a part of their repertoire of skills. iMovie is a powerful entry level editor, but can be slightly difficult for someone who has never used it, nor has any experience with film editing. Even though iMovie could be suitable for beginners, it may be quite challenging for individuals with no experience at all, which is why I have listed it as a Moderate/Intermediate difficulty.
If you're using ChromeBook or other laptops, there may be less options, but it is still possible to find good tools to allow for creativity and Digital Storytelling. One of the most common resources for creativity, that is device-agnostic, is WeVideo, a cloud-based editing app that you access through a web browser of any kind.
Therefore, computers like ChromeBooks and other laptops still have the ability to edit using this platform, as it is fully accessible through a Chrome browser. WeVideo would be recommended for students grades 3 and up.
Since Digital Storytelling is so broad, the answer to this question really depends on what the final goal is. For example, if a student/educator wanted to create a hand drawn animation with Procreate, similar to the example posted above, but they have no artistic skills, then this would be quite a challenge and a significant amount of skills would need to be developed to achieve this. However, if the goal of the student/educator was to create a simple video with an app like Clips, describing a simple topic, there would be no prerequisite skills needed and a student/educator could jump right in and easily begin to create in an app like Clips.
Therefore, Digital Storytelling is quite literally for everyone and all skill levels. With students who are more skilled having the ability to push their creations further to be able to produce more complex digital stories, and students who have less skills, can find ways they can still engage with Digital Storytelling using apps or techniques that are appropriate for their own skills and experiences.
With Digital Storytelling, students are asked to communicate an idea or story through a digital form, in most cases a video with music, various sound effects, and voice overs or acting of some sort. As described below, students should work through the 3 step process to plan, film, and edit their digital story, but not all digital stories are created equal. The process for each digital story is different, and heavily depends on the type of video the final product is intended to be. A student might designing a video to share in history class, or producing a vlog to document their holiday, or creating a music video for a song that they produced, the processes for every video would be different, and have different indicators of success.
Since Digital Storytelling is a broad topic, and not an individual project, it is difficult to answer this question succinctly, however, as an educator I would look for the following success criteria in a student's project:
Did the student effectively communicate their desired message/meaning through what was being seen on screen?
Did the student effectively communicate their desired message/meaning through what was being said by actors or voice overs?
Did the student effectively communicate their desired message/meaning through what was being heard, either through the tonalities in the music used or sound effects used, etc?
Did the student use the technology (the features of the apps, editing software, etc.) to effectively communicate their message?
Did the student demonstrate the necessary skills learned with the technology for effective Digital Storytelling?
Even though there is such a large variety of types of digital stories that could be produced, and the topic of Digital Storytelling is so broad and vague, the process of planning to create a digital story would likely remain the same in most cases. This process includes the following 3 production phases:
Like anything, a detailed plan will help you be successful. Before you begin to film or record anything, it's wise to plan out as many details as possible. This could include:
The Story
The Script
Storyboards
Scene "Blocking"
Props / Costumes
Actors
Filming Locations
Filming Schedules
After you have effectively planned out your story, it's time to start filming. This is where you use your script, your props, your storyboards, and any other planning materials you created to film your digital story.
Depending on how detailed and long your digital story is, it is recommended to have some kind of tracking system for your video files, and to try to think of a way to backup your raw media, just in case it gets deleted some how. For smaller projects, this is less necessary, but for larger projects, it prevents you from having to refilm anything in case any files are lost.
After you have finished filming, this is where you begin to edit your final video. This phase also involves finding music to match your scenes, and even finding sound effects to match your story.
For example if one scene in your digital story is a sad scene, you will want to add sad sounding music to this part of the story.
And if one scene is supposed to be in a crowded mall, but you filmed it in a building without many extras, you may want to find a background sound effect of a crowd to make it sound like your story is really taking place in a crowded mall.
Digital Storytelling is activity that improves students' abilities to be effective communicators for the landscape of the 21st century. Not only does incorporating Digital Storytelling activities help students learn to communicate in new and interesting ways, it can help provide an opportunity for students to learn needed digital skills for their futures.
The primary disadvantage is that a certain amount of budget and tech is required to engage with any Digital Storytelling. If an educator is teaching in an environment with little or no budget for laptops, iPads, apps, editing platform subscriptions like WeVideo, etc. it would be impossible to complete. However, other than the cost of entry, there are no other disadvantages, as this activity prepares students for their futures in a tech-rich world of the 21st century.
This act of creating digital stories is one that allows for students to explore their creativity while building technical skills for their futures. Teachers can incorporate digital storytelling in a variety of their units, where teachers can ask students to create a digital story as a final project, instead of a typical essay, or written artefact to demonstrate learning. Additionally, this type of activity/assessment allows for teachers to possibly motivate students in new ways with their learning, reach the highest level of the Blooms Taxonomy (as they create their digital story), improve their organisational skills as they move through the 3 production phases, and generally improve a student's, critical thinking, communication and speaking skills as they work through their assignments.
With the plethora of apps and options for tools available for teachers to incorporate Digital Storytelling projects into their classroom, I would definitely say that Digital Storytelling is possible for almost all teachers. If you have access to iPads, it will then be very easy, as the majority of the more common apps for Digital Storytelling are all iOS-based. If you don't have iPads, it may be more challenging and the above examples of WeVideo would likely be the best resource for having your students begin to create, however this is a paid platform, so if budget is a concern, then this also may be challenging. Typically, Digital Storytelling is only possible with tech and a budget to purchase related apps and subscriptions, and if you are in an environment without a budget for tech, it may be quite challenging to begin this with your students.
That being said, if you do have access to technology, then Digital Storytelling is definitely something that all teachers can easily begin to do with their students. The first thing to think about would be the age and skill level of the students, as well as the experience and competence of the educator before planning a unit.
For anyone completely new to Digital Storytelling, with Clips or the DoInk Green Screen app. These are both incredibly simple apps to begin with, and are appropriate for students of all ages.
View the two tutorials on the right to get you started.
If you have some basic experience with Digital Storytelling and are looking to try learn some new tools, iMovie and Stop-Motion Studio would be great additions to your tool box to begin to improve in your media creation skills. Both of these apps require an iPad and are probably acceptable for students in grades 3 and up.
View the tutorials on the right to help you get going.
If you are fairly well experienced with creating video and the process of editing video clips, the next logical step might be something like Final Cut Pro or Premiere Pro.
It is important to note that mastering either of these pieces of software will require a significant investment in both time and money.
Final Cut Pro is the "pro-level" editing app provided from Apple and only available on Mac computers. To view pricing in your region, visit the Apple app store here.
Premiere Pro is the "pro-level" editing app provided from Adobe, which is available on both Mac and PC. To view pricing in your region, visit the Creative Cloud site here.
It would be recommended to teach this software to students in grade 9+, and only if they have significant experience with editing in software like iMovie.
One of the main differences between using Final Cut Pro and Premiere Pro is that Final Cut Pro only requires a one-time payment which gives you access to a license that will never expire, and Premiere Pro requires a subscription that can expire. Therefore, Premiere Pro has the potential to be significantly more expensive to use in the long run, thought it is considered the industry standard.