I got really really excited about an application I recently downloaded for the iPod Touch, and wanted to share a short preview, nothing too fancy. I’ve been coordinating my buildings efforts to pilot some iPod Touches, leading up to an eventual full classroom trial this fall, but in the meantime, we’re figuring out where these little devices might be useful in the classroom. Lots of people decry the use of the iPod since it’s primarly a consumption device, but there are some decent publication and creation applications as well, including StoryKit, a completely FREE digital story creation application!
If you have another application for creating digital storybooks on the iPod Touch platform let me know, as I’d love to have some alternatives. Otherwise, please feel free to critique my video work, as I’d like to start doing some more video previews and reviews, but really don’t want them to stink 🙂
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Take a look at StoryCubes. This is a sweet little app where you roll dice to create stories. Website storycubes.com.
I am using storykit in several workshops this summer. One way I am using it is in the social studies classroom. The scenario: branches of the federal government. We find pictures using flikr commons and use the pictures with storykit to create digital stories about the branches of government. We are using mics to add audio also…
I actually have Storycubes on all of our school’s iPod Touches, and was playing around with the idea of using the cubes for the story starter, or at least the outline, for stories to create in StoryKit.
I LOVE the idea of using StoryKit to create short recordings of the branches of government. You could take it a step farther, and create talking bios about important past members of the three branches (Supreme Court Chief Justices, famous Presidents, important Legislators, etc.).
On a side note, using the StoryKit App on an iPad is SOO much better. The built in microphone, and the larger screen make it a much better experience.
Have you used Comic Touch? I have used it to create Stories around a Picture and then sent the stories to a blog address as well as to a gmail address.
I just downloaded it on my iPad and played with it for a bit on your suggestion. It was a bit clunky on the pad, but still a lot of fun. I could see using that as a good way to hook students at the start of a project with a humorous comic. I’ll have to try it on one of the iPod Touches when I get a chance.
Thanks for sharing. What a great tool for Digital Storytelling projects! I can see this being used potentially on a field trip, where students can create photo journalistic projects as they experience their trip/museum visit and so on and then later record what they saw/experienced/felt and so on leaving a kind-of “real-time” story experience. I also like the idea that not only students can add photos to go with their story and think about page layout and design, I love it that they can draw what they see to give it further personal touch. Here is another video highlighting the “digital story” approach http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RSWQkUS4kXk
Hi. My name is Yoshio Kamakura, teaching at a private high school in Tokyo, Japan. The story-kit is striking! I do not have i-pad yet but it looks like this application works more effectively with i-pad than i-pod touch. It makes me think that I need to buy one right away.
Having students make a field trip report with digital story sounds a good idea. Have you tried that yet? If so, I would love to know how it went with your students.
I’m always astonished at how the U.S. leads the world in terms of technology invention. My country Japan lags way behind… We just had i-pad available in June this year.
Thank you for sharing the great application!
Yoshio,
Let us know how it works for you!
Well, I watched without sound … and was – may I be blunt but not rude – unimpressed.
The NY Times actually wrote today (12/22/10) that this was a GREAT application if one has (whether personally or prof’ly) kids, and your clip almost makes me think that the app is “user friendly.”
I think what would be great – certainly, if you’ve not consigned this app to the “interesting but n.r.f.p.t.” category – would be a home-made book – a la cooking shows where they recognize that real time and “bake for 30 minutes” are at odds with one another. That is, if you can show “My amazing story,” even if it doesn’t touch on the “process,” that would turn the clip from “about average” to something considerably above that.
I’m assuming you mean the actual app was unimpressing, and not the review? Although, I would agree that my video setup could improve considerably, and I’d gladly accept any donations of high definition studio-grade cameras 🙂
More seriously though, the application is actually pretty user friendly given the small size of an iPod Touch’s screen. Far too many apps try to cram a full productivity suite of menus or items on the screen, and this one manages nicely. That’s not to say it’s perfect, but with only 5 minutes worth of instruction I had with a couple of Kindergartners I work with, they were able to create multi-page books containing voice recordings, text, and images. Sure, it’s not publishing quality, but the ability to so easily combine all those forms of media in a tiny hand held device was actually pretty nice.
For a completely free app, it’s decent, but it is ready for prime time in a learning capacity. Not for full publication, but more for developing good storytelling techniques, or just allowing students to express themselves with more than just the written word.
My first grade ESL students love it! They get to use it AFTER they have created a book. They recreate their book on the iPod and get to add the narration. It is very good for their pronunciation and fluency. I’d been using iMovie to similar effect, but this keeps it more booklike, and I can put a link to it on my website and not have to send a DVD home.
My students are using this, but the links sent do not work. We’d love to post the products to our home page…. can you give my any advice? I used the SHARE button and sent it to my school email. THANKS
First check your spam or junk mail folder. If it is not there try sending it to another account first like a gmail or yahoo mail. If it shows up in a gmail or yahoo mail and not in your school account at all I would check then with a technology coordinator
Feel free to share the link, perhaps there’s something that we could diagnose as well. Otherwise Harry has the right idea with the spam or junk folders.