10 Free Tools For Digital Storytelling
Stories are important. Whether one tells a story to evoke emotion or to gain a new client, there’s a certain simplicity in it that speaks to a lot of people as everyone has a story to tell. Now with technology, there’s digital storytelling, too.
Digital storytelling is accomplished by combining narration with digital content such as animation, stills, audio, etc. It is very popular these days in schools and educational institutions around the globe. In this post, we discuss ten free tools for creating digital stories for your own purpose in the classroom.
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1. StoryJumper
StoryJumper is a convenient tool that helps you write and illustrate stories by using a set of intuitive and built-in tools. You can use the available photos and graphic art already in the StoryJumper database, or you can upload your own photos as background scenes and graphic art to create a more customized story.
You can publish your book online for free, or you can order your book in print form in a hardbound book starting from the cost of $24.95.
2. Plotagon Story
Plotagon is a unique storytelling app through which you can create yourself an animation movie out of your own voice. It combines gaming technology and animation into one customizable storytelling tool that lets you create interesting scenes.
To create your animation, you first develop your avatar or character (from a variety of options for physical features and outfits) and download pre-made scenes that you’d require your character to be in. Now simply record dialogue in your own voice and add to the animation.
From budding voice-over artists to filmmakers, Plotagon is helpful in creating lively storyboards and animations. Apart from adding your own voice, you can add sound effects and music to your animations as well.
3. Buncee
Buncee lets you create interactive content for teaching, project pitching, or idea presentation, etc. It hosts thousands of pre-made templates from different categories. You can customize the templates to a good extent to give the animation your own touch.
The content you create with Buncee can be easily shared with others through links, uploaded on boards, or can be downloaded as JPG or PDF. Moreover, the intuitive dashboards allow you to send assignments, share feedback, and promote discussion and engagement.
4. Little Bird Tales
Little Bird Tales offers a simple and easy way to create a digital story. It works equally well for educators, professionals, or kids who want to experiment with their creativity.
It is really easy to create a tale, just add your own artwork by drawing it yourself or uploading an image (from your computer or gallery of images), record your voice commentary, and add it to the artwork. That’s it, you’ll have a quality animation created in no time.
You can embed the created take in your website, share it through a link, or save it on your device. You can also put ti up for public viewing right on the app. For teachers, there’s also an option to manage classes or students or assign lessons.
5. Pixton Comic
Make learning more interactive and exciting through Pixton. You can create avatars with so many customization features and create different kinds of animations for different situations. Once done, you can print or share your work online.
Though the app can be used by anyone, it is especially ideal for teachers to let their students learn through creative means. It offers a simple student dashboard for young learners to access the shared content or create their own.
6. Animaker
Animaker is a leading storytelling app that’s been around for a while and is used by thousands of individuals and companies. It offers an easy-to-use drag-and-drop editor for creating animated clips, adding text, effects, and other features.
It lets you create your own characters and use them from among millions of stock images and videos. Plus, there are many high-quality pre-made templates that you can use in your projects. There’s also an option of resizing your content for different social platforms.
7. Elementari
Elementari is an online platform for creating graphic, animated, or interactive e-books. You can add your voice-over, different sound effects, and interactive graphics in your books.
The platform hosts thousands of illustrations, high-quality animations, and an array of community-contributed background music and sound effects. Interestingly, you can even let your audience choose an ending of your book with interactive elements.
8. Imagine Forest
Imagine Forest is a story creator app that anyone can use for any purpose. It lets you develop interesting narratives by offering soy ideas, inspiring story starters, and daily story challenges.
An interesting feature of Imagine Forest is the Story Generator tool. You can create unique stories by yourself or through collaboration through the Random Complete feature that takes your story forward to make it captivating.
There are also many guides and tutorials to help you improve your storytelling, including vocabulary-improving features and short writing activities. The app is completely safe for kids and a great teaching resource for parents and teachers.
9. My Storybook
Budding writers of all ages can use My Storybook tool to create stories that are interesting and unique. It offers you to create narrative structure, develop your characters, and deal in many genres, including prose, poetry, fantasy, etc.
Moreover, you can add illustrations with your stories to make them more interesting for readers. There are also story starters and options to get your story in the print version.
10. Storyboard That
Storyboard That is a really easy-to-use platform. For digital storytelling through high-quality storyboards. There are different templates to choose from, including worksheets, posters, and storyboards. You can pick from one of the pre-made storyboards or create one on your own through the drag-and-drop editor.
Apart from storyboards, you can use it to create graphic novels, comics, and ebooks as well as video presentations and posters etc. There are also many lesson plans and activities for young learners to interact with.