Some Digital Starting Points
The case study section contains some useful links to support the activities described there. In addition, there are literally hundreds of free storytelling websites and apps available. Here, we curated a few easy to use, free links teachers may find useful as starting points in.
Storyboard that is a site that allows students to create comic strips to represent learning or a story. The free version still allows access to a decent number of options for character, background, and panel settings. There is a pay version with special pricing for teachers as well.
Piclits is a drag and drop literacy creation site where students can create short stories or poems and combine them with one of the large variety of sample images provided. This site is free and provides tutorial videos for teachers as well as some basic lesson plans.
Film It, from the Australian Center for the Moving Image (ACMI) provides free lessons for teachers or students interested in learning to create film projects. Basic scriptwriting, storyboarding, sound recording and how to edit are covered. This site provides lessons that range from beginning to advanced in each category and all are designed so students can use whatever video editing software they already have (iMovie, Movie Maker, etc).
The Story Creator app is an easy-to-use way to create stories even for the youngest learners. Stories can be published as eBooks with images and audio.
Garage Band is an accessible tool for all ages of users to record and mix oral stories, which can be shared as podcasts or audio files.