Tell It, Map It--MapTales

One of my favorite sources of good websites and applications is Larry Ferlazzo, an educator who maintains Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day...  In one of his final posts of 2013 he provides his readers with The Best Web 2.0 Applications For Education In ____.    This year he included a neat little application for making digital stories using maps, MapTales.

In the introductory paragraph on the left side they list plenty of ideas to get you started using this free application.  To begin all you need to do is select the green Create Your Tale button.  A new window captioned Let's Get Started appears.

You are asked to give your tale a name.  Naming the author and a description of the story are optional but if this is being used to practice writing or to document something I would encourage users to complete these items.  When finished click on the green Move on to Part One.

At the next screen you are advised to keep adding parts until your story is told.  For each part you enter in a title, search for the place it happened, complete a description (optional) and add a date (optional).  Sometimes I found the search function to be a little slow but it might have been my connection at the time.  What worked for me was to enter in the term, click on the search icon, wait and click on it again.  The correct map would appear.  You do have the option of zooming in and out on the map.  The first two images show the entire page.  My completed part three is the third image.

With all necessary parts added, I selected the I'm done editing button.  At the next screen you are asked to save the URL link (bookmark the page) for future editing purposes.  At this page you can edit your initial title and description.  All your parts are listed with the ability to delete them or add another. If you click on any of the parts, you are taken to the page where they were originally added for purposes of editing.  An HTML embed code is provided.  

Here is my first MapTales titled Biographic Journeys with Jeanette Winter.

What I find really appealing about this application is the no registration feature.  This service can be used by younger students who wish to tell a story combining the use of maps.  In my book, that's a huge plus.

Technology has given us advances in connectivity that are truly amazing.  I think it's important for our students (and us) to know where the people, animals and places mentioned in our reading are placed on maps.  It provides perspective.

I am in complete agreement with Larry Ferlazzo in recommending this application.  Once you have listed or outlined the shape of your story it can be completed with ease in under thirty minutes.  Be sure to give MapTales a try in your classroom.  Let me know in the comments below how you use it.

Digital Storytelling Using Narrable

This past Saturday a member of my Twitter PLN, Donna Baumbach, former edtech/edmedia professor at the University of Central Florida in Orlando and the co-creator of WebTools4U2Use, sent out a tweet about a recent post by Kathy Schrock, Educational Technologist, DEN Guru, Adobe Education Leader, a Google Certified Teacher, a Sony Education Ambassador, and a Discovery Education STAR.   This post on her site, Kathy Schrock's Katch of the Month, Web-ulous Tools, showcased five of her current favorite web based tools.  One of them used for digital storytelling looked interesting.

In the about section at the site it states:

Narrable is a storytelling platform for the images and voices that matter.  We believe that storytelling is at the core of human behavior, relationships and understanding.

Narrable is designed with educators in mind.  They state that:

• Storytelling with Narrable draws out higher order thinking skills
• Use Narrable to ignite natural creativity and engage your students and
• Belonging to the Narrable Community means experiencing support that makes sense.

A phone number is posted inviting personal contact.  In the Terms it is requested that you be 18 years of age to use this service or at least 14 years old with parental/guardian consent.

When you access the home page you can sign in, sign up or get support. At the support page you can search for answers by keyword or browse by topic.  To sign up I selected the red button.  I was taken to an educational pricing page.  For an individual teacher it is free.  Two other options are listed, classroom and site license.

You can sign up using your Facebook, Yahoo! or Google accounts.  I elected to use my email.  You use the same screen for signing in and signing up.  As you can see the student login is separate.  They use a username and password.  After giving your name, email address and a password, you are asked to check you have read the terms of service and privacy policy.

A confirmation email with a link will be sent to you immediately.  The next window opened is your profile page.  In the upper right-hand corner you can go to the support page or begin to create.  On the left-hand side your choices are to change your profile picture, view your Narrables, alter your account information, review the pricing plans (as a teacher you have unlimited solo Narrables as opposed to an individual who has five free Narrables), view your statements if you have one of the paid accounts and sign out. 

When you click on create in the upper right-hand corner, a new screen opens.  You begin by uploading images from your computer or browsing your Facebook account.  Multiple images can be uploaded.  Image order cannot be changed but images can by deleted by mousing over and choosing the x.

You can have fifty letters in your title.  Any photograph can be dragged down to be the title slide.  After you have uploaded all the images you desire for your story click on save.

At the next window you can manage your Narrable (select privacy settings, to collaborate you need to upgrade), invite (upgrade necessary) or share on Facebook, Twitter or Pinterest, via email or by using an HTML code to embed it.  By clicking on the tiny icon in the upper right-hand corner you are able to change your title, reposition the image or delete the Narrable.  

To add audio to your images click on the blue arrow to scroll through your Narrable.  As people go through your Narrable they can hear what you have to say by clicking on the picture.  In the upper right-hand corner of each image you can edit the image and add audio by selecting the appropriate icons.  Once added audio can be deleted if you happen to change your mind.  At any time you can click on the plus sign at the bottom of the page to add photographs.

This is the image which appears when you click on record audio.

Here is the Narrable I made to test out this online application.

I can certainly understand why Kathy Schrock has chosen this as one of her five favorites.  This site is easy to navigate, uploading of images is fantastic and adding audio couldn't be easier. I highly recommend this application, Narrable, for digital storytelling.

It could be used to demonstrate a step by step process.  To document a day, week, month or year in the classroom, this would be perfect.  It could be used to give mini-booktalks on books grouped by theme, genre or to introduce a unit of study like the Mock Caldecott.   

Pictures Tell The Tale-Storyboarder

When exploring applications for posts once a week, I try to find ones which are online or will work with more than one platform on devices.  I realize many schools, students and staff use Apple products but I happen to use an Android tablet and phone.  My current tablet is a Samsung Galaxy SCH-1905, 32GB plus 4G LTE.

Richard Byrne, educator, speaker, writer and blogger at Free Technology for Teachers has maintained two additional sites for the past several years, iPad Apps for School and Android For Schools.  Last month he posted about an app for Android tablets only, Storyboarder.  I decided to feature it here today because I found several similar programs available for Apple devices.

Storyboarder is free program which allows you to create image boards.  Once Storyboarder has been downloaded on your device, open it to begin.  At the first screen there will be a white background with a small yellow icon in the upper right-hand corner with the words Create New.  Select the icon.

After choosing to Create New another window opens asking you to give your board a title and include a short description.  When completed select Create.  At the next window in the upper right-hand corner you will have two options, share and photo.  Select photo to add images to your board.

You will be prompted to Take Photo or Choose from Gallery (the images on your device).  If you choose Take Photo the application goes to the camera on your device.  After taking the picture you can save or cancel it.  If you save it, it automatically appears on your working board.  Any image selected from your gallery will be copied to the board.  

By tapping on an image, descriptive text can be added.  When you have completed this step, select the blue Done button on your keypad.  Your added text will appear on the original screen.  Notice the trash can in the lower right-hand corner.  If you no longer want to include this picture, it can be deleted.  Rather than going back to the board, you can scroll through your images by dragging the screen to the left or right.  To go back a step, choose the tiny yellow arrow in the upper left-hand corner.

If all the text has been added to your pictures, you can next tap on Share in the upper right-hand corner.  You have the options of sending it as a PDF file via email or uploading it to Dropbox.  You can also save it to your device as a PDF file.  There are several email choices also.

When your task has been completed by choosing the tiny yellow back arrow key, you are taken to the original board with the white background.  Now you can see your created boards.   Boards can always be edited.  The one thing I wish you could do is change the order of the pictures once they are on the board.  

This is what the PDF file looks like.  I used Storyboarder to practice writing single sentences describing photographs I took when Xena and I were walking.  Students could use it to do the same.

Through a series of images, the order of story elements could be practiced.  By taking a picture of a book's cover, predictions could be made about the story's plot or the contents covered in a nonfiction book.  A student's reading life and their thoughts about each book could be documented.  Generating top ten lists are another option, too.  

 Simple and user friendly, I recommend Storyboarder for personal or professional use.  

Edgar, Not Allan Poe, But A Storytelling Tool

Late last month Heather Moorefield-Lang, Education Librarian at Virginia Tech and current chairperson of the American Association of School Librarians Best Websites for Teaching & Learning committee sent out a tweet about a digital storytelling tool.  The name looked familiar to me.  I did some searching and found it was listed by Joyce Valenza, teacher librarian and blogger at NeverEnding Search, on a Digital Storytelling Tools wiki she had created.

Edgar states on their home page:

...a beautiful lightweight tool for creating digital stories. 
Use your instagrams, tweets or upload
your home photos and videos.  ...

Across the bottom of the first screen you can see a navigation bar.  From left to right you can view features stories, learn about Edgar, meet the development team, provide a way to stay in contact with the site's news, read the latest news on their Tumblr, join, sign in and tell a story.  When you mouse over the blue Tell A Story button another image appears on the screen.  This application is very user friendly.

Upon selecting the Tell A Story button you are asked to log in or sign up.  If you choose, you can log in using your Facebook account.  After clicking the Sign Up button when you have entered in your name, email address and password, you are immediately sent an account activation email.

Upon logging, in the next screen offers a series of options.  From the top to bottom on the left-hand side using the tool bar you can, go back to the feature stories, view your stories or sign out, search for stories by keyword, view all the stories or by one of the seven categories, and view stories grouped by projects.  The final two icons, gray in color, were inoperable (at this time). When I selected the about at the bottom it took me back to the home page.

When selecting the small blue button in the upper right hand corner, Tell A Story, a new window opens.

You can give your story a title and start to add pictures.  Simply click on the title bar to add text.  Choose the plus sign on the image to upload a picture from your computer.  If you mouse over an added photo, a trash can appears so it can be instantly deleted.

At any time during the creation of your story you can edit by choosing the small button in the lower left-hand corner representing a page. If you select the plus sign to the right, it takes you to the next page.  Also after adding an image and text, you can choose to publish or add a page by selecting either of the available buttons to the right of the image.  When finished, choose Publish.

You are invited to place your story in one of the seven categories, add an optional custom tag and assign a geographical place to your story.  When this is completed, click Publish again.  Your story loads taking you to another screen.  At this screen the title is displayed in the upper left-hand corner.  Along the bottom you can move through the pages by selecting the small circles.  

In the upper right-hand corner is a series of icons.  The first, on the left, when selected shows the title of the story and the text for that particular page. (The text for any given page appears as soon as the page is loaded then fades so the image can be seen fully.) If you like the story, click on the heart icon.  The three arrows represent sharing options, like on Facebook, tweet on Twitter, get a URL link or HTML code for embedding on a blog or website.  Choosing the "x" takes you back to the first Tell A Story window. 

Now when you click on Me, your story is shown.  When you mouse over it, you have the choice to edit or view it.  You can also see how many times it has been viewed or liked.

Here is the link to my story, Year of the Big Snow, in case the embedded version below does not appear on your screen.

I did not locate any terms of service or privacy policy on the site but due to the need for giving an email address, I would advise using this with older students.  This application (to the best of my knowledge) is not even a year old yet.  It was originally designed for users to showcase their creations.  I did scroll through some of the stories looking for any material not appropriate for use in the classroom and did not see any at this time.

I found generating a story so easy, I would not hesitate to recommend this for use in the classroom. It could be used to document a special event, a daily activity, or as Edgar says simply...Tell A Story.  I invite you to give it a try.  Once you have a story in mind with images to match, the story is ready in minutes.  

Here is a link to a very fine site, Educational Uses of Digital Storytelling. 

You'll Flip For Flipboard

At the beginning of this month educator, speaker, tech guru and blogger at Free Technology for Teachers, Richard Byrne hosted a post about a recent presentation he made in North Dakota.  This post, Best of the Web-Fall 2013 Edition, included a SlideShare highlighting more than 50 websites/applications he recommends.  One of the applications named is Flipboard.  

Flipboard gives users the ability to create their own magazines on any topic they choose.  Free to download on iOS or Android devices, users need to be 13 years or older.  If you are between the age of 13 and 18, parental/guardian permission must be obtained prior to use.

When first accessing the site moving left to right along the top tool bar, you can:

• download the app
• search for previously created magazines under the headings of This Week's Highlights, Arts & Culture, Big Ideas, Food & Dining, Living, News, Photos & Design, Sports, Style, Tech & Science, and Travel
• use the web tools; installing the bookmarklet on your Google Chrome toolbar or edit your magazines
• under Community view highlighted big ideas, get information about customizing your magazines, sharing with others, Flipboard basics and video tutorials
• a FAQ section under Support and
• basic information about the application, its blogs and more.

When you have the app downloaded to your device the following screen appears.  To begin drag the Flip tab on the right-hand side of your screen to the left as if opening a print magazine. You will see thumbnails of headings from which you may start to curate your content, News, Technology, Flipboard Picks, Design, Photography, Business, Sports, Style, Travel, Politics, Food, Music, Film, Gaming, Auto, Science, Home and Celebrity.  

Each time you tap one of these a checkmark will appear.  Tap the screen again to remove the checkmark.  One must be checked for you to begin.  Tap on the blue Build Your Flipboard button next.

A series of smaller windows overlay the next screen.  They give you a quick overview of how to generate your own magazine.  Simple elements such as searching for content, saving stories, and creating an account are covered.  When you select the Create an Account button, you can use your Facebook account or enter in a username, password, email address and your first and last name.

After your information is given a confirmation email is immediately sent.  You can view the contents of the magazines shown on screen by tapping one of the choices. (first image) Turn the pages by moving your finger from right to left.  At any time you can go back by choosing the return arrow in the upper left hand corner, search for topics, magazine, curators and hashtags or type in a keyword by tapping the small magnifying glass in the upper right-hand corner, go to your dashboard by choosing the series-of-lines icon and "fetch for offline". (second image)

I decided to create a magazine around the topic Halloween.  I typed the word into the search box.  On the right-hand side beneath the search box a list appears.  The first items are magazines already curated in Flipboard followed by items found in and on Twitter, Google+, YouTube, SoundCloud, Instagram, Flickr, 500PX and Tumblr.  

When you find an item to add to your magazine, click on the plus sign.  A series of screens will direct you on how to create a new magazine. (images 1 and 2)   Once your magazine is created you can add the item to it or even generate another magazine from the next screen. (image 3)

What I wanted to do was create a magazine combining items from a Flipboard search with those taken from my web browser using the bookmarklet I placed in Google Chrome.  After selecting items from the search results on Flipboard, I began using my laptop to add more elements found on the web.  When you find a source on the Internet you want to add, click on the Flip it bookmarklet.  

A smaller window will pop up on the screen over the web page.  Feel free to add a caption.  Then simply click the small blue Add button in the corner.  When you go to your device, you can see that it has been added to your magazine.

At the Flipboard website there is an option for editing the magazines you have created.  Place editor.flipboard.com in your browser address bar to use this feature. There you can share, edit, reset the cover and delete your magazine by choosing the appropriate icon after you have clicked on your magazine at the first screen. (image 1 is the opening page) (image 2 is after clicking on the magazine)

For each of the individual items in your magazine you are able to change them to the cover story or delete them using the icons beneath the thumbnail.  (image 2) When you select an item by mousing over until the hyperlink appears, you can read the caption. By placing your mouse on the hyperlink at the top of the screen you are taken directly to the resource referenced in the item.(image 3)

On my device this is the front page of my magazine. (image 1)  Left to right in the upper right-hand corner you are able to invite contributors, (image 2) share a link via seven social networks (images 3/4), share to one of six other apps (image 5),  search, go to your Flipboard and edit magazine, delete magazine or fetch for offline (image 6).

When you open, flip, the first page of my magazine it currently looks like this.  If you click on the plus sign in the corner of any item,  you can add it to another magazine.  Clicking on an item takes you to a new screen.  In the lower right-hand corner, left to right, the icons offer the option to share the same as the entire magazine, like the item, flip the item into another magazine or save image to device, read later, view on web or report. (image 2)

The more I worked with Flipboard the more I was impressed with the results.  Immediately I could see the benefits personally and professionally.  Educators could curate information for students to use in the classroom involving any themes they so desire.  I am hoping that in the future there will be options for students to use this through some type of classroom account.

A Flipboard magazine can be viewed on the web without having the app.  Place the URL link in your web browser to access the magazine.  At the magazine you can view it, share it via email, Facebook or Twitter with the URL link. Here is the link to my magazine.  To turn the pages use your spacebar or the left and right arrow keys on your keypad.  Enjoy!