Mobile Digital Storytelling with StoryKit, Storyrobe, and SonicPics #edapp

Mobile digital storytelling is easier than ever thanks to applications like StoryKit, Storyrobe, and SonicPics on iOS devices. (iOS devices include iPhones, iPod Touches, and iPads.) In the following five minute screencast, I provide an overview of these three applications, how they work, and some of their differences as well as relative advantages. This screencast tutorial is also available on YouTube.

Both StoryKit and Storyrobe are free, SonicPics is $3. Check out the links below for example, “finished” stories created with each tool. My daughters helped me with some of these today!

1. StoryKit example: Touring Suzhou, China (by Wesley – an explanatory post is also available)
2. Storyrobe example: Fall KSU Football: Family Time! (by Wesley, posted to YouTube and embedded on our family learning blog via a Posterous cross-post generated by the iOS email message which follows posting a video to YouTube from the Photo Gallery)
3. Storyrobe example: Animals in the Zoo (by 6 year old Rachel, posted to our family learning blog via a Posterous cross-post, created with email from Storyrobe)
4. SonicPics example: Fall Trees (by 10 year old Sarah, posted to our family learning blog via a Posterous cross-post, generated by an email from SonicPics after uploading to YouTube from within SonicPics)

For more information about these applications, visit their respective websites:

1. StoryKit: en.childrenslibrary.org
2. Storyrobe: www.storyrobe.com
3. SonicPics: www.sonicpics.com

Many thanks to Allanah King, Jill Bromenschenkel, and Tony Vincent for letting me know about these apps and encouraging me to give them a try. Definitely check out Tony’s fantastic presentation for the 2010 K-12 Online Conference, “Project Based Learning in Hand,” for many more tips and suggestions about using these applications (and more) with your students in digital storytelling projects.

Last Friday in St Paul, Minnesota, at the “Co-Teaching and Collaborating” Conference, I led a cohort of teachers focused on collaboration and digital storytelling. We used brand new iPod Touches with Storykit to record 5 photo “Fairy Tale Charades.” It was great fun! Thanks to Curby Alexander for this activity suggestion! Check out some of the results on the “5 Photo Stories” Posterous blog, 5photos.posterous.com. If you want to contribute your own “5 photo stories” to this project, you can email all five photos (attached to a single email) to post [at] 5photos [dot] posterous [dot] com. Submissions are moderated, which means I view and approve them before they show up “live.” Be sure to use as the subject line of your email the title you’d like for your 5 photo story blog post. The Flickr group “Tell a Story with 5 Photos for Educators” has 72 examples of 5 photo stories and is also open for new submissions.

I love mobile digital storytelling! I hope we can create a “phase 2” Storychasers workshop this summer which will include the use of StoryKit, Storyrobe and SonicPics on iPod Touches as well as other great iOS apps for Storychasing!

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ios, iphone, ipodtouch, k12online, k12online10, mobile, story, storykit, storytelling, storyrobe, sonicpics