Storyboard creators
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Scene and Story creators
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What are these tools and how can I use them in the classroom?
There are two types of tools that I have listed above: Storyboard Creators and Scene and Story Builder. Storyboard creators allow students to create storyboards from four popular stories: Goldilocks and Three Bears, Cinderella, The Three Little Pigs and The Gingerbread Man.
The Scene and Story Builders allow students to create their own stories using specific themes or genres. Scene and Story Builders allow students to create stories for the following themes: Heroes, Space/Fantasy, Mystery and Contemporary.
Storyboard Creators
With storyboard creators, you can re-tell or re-write a story, creating a sequence of scenes. Students can make and print their own set of scenes from the story. Regardless of which storyboard creator you use, the interfaces operate the same way. Students can select backgrounds for their scene before adding characters and props. They can then use the buttons to change the position or size of their characters and props. They can also add text in the form of captions, speech and thought bubbles or write the story narrative below the scene on the timeline.
Below is a picture of the scene interface and how to navigate it:
Scene and Story creators
Unlike the storyboard creators, students can save their work using these tools. These tools center around themes and are set up so that students can create a cover page for their story. In addition to creating a cover page for their stories, students can also add as many pages as they want to type their stories. They can also add graphics to go with the theme of the creator. (Heroes, Space/Fantasy, Mystery and Contemporary.) Below is a picture of the text interface of the tool:
http://app.vzaar.com/videos/1618614
So, as you can see the Scene and Story creators offer more flexibility for students and teachers then the storyboard creators. The save option is nice because students don’t have to finish their stories in one class period. Either way, both tools allow for creativity, differentiation, informal and project based assessments. These tools would also be great for creating a blended learning environment in the classroom.