Digital storytelling with StoryRobe

StoryRobe is another way for kids to create digital stories using photos or digital copies of their own artwork. Once they've selected the images they want to use and put them in the right order, they can record the text to go with the images. They can talk for a total of up to 3 minutes, and synchronize the images with what they are saying by tapping the screen as they talk to advance to the next picture. StoryRobe creates a single video file that can then be shared.

Unlike StoryKit, there is no option to add text to the finished product, as  the model is more video-like than book-like. There are ways to add it it to the pictures however. Students could handwrite text on their original artwork before it is digitized, or use an app like Comic Touch ($2.99) or Comic Touch Lite (free, reduced feature set & watermark on output) to add captions or speech bubbles to the images and then save them to their photo album before adding them to the StoryRobe project.

I initially thought that one drawback to working with StoryRobe is that once you start the process of adding pictures to your story, you really have to complete the story (including adding audio) in one sitting. There did not seem to be a way to save works in progress. I later found that Storyrobe does sometimes save works in progress.

I have not always been successful in creating StoryRobe stories - the process seems to fail at the point of creating the finished video. Because I have managed to get short projects to work, I think this may be because I have included too many photos, even though the audio recording was within the 3 minutes allowed. Because of this, I have not yet had students try to use it. For my purposes - working on writing and speaking - I already have a workable product in StoryKit. Once I figure out what makes StoryRobe fail I will be more likely to use it with students, but I'm not going to have them work on a project knowing that it may well never reach completion!

Here is a very short video I threw together using StoryRobe and Comic Touch Lite while sitting in the car one afternoon waiting to pick my kids up. (The Comic Touch Lite logo does not show up on the first image because of the way I cropped it.)

 

I'd given up trying to get longer videos to save properly! I thought this one hadn't either , but when I checked my photo album later it was in there!

The following video gives a good overview of how StoryRobe works. There are also directions on the StoryRobe website that you could print out if needed.**  The video creator mentions that Story Robe costs $0.99 - it is in fact free at the time of this posting. StoryRobe does not yet come in an HD version for iPad, but will work on one.




**Addendum: Less than 2 days after I originally wrote this post, the Storyrobe website disappeared for several days . . . It did reappear again, but given that and the tendency of the app to crash (Wes Fryer also commented on this), I think Sonic Pics will be less frustrating to use in school.

Digital storytelling with StoryKit

StoryKit is a free app for both the iPod and iPad that allows the reader to create digital stories. When I first downloaded it, I didn't get the point right away and thought it was just another, not very good, ereader because it comes with three books included on its bookshelf. Once I figured out that it is intended to create books as much as to read them, it suddenly became a LOT more interesting!

The first time I used it with students was with a group of 1st graders. They created a book for me on paper first and only once that was finished did we start the process of transferring the book to the iPods. For their books (about animals) the students had drawn pictures. As I already had a large collection of animal photos on my computer, I loaded the relevant ones onto the iPods for the kids to use in their StoryKit books. For the next project I did with StoryKit, my second graders were writing personal narratives and in this case I scanned their hand-drawn images and loaded them onto the iPods. Students can also draw pictures directly in StoryKit, though the quality (certainly on an iPod as opposed to an iPad) tends to be not as good as images kids draw on paper.

All the students VERY quickly got the hang of navigating their way through StoryKit. It was good to see them being critical of their audio recordings, and choosing to re-record and re-record (without any prompting from me) until they were happy with what they heard. Without exception, as soon as they had finished, they wanted to share their stories. They went back to their regular classroom teacher and wanted the whole class to see their story, and they went home and showed their parents the story from my website. In all my years of teaching, I have rarely seen such enthusiasm from students for sharing their writing!

Here is a YouTube video on using StoryKit on an iPad. The creator comments at the end that when she uploads her finished stories to the StoryKit website the sound does not work. I have not found that to be the case.



Here is a sample photo story educator and technology advocate Wes Fryer put together using StoryKit about visiting China. Wes embedded it into his blog page. Here it is on the StoryKit website.

Here is a podcast (over an hour long) that you can download that details a University of Maryland research project using Story Kit to enable families to create digital stories. It includes some good ideas on ways you can use the software.

Things to be aware of about using StoryKit:

• there are definitely some logistics involved in getting images onto the iPods for the students. If you have newer iPods with built-in cameras, (I don't), I suppose you could take photos of the students' hand-drawn images. I run them through the photocopier/scanner which then emails them to me. (As fast as a making a regular photocopy, and much faster than using a 'regular' scanner!) 
• Depending on your tolerance for background noise in the finished product, it may be difficult to find a quiet enough area in school for the audio recording.
• You can add more than one audio clip to each page.
• When students are recording their stories, it is definitely helpful if they have a written version that is not on the iPod to read from because the recording window hides the page where a student may have entered text.
• Typing is still a new skill for most younger kids and can go very slowly. I will admit that, given the luxury of very small groups of students, I have had students type one or two pages in their story and I have helped them finish up.
• The text box can be moved up and down the page, and you can 'pinch' or 'stretch' the text box to resize it somewhat. 
• The spelling/auto-correct feature on the iPods can be helpful, but can also be incredibly frustrating when it repeatedly 'miscorrects' a word.
• If you use the paint tools, make sure not to paint where your text will be. Even if you enter the text first, you will not be able to see it while you are painting. 
• The shared projects are hosted on the childrenslibrary.org website.  There is no way to directly upload a finished story to another website (though of course you can link to the project at childrenslibrary.org.) There is no way to download or save the finished projects to share in any way other than through the website or on the iPod. Compare this to an iMovie which can not only be uploaded to a website but also saved as a DVD. Should the childrenslibrary.org website ever shut down, all the projects published online will vanish :-( On the other hand, free access to the childrenslibrary.org site means that if students create stories on an iPod at home, they have a way to share it without having to have their own website.
• The iPod you create the story on has to be set up to send email so that the story can be shared. 

Finally, if you use StoryKit, you can let the developers know what you think of it right here.

Math with coins

Obviously, if you are teaching kids to count money and make change you can use real money or the plastic coins that are readily available. Just like so many other activities that can be done on the computer, there are 'real-world' equivalents that are just as good or better.  However, having a digital version can provide a convenient way of motivating kids to do extra practice. For parents, some of these activities can provide a convenient way of practicing working with coins or practicing math skills while waiting at the doctor's or for an older sibling to get done at sports practice.

Crazy Coins (free)
For each of the 28 levels (0 - 27), you have 60 seconds to try to answer as many questions as you can. For each question, you are given an amount in cents and you're to figure out how many of each coin you need to form that amount. The principle is good - but a huge disadvantage to this piece of software is that it does not show the coins. It is not as intuitive as Coins Genius (listed below). It is a free download, but the other software listed in this post are far more useful.

Sticker Shop (Free)
Kids choose a sticker to 'buy' and then have to flick/drag the appropriate coins to the counter to 'pay' for it. The coin pictures are clear and appropriately proportioned, but only show the heads of the coins. If a student checks out without paying the correct amount, they have to start all over again with a new sticker rather than simply correcting the amount of money they've put on the counter. Not bad for free software.

Coins Genius ($0.99)
This is a 60 second game in which randomly chosen coin combinations (5, 6, or 7 coins) are displayed. The child must add up the pennies, nickels, dimes, and quarters quickly and accurately and select the correct amount. Points are given for each correct answer and penalties are given for incorrect answers. The Top 5 highest scores go on a Leader Board to help track progress and motivate.

Coin Math  ($1.99) is designed for both iPhone and iPad. It covers the following skills

- Learn what a penny, nickel, dime, quarter, half dollar and dollar coins looks like, front and back.
- Learn about U.S. State Quarters.
- Learn how to match coins.
- Learn how to add coins.
- Learn how to add different coins.
- Learn how to pay for items.
- Learn how to make change.

The counting, shopping, and making change activities can be completed at two different levels.  Some activities require the user to be able to read, others do not. Occasionally the activities are not realistic - in the simple make change activity for example, the student might be asked to make change for a $1 item assuming the customer paid $2.

Jungle Coins (iPad only, $2.99)
Sadly, as well as being the most expensive app listed in this post, this app is available for the iPad only. It offers a variety of activities and levels of play, and even allows the user to choose which of several different country's coins they would like to use. 

• Identify and compare coins.
• Count coin value
• Reinforce coin skills by calculating correct change.
• Track progress with your score.
• Multiple levels of difficulty. Start as a beginner with Level 1 - it only presents low denominations for easier coin math. Work your way up to an expert level with all coin denominations.
• Learn gives you an interactive tutorial on understanding each coin. It explains who is on each coin, and lets you flip coins to see both sides.
• Jungle Coins makes it easy to switch to other coin sets instantly and challenge you with unfamiliar coins.

Getting started with iPods or iPads

If you are just getting started with iPods/iPads in the classroom (even with just one or two for the whole class to share) I highly recommend checking out Tony Vincent's excellent site on using handheld computers in education. He's been writing about this since 2002 so has some excellent perspective on the topic! If you are new to using iPods, check out this post with lots of tips and tricks and this one with do's and dont's.

One thing he recommends is to get cheap earbuds for each student. Although this will work for most purposes, if you are planning on using iPods that do not have a built-in microphone to record student voices, you will need earbuds with built-in microphone (2nd or 3rd generation iPods) or an add-on microphone (first generation iPods). The cheapest Apple earphones with the built-in microphone are not very comfortable, particularly for kids, but more comfortable ones are more expensive. The iPad, however, and newer iPods (4th generation) have a microphone built in to the body of the machine, so you can forgo the extra microphone.

Much as kids love iPods, they are difficult for some to use. Kids who are visually impaired will find some activities difficult because the fonts can be very small. In this case, the iPad may work better. There are some great activities for kids who have fine motor difficulties that will help them work on those skills but, of course, they will find many other activities difficult because they have fine motor issues.

Another site worth checking out is iPods in Education as it includes links to sites with lists of recommended apps.