How to Create Digital Storytelling Videos Using the Ipod's Storyrobe and StoryPages Apps

If you read my previous articles on digitally altering images utilizing the Ipod's apps like Comic Touch Lite or Fluid FX, you will see the great potential that those apps offer in support of Storyrobe. If you also read my previous article on utilizing the Animoto app on the Ipods to create propaganda films, you can see how Storyrobe may be more of a digital storytelling alternative for you.

Digital storytelling seems to be the entire craze with teachers that work within education 2.0. There is this shift to go from simple show and tell presentations, speaking in front of the classroom with poster boards/tri-folds and really trying to make education exciting, engaging and teaching our students the tools that they will need through technology in our ever expanding and demanding twenty-first century work place.

Storyrobe is one of those apps that hopefully you, and perhaps the other teachers in your school, will see the potential for creating presentations or stories rather than the "old fashioned way." I had first learned about this app through Mr. Junkins, who also helped me on the creation of this product. What makes Storyrobe so easily accessible is by doing just what the app promotes: "Create a story in three steps."

If you had already read some of my previous articles on digital storytelling, then perhaps you heard me mention Microsoft's free Photostory program. Where you can arrange and edit your photos, record narrations, titles and such so that you have created a movie. My students were getting bored of Photostory, so I decided to do an alternative project where my older students would create propaganda films utilizing the Animoto app on their Ipods, while the sixth graders created movies on Storyrobe. Essentially, all programs do the same thing, but I really liked how easily the students navigated through the Storyrobe app and required minimal guidance and teacher interventions than I would have done through Photostory.

Prior to inserting their images into Storyrobe, students spent some time editing their images utilizing such apps as Comic Touch Lite or Fluid FX; but I really wanted them to create contour drawings of images that they had downloaded utilizing the Storypages app. This app is currently going for about three dollars, but one of my favorite things to do with it is that you can insert an image, and then trace over it, delete the photograph and you are left with a traced line drawing of a photograph (a contour drawing in art classroom terms). Storypages is also a neat little Digital Storytelling tool to use within itself. Not only can you do this contour drawing, but you arrange pictures (which you can draw/edit on) and include text beneath as it would appear as an actual storybook. Once the user is done arranging their story, your only export options are to save each page as its own saved image within the photo gallery on your Ipod, or you can email the whole story as a .PDF attachment.

But now with Storyrobe, I can import those saved Storypages, and any other image that I may have saved on the Ipod. The first step is by clicking on "Create Story" and then choose the photos for the story (one at a time, and then unfortunately being asked each time, "would you like to add another?".) By clicking on "Camera Roll," I can insert any saved movies that are on my Ipod, I can also insert saved images from the Photo Library or even other Storyrobes as long as you have their originally shared URL link. The bottom of the app lists "choose photo," "view photo," and "record story," so that navigation is at its simplest and you can always go back to a step.

By clicking on "View Photo," I can hit "Edit," and then delete any photo or video that was placed into this film that I do not want. But once you are ready to actually create something, click on "Record Story." A new option will come up with a time line of the images in the bottom, along with recording buttons and tools that will allow me to advance through the story.

What I do find most difficult through this process is simultaneously recording, knowing what you are going to say and advancing on to your next picture when you are ready. I would recommend a lot of planning prior to this step, especially have the students have a script written out, and/or a storyboard so that they will know what will be said with each picture. Also, there is no "going back" in your timeline as you record, if you hit "next image" too many times, you might as well start all over.

Once you have everything in place, hit the Record button on the bottom of the screen and you are ready to start giving the narration to your story. As you are done giving a narration for each picture, click on to the "next image" button so that you can manually navigate through your story. It would appear that if you have inserted a video into your story, the length of your video must go through in "real time" before you advance to the next image. So for example, if I have a thirty second clip in my story, I have to wait thirty seconds before I can advance.

You can also pause during your recording to gather your thoughts, but this recording is pretty much a one shot deal. When you are finished, click on "Stop" and you can create the movie by giving it a title. What is unfortunate about this app is not being able to review or edit your film prior to the rendering process. Next screen up gives you the opportunity to give your work a title, but after it renders it may crash a time or two on you. After this happened to me several times, I decided to remove the film clip from my Storyrobe and keep it to just my images. After removing the video clip, the rendering went through much smoother and I was then able to open the video file within Storyrobe. Another great feature of this app, is being able to Share the work that you have done.

Now, going back to the main screen, I have the option to "Share my Story." A screen will open up that shows all of my finished films, and at the bottom of the screen I can upload to YouTube, View the Story or Email it. The YouTube screen is within the app, and you just plug in your username info, title and mark it as public or private. By emailing the file, the recipient can click on the link, and it will appear as a standalone MP4 within a webpage (as if you were watching a QuickTime movie).

Overall, I find that this is a great digital storytelling tool to use, especially if you have a generic YouTube username for your students to use, or if they have their own and they would like to share the work that they have done around the world. Another option that you have is to plug in your student's Ipod into the lap top, and access the files through IPhoto and save them to a local directory so that you can share and publish your student's work elsewhere.

If you would like to see some finished Storyrobe examples by my students, check out my Storyrobe posting for Saving Energy PSA's on my Posterous site here:

References:

Mr. Junkins' Posterous site

App store -

Storyrobe

Animoto app

Photostory

Comic Touch Lite

Fluid FX

Storypages

Mr. G's Posterous site