Digital Storytelling

For me, digital storytelling means empowerment. I believe that no matter who you are, and how old you are, each person has something to teach us, so digital storytelling is a great project for anyone. There are lots of great resources out there to learn about digital storytelling, and there are lots of ways you can do this cheaply and easily. (See my links at the top of my blog.) As an elementary school teacher, I'm also interested in how we can make this easy for even younger children to do. I have found that it is best to give them a prompt to get them going, and to keep it short and sweet. Another idea is to have each student contribute only one photo, and do one voice over for a group or class project. Here's an ideas of how you can use digital art instead of photos for the visuals. This short student sample from a third grader was the story about a real dream he had the night before. With a little "imagination" he was able to escape danger and unfortunate events by transforming his canoe whenever it was needed. Using only his finger and a free app. called "Doodle Buddy," he painted his story on the iPad. His voice overs were then added using iMovie. Tweet

Photoshop for Kids: Scratch Art

Here's a fun tutorial to do with your kids that's both easy and fun! This won the award for the best resource submitted at the Adobe Education Exchange, my new favorite "hangout" spot to "meet" like-minded, creative educators. I'm learning new tricks with Adobe software and thinking in a whole new way. Enjoy! Also, if you create any student samples, please send them my way, and I'll be sure to post them.

Scratch Art: Photoshop for Kids of All Ages from magrelacanela (Nicole) on Vimeo.

This is a fun tutorial for beginners, kids, or anyone teaching kids who likes scratch art. The possibilities are endless. Enjoy!

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Photoshop for Kids: Animation Made Simple

Photoshop for Kids (of all ages): Animation Made Simple from magrelacanela (Nicole) on Vimeo.

Here's a tutorial that teaches basic animation concepts right inside of Photoshop CS5 Extended. You can animate each layer's position and opacity, as well as animate 3D objects. If you find this tutorial helpful, and use it, please send me a link to your samples. Thanks!

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