MULTIMEDIA IN THE CLASSROOM

With computers, mobile devices, projectors and Interactive White Boards (IWBs) becoming more common in classrooms, teachers increasingly have greater opportunities to bring multimedia resources into the classroom. Whether creating a presentation to guide student learning, or showcasing a video to illustrate a new concept, presentations and multimedia add a new dimension to the classroom.

In this section, we walk you through different multimedia tools that could be integrated into the classroom.

Comics Creation

Comic books not only engage, they help develop analytical and critical-thinking skills. They prompt students to decipher meaning, purpose, and tone. They also provide creative possibilities for differentiated learning and expression. Moreover, successful cartoonists need a wide range of skills: researching, drawing, writing, computing, storyboarding, and designing. Cartoonists need to make their stories engaging and persuasive.

COMIC CREATION TOOLS

Kerpoofhttp://www.kerpoof.com/

Create fully animated comics online with Kerpoof. Choose from a library of scenes and characters, add animation, movement, as well as music and speech bubbles to bring a story idea to life. Extremely intuitive menu bar and helpful video tutorials make this tool quite useful.

ReadWriteThink Comic Creator http://www.readwritethink.org/files/resources/interactives/comic/index.html

This is an extremely easy-to-use comic strip tool. That said, the features are at a minimum: import people, text and props. Projects can be printed when complete. Simple tool, but with limited functionality.

Toondoohttp://www.toondoo.com/

Toondoo is another tool to create comics quickly. You can opt for a free individual account, though the Premium educator account -- based on number of participants and length of use -- reasonably priced. An Education account allows for greater privacy and security, so consider it. Completed projects can be shared and embedded.

Choggerhttp://chogger.com/comics With Chogger you can create comics online by creating original art or uploading pictures to your comic strip. Add speech or thought bubbles quickly and publish your finished product.

DIGITAL STORYTELLING IN THE CLASSROOM

Why Digital Storytelling?

Digital stories allow students to take a linear series of events and turn them into a multidimensional experience. It encourages them to communicate, collaborate, and research as well as to infuse media into the process.

DIGITAL STORYTELLING TOOLS

StoryBirdhttp://storybird.com/

Another free, web-based application, StoryBird allows students to read, write, and collaborate on digital picture books. Thousands of illustrations have been contributed to this online community, and all authors can integrate them into their written pieces. Completed stories can printed as books and shared via the Internet.

VoiceThreadhttp://voicethread.com/ 

Is a great Web-based digital storytelling program that enables users to upload pictures or documents, record accompanying audio (or video) commentary, and invite others to record commentary as well. Its simple combination of visual and recorded media is perfect for creating multimedia presentations in a relatively short time frame using simple tools. 

Animotohttp://animoto.com/

This intuituve and powerful web-based application provides basic but impressive multimedia features. Animoto offers music and professional-looking special effects to add to your photos and text. Students can sign up for a free account and access Animoto from any Mac or PC with an Internet connection.

MULTIMEDIA PRESENTATIONS

Preziwww.prezi.com

It’s an impressive web-based presentation tool that uses a single canvas instead of traditional slides and users zoom in-out and pan across to reveal elements of the canvas. Text, images, videos and other presentation objects are placed on the canvas and grouped together in frames. A path for the presentation can be defined.

E-BOOKS

Book Builderhttp://bookbuilder.cast.org/Book Builder’s advertisement states that teachers cans “use this site to create, share, publish, and read digital books that engage and support diverse learners according to their individual needs, interests, and skills.” Students choose a layout, add text, images, and audio, and publish their work. 

Bookemonhttp://www.bookemon.com/

Making an eBook on Bookemon is straightforward and fairly easy. As with other platforms, authors may Bookemons upload an existing document (.pdf. .ppt, or .doc), start from scratch with a blank page, or use one of Bookemon’s many templates.

SPEAKING AVATARS

Vokihttp://www.voki.com/

is a free service that allows you to create personalized speaking avatars and use them on your blog, profile, and in email messages. Creating a Voki is a simple step-by-step process. Choose or customize an avatar, record your voice, and play the animation. Share it via a link or embed it on a web page.