Mentor4manor's Blog

RockYou

Kayla Hanson — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 05:36:41 +0000

RockYou is another great storytelling tool that is easy to use. This is another site where you will need to create a user account, but it is easy to do. Once you have created an account, click “create now” on the right side of the page. It will take you to a page where you have the choice to upload your own photos, get photos off of facebook, photobucket, etc. Once you have decided on your photos, they will load to the bottom of the page. You can drag them to put them in whatever order you would like. You can also include captions on the photos if you want to describe them or add text to your slideshow. Beside “add photos” is the “customize” icon. It is here that you can add music, backgrounds,
themes, and change the size of your photos. It is very easy to navigate through. As you make changes, your slideshow will play at the top of the page. Once you have finished, you click “save” at the bottom of your page and it will save your slideshow to your profile where you can grab the link to email or embed it.
Here is the slideshow that I created using RockYou.

ToonDoo

Kayla Hanson — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 05:04:40 +0000

ToonDoo is a very straightforward site that you can create comic strips in. The first thing you need to do is create an account. Then on the homepage, you click “ToonDoo maker” and it will take you to where you can create your comic. The first step is selecting the format of your comic strip. You can click various ways to have your comic set up. The next step is to pick the background, images of people, objects, etc, and text you want to include. This is all found at the top and there are tons of options for you to choose from. The biggest thing to remember is that you have to click and drag whatever images you want to use from their gallery. Down at the bottom is the “tools” toolbar. It is useful when you want to increase or decrease the size of the images you are using. Also, if you hit the “emotion” or “posture” icon in the toolbar, it will change the facial expression and body positioning of the person you have selected for your comic.

Here is the comic I created on my favourite quote:

I really recommend this program because it was very easy to use. Once you have finished your comic, you hit save and it will save to your page. Then, it is easy to go into your profile and embed, print, or email your comic strip. If you use this program and have any troubles, there is a help wiki that should answer any questions you have.

PhotoPeach

mentor4manor — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 01:51:35 +0000

I created another example of a photo show through PhotoPeach. It was really simple to use. I just imported images from my facebook account and then added music to it. I thought that there was an option to add text during the slideshow, but if there was I must have missed where that was located. This is my story of a salamander having lunch and then going for a walk. I might have to check out the options for this site a little more. Let me know if you have questions.

Xtranormal

mentor4manor — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 04:49:45 +0000

I’ve created an example on Xtranormal that could be used an introduction to a presentation. This site won’t allow you to use your own media, but you are able to manipulate the characters, choose their setting, and their voices, so it might be useful as a tool to introduce an idea. My example was created by using the free option. It’s not necessary to sign up to be able to use this site, which I thought was a positive aspect, but you won’t be able to save your work or publish it unless you do sign up.

Once you’ve chosen your character, setting and background audio you can start to write your script. As you write you can add additional bubbles which allow for pauses in the audio. I would write a sentence and then move on to the next bubble. It seemed like an easy way to organize things. Once my text was in, I dragged in some camera positions at the beginning of each sentence. These positions change for each setting. Next, I added in a few movements and expressions.

Overall, it is a simple tool to use, but it is a little limiting in it’s capabilities. The worst thing about it is that you aren’t able to use your own media or content, the only thing that’s really yours is the text.

I hope this was useful.

Photo Show

chelseah25 — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 15:18:14 +0000

Hey everyone this is another type of way to tell a story. I came across Photo Show. This site I found was very straight forward and super easy to use. It begins with asking you if you would like to upload photos, then asks where you would like to get them from. Thing I loved about that was you can get them from your own computer, it doesn’t have to be flickr. There are many sites that only allow you to use your pictures from flickr which is not a choice when you don’t have flickr. Then you can proceed by changing the style, the music, adding text, etc. Basically you can make it your OWN. So here is a Quick example of using photo show to tell a story!

This particular site was easy to use and I think that many students could enjoy using this free site to create their own slideshows for classroom projects. The use of the website even for very young students, I think could be done.

VuVox Collage

mentor4manor — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 22:44:17 +0000

Here is an example of a collage from the VuVox Collage site. This site allows you to add photos, video, text and/or sound to create a scrolling presentation. To create a presentation you will have to upload photos, and once they are uploaded you can drag them onto your canvas work area. You’re able to save as you work.

There are some videos that will help you to figure out how to use the cut out tool. I found that when using the cut out tool that if you make changes to it a second time it may not want to save, so you’ll have to save a copy of it instead. After you are finished using the site make sure to publish your presentation or else it won’t be able to be viewed by the public. Let me know if there are any questions.