Creative+Tools+and+Ideas

Here are tools to help you create more engaging projects - thanks to Joyce Valenza for posting these.

Move beyond the boring, standard fonts offered by your word processing and presentation tools. Try some of these creative sites out there. Dafont.com makes me so much happier than Helvetica. You can download your favorites of the many fonts offered or quickly generate an image of your text, adjusting for size. Fontspace offers its wide variety of font selections through a word cloud. Adjust the slider for size and choose font color. You may also want to try a few (some flashier) options:
 * CoolText.com (interactive text/banner/button generator)
 * 3D Text Maker (generates static or animated text)
 * Glowtxt (generate text with or without glow)
 * Signbot (create animated srolling LED signage)
 * Supalogo (use the pull-down menu to quickly generate text, choosing color, outline, size, transparency)
 * Textanim 2.0 (Animated text generator)

Adobe Kuler allows the amateur designer to explore and create color schemes, save and download themes, and//browse thousands of themes from the Kuler community//. Color Scheme Designer allows users to navigate colors using a color wheel and to easily identify hex numbers. Colour Lovers offers the opportunity to browse palettes, patterns, and individual colors, and to create and save your own palettes. Upload a photo into Pictaculous and easily generate a palette to complement it. (This one also works on your smart phone!)

Digital storytelling is simply using computer-based tools to tell stories. There are many different ways to do this – from making movies, recording voices, creating animations or electronic books. In schools they can help to take a task that might be seen as mundane – write a report, write a story, explain a process, describe an experiment – and turn it into something a whole lot more interesting. There are a great many tools out there that could be used for digital storytelling. I am going to give you just a few:
 * 1. Storybird** - http://www.storybird.com

Storybirds are short, art-inspired stories that are curiously fun to make, share, and read. Choose from hundreds of fabulous drawings and images and then write a story to go with them. Free to sign up and class accounts possible. Finished story books can be embedded into blogs/VLE or read via the website – a great way to share with parents. A really cute site, do take a look!
 * 2. Lego Comic Builder** : []

Create a comic using lego characters to tell your story.
 * 3. Storyjumper** - http://www.storyjumper.com

StoryJumper teaches children to write a story in just 7 steps using their StoryStarter process. Finished books can be read on-screen or bought as a hardback. Free signup, class setup available.
 * 4. Make Beliefs Comix** : []

This is a very simple tool for making 3 frame comic strips. Free.
 * 5. My Story Maker** : []

Suitable for younger writers, this lets you create a story using a selection of characters and props. Free.
 * 6. Tikatok**: []

Tikatok allows teachers to set up a space for their class to create their own storybooks. Books can be shared online for free as clickable books. Or they can be downloaded or printed as proper hardback books for a fee. Interesting idea. (Printing aimed at US market. They will ship overseas, but it’s expensive – check out [|Lulu]as an alternative to making printed class books)
 * 7. ToonDoo** : [|http://www.toondo.com]

Toondo is another simple comic strip creation tool with a wealth of different options available. Sign up needed, but it’s free.
 * 8. Kerpoof** : []

Now owned by Disney, Kerpoof lets students create stories or animations to tell their story. The site is mostly free with a few premium features.
 * 9. Go Animate 4 Schools** : []

GoAnimate, is a free tool to let students make their own animations. They can make their own animated characters, direct their own cartoons, and watch others’ creations. They can customize their animations with a large number of tools and features. Free for 100 accounts (a non-school version also available: [|http://goanimate.com])
 * 10. Zooburst :** []

ZooBurst is a digital storytelling tool that lets anyone easily create his or her own 3D pop-up books using augmented reality technology. Once constructed, books can be inspected from any angle from within a 3D space, and rotating around a book is as easy as dragging and dropping a mouse. In addition, authors can choose to make items “clickable,” allowing readers to learn more about individual characters within a story. Each character can have its own “chat bubble” that pops up when that character is clicked. In addition, authors can also record their own voices using the ZooBurst audio recorder to have their characters really “speak” when clicked! Basic version free, some premium features and educational licence coming soon. For more help and information on Digital Storytelling, take a look at [|this site from the University of Houston] and for more tools you really need to take a look at Alan Levine (CogDogRoo) 50 web2.0 Ways to tell a Story wiki. Digital storytelling is simply using computer-based tools to tell stories. There are many different ways to do this – from making movies, recording voices, creating animations or electronic books. In schools they can help to take a task that might be seen as mundane – write a report, write a story, explain a process, describe an experiment – and turn it into something a whole lot more interesting. There are a great many tools out there that could be used for digital storytelling. I am going to give you just a few:
 * 1. Storybird** - http://www.storybird.com

Storybirds are short, art-inspired stories that are curiously fun to make, share, and read. Choose from hundreds of fabulous drawings and images and then write a story to go with them. Free to sign up and class accounts possible. Finished story books can be embedded into blogs/VLE or read via the website – a great way to share with parents. A really cute site, do take a look!
 * 2. Lego Comic Builder** : []

Create a comic using lego characters to tell your story.
 * 3. Storyjumper** - http://www.storyjumper.com

StoryJumper teaches children to write a story in just 7 steps using their StoryStarter process. Finished books can be read on-screen or bought as a hardback. Free signup, class setup available.
 * 4. Make Beliefs Comix** : []

This is a very simple tool for making 3 frame comic strips. Free.
 * 5. My Story Maker** : []

Suitable for younger writers, this lets you create a story using a selection of characters and props. Free.
 * 6. Tikatok**: []

Tikatok allows teachers to set up a space for their class to create their own storybooks. Books can be shared online for free as clickable books. Or they can be downloaded or printed as proper hardback books for a fee. Interesting idea. (Printing aimed at US market. They will ship overseas, but it’s expensive – check out [|Lulu]as an alternative to making printed class books)
 * 7. ToonDoo** : [|http://www.toondo.com]

Toondo is another simple comic strip creation tool with a wealth of different options available. Sign up needed, but it’s free.
 * 8. Kerpoof** : []

Now owned by Disney, Kerpoof lets students create stories or animations to tell their story. The site is mostly free with a few premium features.
 * 9. Go Animate 4 Schools** : []

GoAnimate, is a free tool to let students make their own animations. They can make their own animated characters, direct their own cartoons, and watch others’ creations. They can customize their animations with a large number of tools and features. Free for 100 accounts (a non-school version also available: [|http://goanimate.com])
 * 10. Zooburst :** []

ZooBurst is a digital storytelling tool that lets anyone easily create his or her own 3D pop-up books using augmented reality technology. Once constructed, books can be inspected from any angle from within a 3D space, and rotating around a book is as easy as dragging and dropping a mouse. In addition, authors can choose to make items “clickable,” allowing readers to learn more about individual characters within a story. Each character can have its own “chat bubble” that pops up when that character is clicked. In addition, authors can also record their own voices using the ZooBurst audio recorder to have their characters really “speak” when clicked! Basic version free, some premium features and educational licence coming soon. For more help and information on Digital Storytelling, take a look at [|this site from the University of Houston] and for more tools you really need to take a look at Alan Levine (CogDogRoo) 50 web2.0 Ways to tell a Story wiki. //from 10 Tools for Digital Storytelling in Class//