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 Storytelling has always been a significant part of history, but the means through which the stories have been told has evolved with each civilization. From the oral histories presented by bards in ancient courts, to the works of scribes during the Renaissance, to newspapers, CNN, and now the Internet, personal narrative has been used to communicate the events of the past. Digital media now combines tradition with technology and allows students to tell stories through voice, text, images, audio, and video. 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. A plethora of tools exists to create these projects - both in terms of software as well as hardware - and all of them enable students to gain a deeper understanding of history as they explore the most effective way to retell it. ( [|http://thwt.org/index.php/presentations-multimedia/digital-storytelling] ) Examples [|http://digitalstorytelling.coe.uh.edu/social_studies.html]
 * Why Digital Storytelling?

Digital Storytelling Tools
Creating a digital story could be as simple as using a tool such as Microsoft PowerPoint or Photo Story, or as complex as a full video project with Apple’s iMovie or Adobe Premiere. However, there are also a variety of web-based tools that enable students to create unique user experiences as they tell their stories. Digital Storytelling should never be a one tool assignment. [|www.prezi.com] is 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. You can download and present Prezi offline and Prezi offers both a free basic service and a premium subscription service. Prezi also offers two educational services. EDU Enjoy is free. EDU Pro costs $59/year and allows you to create Prezis offline. If you want to change your existing license to an EDU license, you need to sign in first and choose Upgrade on License and Settings page. Sample [|http://prezi.com/9jgyxfbynxod/copy-of-1960-1963/]
 * Prezi**

Samples [] [|http://animoto.com/samples/education/jktzTofygNAu13RxEsXYDw] code a4ebren9b62a7 **Voki** [|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.
 * Animoto** [|http://animoto.com/account/education/apply] 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.

**samples** [|http://mrlistersd33.edublogs.org/tag/voki/] [|http://teachinghistory.org/digital-classroom/tech-for-teachers/24655]

Media Resources
Rich media is the key to a good digital story. The resources below will help students find what they need in terms of content. For more information about working with copyrighted and Creative Commons licensed media, visit the Creative Commons page. A word about copyright [] ||
 * Wikimedia Commons - a wiki database of Creative Commons or Public Domain images.
 * Flickr - a photo and video sharing site where most works are licensed under Creative Commons. The Advanced Search allows students to search only for Creative Commons licensed media.
 * FlickrStorm - another way to search through Flickr that provides even more results. There is an option to search for only images that have been licensed for reuse.
 * Jamendo - a music sharing site of all legal to use songs.
 * Google Advanced Image Search - setting the usage rights shows images that are labeled with a Creative Commons license
 * Library of Congress - an online catalog of thousands of prints and photos currently archived at the LOC. Most of the resources can be published without having to seek permission, and they provide terrific digital artifacts for historical stories.
 * National Archives - billions of images, videos, and digital documents can be found and integrated into projects. ( [|http://thwt.org/index.php/presentations-multimedia/digital-storytelling] )
 * [|AmericanRhetoric.com] - Database of and index to 5000+ full text, audio and video versions of public speeches, sermons, legal proceedings, lectures, debates, interviews, other recorded media events, and a declaration or two.