Storyjumper

Earlier this week, a number of Spanish teachers at my school shared with my department about Storyjumper, a digital storytelling web application. Essentially, Storyjumper allows for users to create digital storybooks with texts, illustrations, voice recordings, music, and sound effects. Below is a digital storybook which I created for a reading using Storyjumper. The story began as a dictatio of 8 sentences, but I was able to create a Tier 2 embedded reading of the story using Storyjumper:

Read this book made on StoryJumper

Observations

1. I like that having text, illustrations, and narration at the same time gives learners double, even triple input.
2. I like this SO MUCH better than screencasting a PowerPoint, because it has more of a storytelling feel to it, since it is a digital book.
3. It is a FREE web resource. However, if you wish to publish what you create, you can sell it on Storyjumper.
4. Being able to add music and sound effects does make your book more compelling and interesting to listen to.
5. I wish that StoryboardThat had a narration and sound function, since it already has a digital comic book feel to it.
6. Drawbacks
1. Compared to StoryboardThat, Storyjumper does have limitations with the amount of provided illustration choices and their capabilities. One can import pictures into Storyjumper. With StoryboardThat, there are a lot more illustration choices and what one can do with them (cropping, changing angles, poses, etc.)
2. Although Storyjumper does provide music and sound effect choices, they are limited.

Here is a video tutorial of Storyjumper:

Although Storyjumper does have its drawbacks, this is a web resource which I will be using more in the future.