Story Creator - Free (Universal)
Reviewer Comments
Story Creator is an app that is designed to allow the user to create customized multimedia storybooks. The user can add many elements including videos, photos, text, and audio.
There are many story creator apps out there and for the price (free!) this one is above average. It is easy to use and no glitches have been noted in the many times we have had this app part of our program. This free version that is available is NOT a lite version. It is a full version. The PRO version is offered as well with more options for customization.
This app can be used to create books in a variety of ways. We have students use it to create social stories. It has also been used to retell a story in one’s own voice. The possibilities are endless.
Two unique features of this app that are not found in every app in the same category are the ability to use a drawing tool to add custom elements and the ability to have audio highlights on the words. This is a wonderful feature especially for students who are learning to read and build fluency.
Story Creator offers a variety of ways to save stories. They can be backed up online after creating a free account. They can also be emailed. We also liked that photos can be added from the camera roll and also Dropbox, Flickr, Picasa, or Facebook.
This app naturally lends itself to the digital literacy Common Core Standards.
We recently did a training on a number of apps like this. Here are the step-by-step directions to creating a basic book (as of May 2013).
TO START A NEW BOOK:
Tap (+) button and then Add Story.
Click in the Name box in Edit Book Settings and add your title.
Choose cover photo by clicking in the “choose photo” box, then “done”.
(If for some reason you exit ‘edit book settings’ by accident, click the (i) on the book cover to get back to it).
When you have a title and cover image, click anywhere on the cover page to go to Page 1. When on a blank page: (you do not need to add all of these to each page).
Touch the camera picture to add a photo or video. You can choose an existing one or click the icons to take a photo or video.
Touch the Tt icon to add text to the page. Hit done when complete.
Touch the microphone icon to record voice to the page. Hit the red record button to start recording and then to stop when you are done.
Edit the recording by dragging the words to match the audio for word highlighting. Click anywhere outside that box to be done.
You can add drawing to the page by selecting a crayon color to the right. When done drawing, click the crayon again to make it black and deactivate it.
Add another page by clicking the +page symbol and repeat a-e above. You can swipe your finger back and forth in the book to jump between pages.
When done, hit the home icon in the top left of the page. From that page you can hit the arrow in box icon on the bottom of the page and send the story via email (this does require creating an account).
When you are done, your story will be saved.
Congratulations! You just made a basic book!
Embedded Skills
Independent Traits
Assistive Traits
Assistive/Independent
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Patrick
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