Using StoryBoardThat in the Classroom

What is StoryBoardThat?-  StoryBoardThat is an online Web2.0 tool that allows users to create visual storyboards.  Users can create comic book like panels to tell a story.  This website allows users to select and add scenes, characters, props, and more to cells.  Each selected image can be edited to change the pose and facial expression of a character, or to change the time of day and weather of a selected scene.  Users can create an account and save their work to Storyboardthat.com's server.  This means that a user can use their log-in to access their projects at any computer with internet access.  Projects can also be downloaded in mulptiple formats: Powerpoint, PDF, Images, and more.

Why Storyboard in the Classroom?- Every teacher knows that each classroom has a variety of learners with different learning styles.  An auditory learner may enjoy hearing a teacher explain a concept, while visual learners may want to visualize a complex concept in order to understand.  Storyboard provides students who are visual learners with a more engaging medium.  For example, a science teacher could provide students with a written lab procedural, or they could use storyboards to provide a visual and written step-by-step procedural.

-Add visuals to your class instructions-

Storyboardthat can also be engaging to creative students.  For example, students can create their own accounts and work on their own storyboards.  A teacher may ask a student to summarize a short story they read in class.  Students could create their own cartoon version of characters and truly visualize the details of a written scene.

What Resources are Necessary?-  StoryBoardThat.com is not a free website.  Teachers can purchase a class account.  However, students can create a free account and are allowed up to two free storyboards every week.  Below is a video tutorial on how to download a storyboard and submit. Other resources needed in the classroom are laptops with internet access.  Students have used their phones and tablets to create storyboards, but the site is much easier to manage with a computer and a mouse to drag images around. 

Educational Uses- There are numerous ways to use Storyboardthat in the classroom.  In fact, the only limit is the imagination of the teacher.  The first decision a teacher will make is whether they are creating an instructional storyboard, or is the teacher going to ask students to create their own storyboards.  Check out this site for some educational ideas! 

Teacher Created Storyboards- Teachers can use storyboards to create instructional resources.  Teachers who are over reliant on lectures may enjoy using a more visual medium like storyboards in order to give information and directions to students.  For example, a history teacher may want students to understand an important timeline of events.  Rather than lecturing, a teacher could actually create a timeline with detailed pictures of historical events and date and information.  See the example below.

-Here is a sample timeline-

A teacher could also create a storyboard that could visualize class rules and norms.  For example, a teacher may want to establish rules emailing within the class.  A teacher could create a storyboard that explains email etiquette and post it on the learning management system or print and hang in their classroom for reference.  See the example below.

-Teach class norms and expectations-

Student Created Storyboards-  Storyboard is accessible to students, and it can be used to teach and reinforce concepts by having students to create their own storyboards.  For example, I have asked my students to show examples of conflicts in the play Raisin in the Sun.  We take time to learn what an internal and external conflict is.  Then, students are asked to find three examples of external conflicts and three examples of internal conflicts.  The students can than create storyboard panels that recreate a scene that is an example of a conflict.  Students can visualize the scene, add quotes using dialogue balloons, and explain the example in a caption box below panel.  

Another way to use storyboards is to have students create their own examples of a concept.  When learning vocabulary, a teacher often asks a student to use the word in a sentence in order to create an example.  This concept can apply to storyboards.  For example, when I teach the rhetorical concepts of ethos, pathos, logos, I like to have students create their own examples of scenes in which peoples are using these argumentative tactics.  See the example below.

-Students can create their own examples of new concepts-

-Students can create their own examples of new concepts-

Teachers can also have students create storyboards to compare and contrast ideas.  Venn diagrams and t-charts are an effective way for students to learn the nuances of a complex concept.  Storyboardthat.com offers comparison storyboards that can be used.  See the example below.

-Here is a comparison of political beliefs-

-Here is a comparison of political beliefs-

Have fun- The truth is, that Storyboard has many different possibilities for educational opportunities.  Teachers can use their imagination to come up with lessons that work for their students.  Storyboards can also be used across subjects.  A PE teacher could have students create a Storyboard that explains the rules and point system for volleyball.  A science teacher could have students create a storyboard that explains the step-by-step process of photosynthesis.  Give storyboards a chance and have some fun in your classroom!

References:

Ogden, Mike. (2016, October 2). Storyboard that turn in tutorial. Retrieved February 24, 2018 from https://youtu.be/xKdpskqzl_4.

[Storyboard That]. (2017, September 13). Getting started with Storyboard That. Retrieved February 25, 2018 from https://youtu.be/xkgNAMDL_sM.


[Storyboard That] (2018). Storyboard That: Great school too for your teacher schoolbox. Retrieved February 24, 2018 from http://www.storyboardthat.com/blog/e/topic/education.