Dvolver Moviemaker

http://www.dvolver.com/moviemaker/

Here is a very easy animation  tool.  You choose a background,   a sky,   one or two stock characters, a simple action ( chase, rendezvous, etc) and add some text for dialogue.  


Classroom Idea: 
Teachers could  enliven simple instructions with an animation. 
 Have students spice up their presentation or website with a easy to make simple story.

Adobe Slate

 Adobe Slate.   
A good app from Adobe that combines photos and images with a minimum amount of text, allowing one to create digital narratives with  the emphasis on the visual.   I found this on Richard Bryne's blog.

Classroom idea.   This could be used as a way to illustrate creative writing, or give step by step instructions.

Microsoft Sway

Sway https://sway.com/ 

If, like me, you are thinking student presentations work so much better if you encourage story telling as the basis of the presentation than I think you should look at Sway, a presentation/digital narrative tool from Microsoft

 

Classroom idea: Chemistry students take an elemnt and tell its story!

Xtranormal

Xtranormal http://www.xtranormal.com/  
lets you create animated movies to tell your story
Here is one I did.
Pocahontas and Queen Elizabeth Discuss Website Evaluation
by: joantracy
Classroom Idea; Have your students use this tool to create animations that demonstrate their knowledge on a subject.

Simplebooklet

simplebooklet http://simplebooklet.com/index.php#
I like to consider new ways of presenting student information.  I like this tool for two reasons :

1. The clean lines.  The ability to  create multiple pages allows for lots of information to be presented, but not overwhelmed.
2. The booklet ( one of  multiple options for presenting) allows for "story" or narrative.

Classroom idea: Create a catalog of  items for sale from the time period of the novel being studied.