OVERVIEW
Below is an ever-expanding list of the software applications I recommend you have available, even if only in free trial mode, in order to work on digital composition projects.
I do not recommend investing in higher end versions of apps until you’ve maxed out the capabilities of the lower-end versions. For example, there’s no need to invest in Final Cut Pro X or Adobe Premiere when iMovie and Windows Movie Maker are pretty powerful and free to Mac or Windows users. The only reason to upgrade is if you’ve already maxed out what these apps can do.
For instructions on how to use these apps, browse the archives for the appropriate categories or tags in the sidebar.
PHOTO EDITING
Mac: You can do basic photo editing, particularly resizing, with iPhoto or Preview. For more advanced features, you might try a consumer-level app like Pixelmator or Acorn. There’s no need to shell out big bucks for Adobe Photoshop.
Windows: Try Paint or Windows Live Photo Gallery for basic editing. Or concern a consumer-level app like Corel Draw.
Free Web-Based: I highly recommend Pixlr.com, which is free and doesn’t even require an account to use. It works within your web browser and has many of the same features (and same basic layout) as Photoshop. See this screencast on how to use Pixlr to make a blog header.
Google’s Picasa is another option, or you can find many others by searching Google for: free image editors.
Smart Devices: You can also find a wide range of image editing apps for smart phones, iPads, and other tablet devices.
Free Trials: If you want to try out the professional-level software, you can download free trials of the Adobe Creative Suite apps: Photoshop, Photoshop Elements (cheaper version), Premiere, Premiere Elements, Dreamweaver, Illustrator, etc. Or use them on a campus computer.
AUDIO EDITING
Mac: You can capture audio using QuickTime X or GarageBand, and you can edit it in GarageBand. You can also use the Mac version of Audacity.
Windows: You can capture audio with SoundRecorder on Windows or Audacity, and you can edit it in Audacity. (Browse the Composing with Audio category for instructions on downloading and using Audacity.) Your PC may also have come with an audio app as part of a multimedia suite supplied by the computer manufacturer.
Free Web-Based: I haven’t tried it yet, but I just read about this free online audio editor: Myna
VIDEO EDITING
Mac: Your computer should have come with iMovie installed. If you have version ’08 or older, I strongly recommend you upgrade to the ’11 version, which is only $14.99 through the Apple app store (this is the App Store for computer applications not mobile devices — you can also get to the App Store from the Apple menu in the upper left corner of your screen)
Windows: If you’re using Windows XP or Vista, you should have the first version of MovieMaker already installed. If you’re using Windows 7, you may need to download and install the new version of Windows Live MovieMaker 2011
Free Web-Based: Here are a few free web-based apps for editing video. I haven’t used them but they’re worth a try.
- Pixorial
- Video Toolbox
- YouTube’s Video Editor
- Stroome (allows collaborative remix and editing)
- Creaza Movie Editor
ANIMATION
You don’t need to know a thing about the technical details of creating animations, nor do you need to be at all artistic, to make some pretty amazing cartoons. Check out these two free animation sites: Xtranormal.com and GoAnimate.com
You can also find some free or inexpensive animation apps for the iPad, iPhone, and other smart phones. Many of these apps include children among their target market, which means that they’re pretty easy to use, although of course you’ll still need to read the instructions.
You can see sample student animations from my sections of WRTG 3020 under the Animations category.
COMIC BOOKS
Probably the best known app for creating comics is Comic Life, which is available in a trial version for both Macs and Windows. It’s very easy to use and is versatile enough to be used for a variety of documents other than comics.
You can save your comics in several formats, but PDF seems to work best for our purposes. You can then either offer readers a link to the downloadable PDF or you can embed the PDF files into a blog entry via a document hosting site like Scribd.com or Issuu.com
You can find other comics and cartoon apps on the web, either downloadable apps or apps you can use in a web browser, but be sure to check out what’s possible in an app before you commit to using it, as some may be fairly limited, particularly if they’re aimed towards kids or if they want to entice you into paying for membership. You can also find some cool free or inexpensive comics apps for iPad, iPhone, and Android phones.
Here are a few more to try: ToonDo, Pixton, and ComicLab
You can see sample student comics from my sections of WRTG 3020 under the Comic Strips category.
SCREENCASTS
A screencast is a video recording of whatever is displayed on the forefront of your computer screen. Screencasts can be used for a variety of purposes but are most popular for tutorials and web site analyses. You can also use a screencast app to provide comments on a digital media project.
- Camtasia (download free 30-day trial for Mac or Windows)
- Screenr.com (web-based screen recording app)
PDF APPS
Apps for annotating PDFs:
- PDF X-Change Viewer (download free trial)
- Preview (comes on all Macs but need OS 10.5 or newer for full range of annotation tools)
I do not recommend using Adobe Reader to annotate PDFs as students frequently experience trouble with it not saving comments.
PRESENTATION
Mac: Apple Keynote or Microsoft PowerPoint
Windows: Microsoft PowerPoint
Free web-based: You can build presentations using a very limited set of tools similar to those in PowerPoint using Google Docs. Log into Google Docs and from under the Create New button near the upper left, choose Presentation. You can also upload PPTs here and continue editing them, although Google Docs wills trip out PowerPoint’s more advanced features.
An alternative to the traditional slide format for presentations is the “zooming” format made possible by Prezi.com. On Prezi, the presentation itself is mapped out on a large virtual screen, and users move through the presentation by “zooming” in to different parts of the large map, rather than moving forward in a linear sequence. Because it offers the first true alternative to the PowerPoint paradigm, Prezi has become very popular in higher education and business.
Presentation embedding and hosting:
- SlideShare.net
- Sribd.com
- Issuu.com
You can see sample student presentations from my sections of WRTG 3020 under the Presentations category.
DIGITAL STORYTELLING APPS
You can compose digital storytelling projects using the apps above, but here are a few other options that might be worth exploring:
- 50 Ways to Tell a Story (a project designed to show how easy it is to tell digital stories with the free tools now available)
- Photo Peach (photo slideshows with captions and audio soundtrack)
- Tabloo: create stories with photos
- Storybird (creates “pagecasts” with a layout similar to children’s books)
- OurStory - Collaborative Timeline Generator
- Dvolver Movie Maker
- Glogster (digital poster board)
- Mixbook(make a scrapbook)
- 280Slides (web-based presentations)
- ZooBurst - “digital storytelling tool for creating 3D pop-up books”
- Microsoft PhotoStory 3 (says its for XP only, but some swear you can use it on Win7)
- SecondLife (virtual reality world you can use to enact stories and record as videos)
- One Million Monkeys Typing (community storytelling)
SUGGEST MORE?
Feel free to suggest new tools to add to this list. Send them to me using the form on the sidebar.
Also see: 50 Digital Ways to Tell a Story
