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"Have you noticed how bizarre social media and the news cycle has been lately? In the age of digital media, journalism is changing significantly. Widely available storytelling and distribution tools, misinformation spreading like wildfire, social media filter bubbles-headlines and stories are increasingly vying for attention, plastered across a smorgasbord of platforms. Can media get any stranger? Without a doubt. The videos we watch and podcasts we listen to may themselves soon be seamlessly manipulated, distorting the truth in new ways. Photoshop was just the beginning. Advanced media creation tools today are cheaper than ever, and innovative tech is accelerating the bleeding edge, further blurring the line between fantasy and reality. One of the latest developments was introduced last week at Adobe Max conference in San Diego. Engineered to make audio editing easier, Adobe's Project VoCo allows users to edit voices by rearranging words or saying phrases never actually recorded-all via typing. The software requires a minimum 20 minutes of recorded talking to do its magic. Then you can make an edited or brand new snippet of speech. In a text box below a visualization of the audio, you can copy/paste or type whatever you want. In a playful demo, Adobe presenter Zeyu Jin jokes around with comedian Jordan Peele by using the software to make him speak falsehoods. In short, this is the audio version of Photoshop-the ability to create something from nothing. A new generation of "sound-shopping," à la photoshopping, has been born."

"It's a golden age of education podcasts. Teachers, professors, education innovators, and tech skeptics have switched on their microphones to share their insights and analysis-and you'll find plenty of lively characters and fresh voices via your earbuds. After all, let's face it, teachers can be great talkers (we mean that in a good way), and they're also seasoned storytellers. Check out the latest reboot of the EdSurge On Air podcast! Take Michael Wesch, for instance. Inspired by the long-running radio show This American Life, he tags along with his students to better understand their lives and struggles on his Life101 podcast. (That includes crashing a frat party-you'll want to check out that episode). Other education podcasts take a more Socratic approach, drawing out their guests through dialogue. When asking around, several folks we talked to praised Teaching in Higher Ed as a podcast with particularly engaging discussions. Below are our favorites (including our own podcast, which relaunched this week), organized by topic. Please share your own picks in the comments section below."

"This summer, Apple will introduce an addition to its usual Apple Camp program: a coding course for children ages 8 to 12. Besides its usual interactive storytelling and iMovie classes, kids will have the option to enroll in Coding Games and Programming Robots. The class will use Tynker's software to teach the basics of coding using blocks that can animate characters and move robots. In May, Tynker raised $7.1 million in funding."

"This is a supplement to "Appy Hours 4 You" Blog Talk Radio Show: Episode 14 - "Comics 4 the iClassroom". In this episode we featured 7 free comic and caption apps and provided ideas for how they could be used to support digital storytelling in multiple grade levels and across content areas."

"Here you will find the fifteen apps we consider to be simply exceptional for both the quality and contextual use of animation for storytelling in an iPad book app for children. None of the apps to make our list of "Top 10 Animated Books for iPad" in 2011 have been included, so please also check out last year's post. So, without further ado, here are our very favorite recommendations for polished, story-enhancing animation in an iPad storybook app:"

"Every year at Hollywood award shows, we see fantastic movies celebrated for their rich storytelling and dynamic performances. Your students can become moviemakers, too, thanks to some powerful apps for mobile devices. With these tools, your children can take videos and edit their work to make professional quality movies using iOS devices (iPads and iPhones) and Android tablets."

"For students who dread writing class, a blank page can look a lot like a ten-foot monolith; an imposing, empty slate towering over their homework list. Visual storytelling is one way to break students out of writer's block, and storyboarding apps are a pre-packaged strategy you can use to bring images to the narrative. Whether your students are afraid of writing or you're simply looking for a way to break up a brainstorming session, these 10 storyboarding apps for iOS and Android devices can help inspire-and organize-students of any age. The best part might be the flexibility of these apps. While they can be used for strict storyboarding in the creation of fiction, they can also be used for other tasks, including documenting project-based learning, sharing assignments, or capturing research notes."

"For years, I've been a fan of Alan Levine's (@cogdog) 50 Ways to Tell a Digital Story and his groundbreaking, open kick-butt DS106 (digital storytelling) course. I recently rediscovered the DS106 Assignment Bank and I see it as a truly inspiring resource for inspiring K12 creativity."

"Prince of Persia - £335 million at the box office. Lara Croft: Tomb Raider - £150 million at the box office. Resident Evil - £200 million at the box office What do all these movies have in common? They are all video games that were developed into films. With other popular video games currently being made into films, such as, Angry Birds, Temple Run and Assassin's Creed, it seems Hollywood is exploiting the popularity and the storytelling potential of video games. Why not do it in the classroom?"

"I was super excited to attend Hack Education (originally called "EdubloggerCon"), an all-day unconference held the Friday before the formal start of ISTE 2014. This interactive day of learning, now in its eighth year, was touted to me as the event to attend in Atlanta, and it did not disappoint. The informal, small-group conversations were inclusive and welcoming. The "rule of two feet" meant that if you needed to move, you were encouraged. And session topics were diverse -- on the schedule were discussions about maker education, augmented reality, design thinking, game-based learning, coding in the classroom, digital storytelling, and many, many more!"

"When students use their bodies in the learning process, it can have a big effect, even if it seems silly or unconnected to the learning goal at hand. Researchers have found that when students use their bodies while doing mathematical storytelling (like with word problems, for example), it changes the way they think about math. "We understand language in a richer, fuller way if we can connect it to the actions we perform," said Sian Beilock, professor of psychology at the University of Chicago."

"he process of creating and publishing videos can be a great way to get students excited about researching, storytelling, and sharing their work with an audience. For teachers who have never facilitated video creation projects in their classrooms, choosing the right style of video and the right tools can be a bit confusing at first. To help bring clarity to the styles and tools, I have a rather simple outline that I use in my video creation workshops. "