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Mark PegrumMark Pegrum
  • Overview of digital learning
    • Learning design
    • Digital literacies
    • Coding
    • PLNs
    • PLEs
    • E-portfolios
    • Digital safety & wellness
  • Tools for digital learning
    • Web 1.0 learning
      • Drills
      • E-books
      • Gamification
      • LMSs
      • Quizzes
      • Webquests
      • Websites
    • Web 2.0 learning
      • Blogs
      • Chat & messaging
      • Data visualisation
      • Digital storytelling
      • Discussion boards
      • Folksonomies
      • Gaming
      • LMSs
      • Microblogging
      • Podcasting
      • Polling
      • RSS
      • Search engines
      • Social networking
      • Social sharing
      • Videos
      • VoIP
      • Websites
      • Wikis
    • Web 3.0 learning
      • Semantic web
        • Generative AI
        • Search engines
      • Geospatial web
        • Augmented reality
        • Gaming
        • Virtual reality
        • Virtual worlds
    • Mobile learning
      • Apps
      • Augmented reality
      • Chat & messaging
      • Digital storytelling
      • E-books
      • Gaming
      • Geosocial networking
      • Multimedia recording
      • Polling
      • QR codes
      • Virtual reality
  • Keeping up with digital learning
    • E-language tag cloud
    • E-language conference blog
    • Conferences to attend
    • Journals to consult
    • Publications on digital learning
    • Publications on mobile learning
    • Blogs to follow
    • Feeds to follow
  • About Mark Pegrum
    • Biodata
    • Courses & seminars
    • Publications
    • Papers & presentations
    • Grants
    • Supervision
    • Interviews
    • Contact me

Digital storytelling

Home Tools for digital learningDigital storytelling
What do you want to create today?

What do you want to create today? (Source: Wes Fryer, showwithmedia.com, under CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 licence)

Digital storytelling involves creating multimodal, or multimedia, narratives. A digital story typically involves some combination of text, images, audio and/or video structured into a narrative.

Digital storytelling, much like data visualisation, is not a tool as such, but rather a technique which can involve a whole variety of different web 2.0 tools and/or mobile apps. Mobile devices like smartphones or tablets are frequently used to take the photos and make the audio or video recordings (see also the multimedia recording page) which are combined to compose digital stories, with the creation of the final stories taking place either on the mobile devices themselves or on laptop or desktop computers. In this way, digital storytelling is linked not only to web 2.0 learning but also to mobile learning. Most recently, there has been a move towards web 3.0 with the rise of generative AI and specialised digital storytelling services which can create stories with input from human users.

Because of the way it draws together a range of language, literacy, presentation and ICT skills, digital storytelling is becoming an increasingly common educational activity. Digital stories may be individually or collaboratively created, and may be static, dynamic or even interactive. They offer an ideal opportunity for students to hone digital literacies such as multimodal literacy (in creating multimedia digital stories which communicate their messages effectively to their intended target audiences) and network literacy (in disseminating their own digital stories, and accessing and commenting on peers’ digital stories). There may also be an intercultural literacy aspect if digital storytelling is used in collaborative online international learning (COIL) or virtual exchange (VE) initiatives, where students interact and share work with peers from different parts of the world.

Digital stories can be stored in students’ PLEs or e-portfolios. Note that if students show their faces or reveal their identities in their digital stories, it may be advisable to share these only in password-protected online spaces. Conversely, if students plan on sharing their work more widely, it may be appropriate to encourage them to disguise their identities (for example through the use of animated characters in place of photos or videos of themselves).

For useful educational ideas and resources, including examples of digital stories, see:

    • What is Digital Storytelling? [Video] (U of G Library, 2019)
    • Educational Uses of Digital Storytelling (University of Houston, 2023)
    • Digital Storytelling (University of Wollongong, 2023)
    • The Growing Role of Digital Storytelling in Education (Akhil Pawa/Magic EdTech, 2024)
Digital storytelling: What it is ... and ... what it is not

Digital storytelling: What it is … and … what it is not (Source: Langwitches, goo.gl/upkTPw, used by permission of Silvia Rosenthal Tolisano)

Traditionally there have been three main options for creating digital stories, namely manual digital storytelling, automated digital storytelling, and mobile digital storytelling. Combinations of these are also possible, for example when mobile devices are used to take photos or make audio recordings, and to carry out initial editing, before these materials are transferred to a laptop or desktop computer, perhaps edited further, and then integrated into a final format for sharing. It is also becoming easier to engage in interactive digital storytelling, and there is an increasing array of AI digital storytelling options, as outlined below.

Manual digital storytelling

Some tools can be used to create manual digital stories on laptop or desktop computers. Such stories require users to interact with them, for example by clicking through from one section to the next, or opening photos, launching audio files and videos, and so on. However, many digital stories created in this way could potentially be turned into automated digital stories in the form of videos, captured using screencast software. The tools themselves can be easily accessed on the web. Some are free to use; others work on a freemium model where basic functionality is available for free, but users pay for more advanced functionality; and still others are fully paid services. Any videos created from the digital stories can be shared online using videosharing services, or in LMSs or other institutional online spaces. Key tools for creating manual digital stories are shown in the table below (note that some of these now include AI elements).

TOOL TYPE  TOOL EXAMPLES
Comics AI Comic Factory (AI-enabled)
Canva Comic Strips
Comic Life

Pixton
Storyboard That Online Comic Maker

Stripcreator
Witty Comics
Storybooks Storybird 
StoryJumper 
Storyboards Storyboard That
Timelines Preceden
Tiki-Toki
TimelineJS
Timetoast
Venngage Free Online Timeline Maker
Visme Free Online Timeline Maker
Annotated pictures/videos Annotation Pilot
Annotely (formerly Szoter)
Ink2Go
iPhotoDraw
Screen Capture and Annotate

Skitch 
VoiceThread (audio/video/text annotation)
Multimodal posters/images Canva
Canvastera
Genially
(online annotation)
Thinglink (online annotation)
Web Poster Wizard
Multimodal scrapbooks Mixbook
Smilebox
 
Flipbooks 1stFlip
FlipBook Maker
FlipHTML5

Flipping Book

Flipsnack 
Free Flip Book Maker 
iGooSoft FlipBook Creator 
VeryPDF Flipbook Maker

Automated digital storytelling

Some tools allow the creation of automated digital stories which, once launched, run by themselves in either audio or, more commonly, video format. As with the manual digital story tools, some are free to use; others work on a freemium model where basic functionality is available for free, but users pay for more advanced functionality; and still others are fully paid services. Any audio or video files created can be shared online using podcasting or videosharing services, or in LMSs or other institutional online spaces. (Note that, once again, some of these now include AI elements, even if this is not referenced in their names.)

TOOL TYPE TOOL EXAMPLES AUDIO/VIDEO FORMAT
Podcasts Audacity
GarageBand (Apple devices)
audio
Slideshows PowerPoint
Prezi
video, usually created after adding a narrative
voiceover & saving the file as a video
Videos Adobe Express (formerly Adobe Spark)
Adobe Premiere

Camtasia
Canva Free Online Video Editor

iMovie
(Apple devices)
IoForth
Windows Photos (also for video)
video
Animation Powtoon video
Machinima in-built video capture tools
in virtual worlds
or gaming environments
video

For the new generation of AI-enabled video creation tools, some of which lend themselves to digital storytelling, see the videos page of this website.

Mobile digital storytelling

A number of the tools listed above are available in mobile app versions. In addition, there are numerous mobile-only or mobile-first apps which are appropriate for creating digital stories. The apps below can be used on either Android or Apple iOS smart devices, or sometimes both; you can search for them in Apple’s App Store or the Google Play store. Some, though not all, are available in free versions.

These kinds of digital storytelling apps make it easy to create template-based digital stories, and they are highly suitable for young or digitally inexperienced learners. Note, however, that users are often restricted to preset templates, and it may be difficult to export and share work: the digital stories created will in some cases only be viewable by others who have the same app running on the same operating system.

ICON APP TYPE APP NAME
App-PuppetPals Animation Puppet Pals
App-Toontastic Animation Toontastic 3D
App-ExplainEverything Explanation Explain Everything
App-BookCreator Storybook Book Creator
App-CreativeBookBuilder Storybook Creative Book Builder
App-LittleStoryMaker Storybook Little Story Maker
App-StoryCreator Storybook Story Creator

New digital storytelling software is becoming available all the time. For more ideas, you might like to check out:

    • Best Sites and Apps for Digital Storytelling (Diana Restifo/Tech & Learning, 2022)
    • 19 Sites and Apps for Digital Storytelling (Jill Webb/Teaching Expertise, 2023)
    • Digital Storytelling Tools for Teachers (Med Kharbach/Educators Technology, 2024)
    • 18 Free Digital Storytelling Tools for Teachers and Students (Christopher Pappas/eLearning Industry, 2025)
    • Best Apps for Creating Books and Storybooks (Common Sense Education, n. d.)

Interactive storytelling

Interactive forms of digital storytelling have now also become possible, for use on computers or mobile devices, using branching software such as Yo Scenario and Stornaway (for interactive videos). Check out the gaming page of this website for other tools, some AI-enabled, that can be used in a similar way.

AI storytelling

It is possible to have generative AI chatbots like ChatGPT create text-based stories with set parameters (characters, plot, timeframe, location, etc). It is also possible for users to collaborately create such stories with generative AI, paragraph by paragraph or even line by line. These stories can subsequently be illustrated using AI image generators, and then presented using existing digital storytelling software or apps. In addition, dedicated multimodal AI storytelling software has now emerged, such as DeepFiction, Depthtale and Reading Club, while AI-enabled video or gaming software could also be employed for digital storytelling. For relevant tools, see the videos and gaming pages of this website.

Last update: March 2025.

Mark Pegrum

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Last updated 2025 · Content may be reused under CC BY 4.0 Licence except as indicated. Homepage image used under licence from Shutterstock (2017). Section title page images used under licence from iStock (2017).

 

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