Is anyone using storyboard software in their production classes?

Phil’s Response:

I used to complain bitterly about my son's elementary school teachers requiring projects of building castles out of sugar cubes and forts out of popsicle sticks.  I felt they were learning time-consuming useless arts and crafts skills instead of spending time more effectively learning history.  I complained that the teacher was not qualified to evaluate the artwork, architecture, etc. and was quite annoyed.  Then I realized that I was guilty of the same thing by requiring my students in Television Production to do storyboards.  I also realized that in the professional world there was a job title of "storyboard artist" and that was nowhere in the jobs my class covered.

I used to have my students do storyboards for non-news stories - PSA's, documentaries, entertainment, music videos, etc.  I did the same thing Janet Kerbey did with having kids do storyboards and having someone else shoot from the storyboard.  All that worked ok but I found that the kids were spending inordinate amounts of time doing artwork even when I gave them examples of storyboards that were simple stick figure sketches.  I even discovered that I actually had students not sign up for the class because they self-assessed that they couldn't draw.  That was the final straw.
 
I dropped the requirement and made it optional except for extremely complicated shots.   The students who were happy with stick figures continued to use stick figures.  The students who could draw effortlessly usually continued drawing.  But the vast majority of the rest of the students who either hated the artwork or were wasting tremendous amounts of time struggling through the drawing of storyboards, were able to relax and communicate effectively with their camera shot descriptions by using professional abbreviations and a few choice words.  Interestingly enough, some of these “non-drawers” started sketching little pictures once in a while to “show” the camera operator what they were talking about.  I didn’t tell them they were doing a storyboard.  It was their own idea and they didn’t complain.  I didn’t tell them it was a storyboard.  Ha.
 
There is enough stress in television production - I did not feel a need to add to it with a required hand-drawn component.