Have you ever heard of Storybird? Storybird is a service that uses collaborative storytelling to connect friends, teachers-students and also families. Two (or more) people create a Storybird in a round robin fashion by writing own text and inserting pictures that they select. After that. they have the option of sharing their Storybird privately or publicly on the network. The final product can be printed, watched on screen, embed to a blog, or shared through a worldwide library.
How does it work?
Someone starts a Storybird by writing a few words (for title and then the stories) and grabbing a few images. For the images, a few options of arts is available to choose from. All of the pictures are interesting and colourful. Students can choose images to fit their storyline. Then the other person takes a turn, adding more words and pictures. They can do it sitting side-by-side or across places.
1. Working in pairs, students have to collaborate and write a story. It can be any genre of story.
2. They then publish and embed the story to class's blog where everyone can read.
Strength?
1. It promotes imagination, literacy, and self-confidence in students. According to the website itself, 'children who play with words and pictures early in life tend to score higher in cognitive and aptitude tests later on. They read and draw more, and are better able to understand concepts and ideas. Plus, they become comfortable with the act of creation: turning nothing into something. In an idea-based society, that’s a key advantage' (Storybird.com).
2. Students are encouraged to write more in an enjoyable way. The task is not demanding as they can work in pairs.
3. Develops a sense of ownership.
4. Teachers can assess students' writing skills and teach them on the frequent errors made.
Weakness?
-Not that I know of- :)
p/s: Above is an example of the story I made with my partner: Nuras. Enjoy!
Someone starts a Storybird by writing a few words (for title and then the stories) and grabbing a few images. For the images, a few options of arts is available to choose from. All of the pictures are interesting and colourful. Students can choose images to fit their storyline. Then the other person takes a turn, adding more words and pictures. They can do it sitting side-by-side or across places.
1. Working in pairs, students have to collaborate and write a story. It can be any genre of story.
2. They then publish and embed the story to class's blog where everyone can read.
Strength?
1. It promotes imagination, literacy, and self-confidence in students. According to the website itself, 'children who play with words and pictures early in life tend to score higher in cognitive and aptitude tests later on. They read and draw more, and are better able to understand concepts and ideas. Plus, they become comfortable with the act of creation: turning nothing into something. In an idea-based society, that’s a key advantage' (Storybird.com).
2. Students are encouraged to write more in an enjoyable way. The task is not demanding as they can work in pairs.
3. Develops a sense of ownership.
4. Teachers can assess students' writing skills and teach them on the frequent errors made.
Weakness?
-Not that I know of- :)
p/s: Above is an example of the story I made with my partner: Nuras. Enjoy!
I agree with your point that Storybird promotes creativity. I've tried it, and really everything in there is like glitters in fairy tales, particularly the pictures and graphics it offers. Great tool for getting students to storytelling :)
ReplyDeleteBut personally I think that no matter how good a tool is, it never runs from shortcomings. Not at least one. I can't really figure out why but it seems to me that Storybird doesn't fancy me as much as other tools do(Brainshark, Wordsift etc). My concern is familiarity issue cause I had difficulty experimenting with the tool initially and I somehow find that Storybird's functions are kinda 'hard to digest'. Perhaps for classroom teaching, you could give students more practice time so that they'll get familiar with the tool before creating their own stories :)
It's a good tool, though. Any other shortcomings that you could think of, perhaps? :) Anyways, keep up the good work, ET!