storybird me!

What is it all about?

Storybird is a fun new collaborative storytelling website.  Storybird makes it easy to create and tell stories digitally.  Students and teachers can create stories together by combining imaginative artwork and text.  The final product can be printed, watched on screen, played with like a toy, or shared in an online library with the world. In short, it is a free online tool that helps you make short, art-inspired, stories that you can share, read, and print.


How to use it?


1. Firstly, once you have entered www.storybird.com, please select 'sign up' where you need to create your own account.

2. After confirming your email address. Select 'Jump in!' to start creating your own storybook.

3. The first step is to select an artist. Here we get a chance to see some of the artworks you have chosen.

4. Here we get a  Select “Start a Storybird”.


5. This is the storymaker. Drag illustrations onto the canvas, & then write the story in the text boxes. You can add additional pages at the bottom.

6. When you’re finished, select “Menu” & then “Publish this Storybird…”

7. Before publishing you can write a short summary of the book and select appropriate age range. Make sure to set the story to “public”. Then select “Publish”.

11. You have now finished and published a Storybird!



How can teacher benefit this tool in the classroom?

Teacher could initially give out a topic and ask students to brainstorm the idea together. For example, the topic of 'my family' and teacher would ask students questions like 'how many family members do you have?', 'what do you do with your family during leisure time' and etc. Then, teacher would demonstrate the storybird tool to the students. Firstly, teacher could start by selecting pictures that suit their description. For example, if the students say 'My family loves fishing', then teacher would choose picture of a man holding a fishing rod. Then, students are asked to be in pairs. Then, they could continue the topic by collaborating the stories with their partners.




Why is it good?

1. It creates a sweet memory with friends. Later on, even when they have graduated from school, students can still read the stories they have created online.

2. Teacher can use the great artwork and share them with other students not only online but also in the version of hard copy. Yes! The book can be printed out.

3. The tool has an intuitive interface and beautiful illustrations. It provides whole collections of artwork around a theme or topic. The artwork is by amazing artists and the collections are linked. So all the pictures have the same ‘look and feel’ and can be easily fitted together to create a very professional looking story.

4. This tool helps students who do not write well in language.  They will have to carefully select their own pictures before writing the stories, this will help them with the writing process because when selecting the pictures, they are actually building images and builds the story line in their mind. This will make them ore excited.




The weakness of it..

1. Time-consuming and it is not easy to have a collaborative story telling. Different students may want their stories to be told differently. My friends and I created a story together and ended up disagreeing with a lot of matters, for example, the name of the characters, the ending of the stories including the plot of the stories. It is very complicated to work with if you have a difficult partner!