Monday, September 23, 2013

Learning to Use Storybird in EDUC 584

Storybird is an easy tool to use once you start playing around with it. As with other tools, the first time around will be trial and error, but once you get the knack of it, it will be easier to use the next time around. First, get the knack of it before you use it with students.

Once you open your account, go to setting, and note how you can set the age bracket to filter the kinds of illustrations that students will be able to use. This is an important feature to use when implementing the program in the school setting. I created the below using an age setting for elementary students.

Here is a quick example. Note when using Storybird, once a theme and illustration set are chosen, you begin by creating your cover for the book. You  use the + sign in the program to advance to the next page, but each time, you need to hit the Save button to save a page before advancing to your next page. You simply drag and drop the illustration you want on the page, and then use the space for writing text to compose your story line for that page. Once done with the page, remember to hit Save and then hit the + sign to advance to the next page. When your story is completed, go to the Menu to save it, and you will be prompted with specific options. Once your story is successfully processed, you can go back in and get the embed code to copy so you can embed your story in a blog post. You can also grab the URL for the story if you prefer to use that to direct viewers to your story on the Storybird site.

To view this story, use the full-screen option, which is in the lower right-hand corner.



Here are some links to find examples created by former EDUC 584 students. They created these stories to read to their students. In other cases, students worked with the teachers to create the stories, doing this as a collaborative project, with students selecting the illustrations and dictating or typing the text for each page in the story.

Anna created several posts about her use of Storybird with her kindergarteners:


Mari Beth created this one to use with her preschoolers

Bryan created this one to use with his second graders.
Now that you've seen some examples, how do you envision using a tool like Storybird with students? 






2 comments:

  1. I went on Storybird last week to explore options for creating a digital story. The artwork was beautiful and inspiring. I'm headed there again to create a simple story to teach students how to use this tool. I had originally planned a story with the purpose of teaching math concepts, but this program doesn't seem the right fit for a plan. It is much easier to find the photos you love and then write a script.

    ReplyDelete
  2. So over the last couple of weeks of EDUC 584, I feel like I have be reintroduced to the internet. There have been several new tools online that I have had to use and create something like Blogger, Animoto, Google Doc and the like and I can see myself using these tools with my students. However, after creating my first story and using this tool I can truly see using this with my students. In the past I have used PowerPoint to try to have my students create a short story. Storybird allows them to publish their story for others to read, not just me an their classmates.

    ReplyDelete