I’m writing today about an online application that can be used by learners of any age to create engaging stories. This tool can be just as effective for learners with limited ability to write as it is for skilled authors. It therefore lends itself well to a UDL approach to learning. This is among my all time favourite online applications!
Storybird offers an extensive collection of beautiful artwork in a wide variety of styles, and writers are invited to build stories around this art. Storybird calls this ‘visual storytelling’. This is ideal for authors with limited ability to write text, but it also works well for writers and poets who are proficient with text.
Storybird’s user interface is straightforward, easy to navigate, and easy to learn. In essence, the author selects the illustration for a page, and then adds accompanying text. The author can create a cover for the book, or let Storybird create it. In its tagline, Stoyrbird bills itself as a forum for ‘collaborative storytelling’, and the Storybird platform is well suited to creating stories with others–with others in the same classroom or with collaborators anywhere else on the planet.
Storybird also makes it easy to share finished work in multiple ways. The engagement factor is multiplied exponentially whenever work can be shared easily with friends or with a global audience. To this end, links to stories can be shared, and Storybird’s can be embedded on student or class blogs and on classroom websites.
I find it hugely frustrating that Apple’s refusal to support Flash makes it impossible to view Storybirds directly online on the iPad. The iPad is ideally suited for viewing Storybirds, and there is a way of doing so for individual stories. This involves paying $1.99 to download a pdf version of a story. The pdf version can then be opened in iBooks. The pdf files can also be printed to hard copy. Or, you can purchase a soft or hard cover book version of any story from Storybird.
IMPORTANT NOTE: The Storybird website is a virtual library that can be visited just to enjoy fabulous stories! I’ve embedded three sample Storybirds below. I’m pretty sure the third was a collaborative effort by Miss D’s class. The Storybirds are followed by Storybird’s ‘Quick Tour’ of Storybird and a video entitled ‘Learn to Use Storybird’. It may be better to view the Storybirds by going directly to Storybird, depending on which browser you are using.
Why I wanted to be a Teacher by klmatt05 on Storybird
A Trip To My Heart by Chloe5A-1 on Storybird
Friends. by missd28-1 on Storybird
Storybird Quick Tour from Storybird on Vimeo.
[This is a revision of a post I wrote in June, 2011. For reasons that remain mysterious to me, the post had to be removed because something in it was messing up my entire blog. That's ok because it has given me the chance to remind readers about Sorybird again!]
