Storybird

A story for me, a story for you,

Storybird is fun, through and through.

Spidey likes it and so do I,

Write a story, no need to be shy.

I think Storybird is my favourite web application from those I have investigated for this course. It is so simple, yet it creates really impressive results. It is such a great resource for students to get them writing.

Over Spring Break, my 8 year old had the task of writing a short story (really a paragraph). He always struggles with generating ideas for his writing, so I got him to try a Storybird instead. By choosing some fun images, he was able to create a story to flow with it. Voila!


George le scientiste fâcher by bjdoyle on Storybird
Of course, one of the advantages of Storybird is that the stories can be created in French, a bonus at my French Immersion School. In fact, here is a page of Storybirds en Français. These would be great for students to read for inspiration.
Erin Klein has some good tips in her blog post A Reflection on Storybird:

• write a Storybird as a class first - this is a great idea and could be done on the SmartBoard
• offer choice - Klein found that the boys more frequently gravitated to Web 2.0 applications that involved multi-media like Glogster or VoiceThread

Storybird is an excellent way to get students involved in digital storytelling and collaboration. It is accessible to young students as long as they have the ability to write. 

As we head back to school after our Spring Break, this is one tool that I will be looking to implement with students soon.

A thread of voices

Conversations in the cloud

Shouts VoiceThread out loud.

So easy and fun,
Students young and old can take it for a run!

VoiceThread is a really neat online application. After uploading some images, students can add their comments/narration using text, voiceover or video. Some of the real power in VoiceThread comes in the ability of students to comment and interact with the VoiceThread; this, of course, is the power of many web applications (Richardson, 2010).

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The flexibility of VoiceThread allows it to be used with the whole class, in small groups or independently and across all curricular areas (Brunvand & Byrd, 2011). Additionally, "VoiceThread enables teachers to capitalize on student learning strengths and preferred learning modalities by encouraging active participation in the learning process" (Brunvand & Byrd, 2011, p. 33). Brunvand and Byrd (2011) found that VoiceThread allowed at-risk students
and students with disabilities to achieve greater success by focussing on individual strengths.

Luke Rodesiler (2010) suggests the following uses for VoiceThread:

• deconstructing images, advertisements and other print texts
• analyzing moving images
• composing digital stories
• revising and reflecting

The possibilities are really endless. VoiceThread is a fun and easy platform that I am will be using with our Grade 3 students soon!

Brunvand, S. & Byrd, S. (2011). Using VoiceThread to promote learning engagement and success for all students. Teaching Exceptional Children, 43(4), 28-37.

Richardson, W. (2010). Blogs, wikis, podcasts and other powerful web tools for classrooms (3rd ed.). Thousand Oaks, Calif.: Corwin.

Rodesiler, L. (2010). Voices in action: The potential of VoiceThread in the media classroom. Screen Education, 59, (72-74).

Vokis are fun!

Voki is a very simple platform for creating talking avatars. Voki Classroom has additional features that make it appealing to teachers - no email required for students, lessons can be set to private, teacher management of classes, no ads, etc. Supporting over 25 languages, Voki is a natural fit for my French Immersion school.


Michael Gorman presents 20 Ways to Use Talking Avatars including:

• book talks
• persuasive speech
• testing
• class announcements
• poetry
• news stories
• test review

In Voki for the Classroom, José Picardo points out that:

"teachers quickly realize that Voki allows students to express themselves on the internet in safety and confidently, as their real identities are hidden behind the avatar.  As far as teaching languages is concerned . . . Voki helps my students improve their oral proficiency in the target language"

William Kist (2010) talks about "new literacies" that feature "work in multiple forms of representation" and "places of student engagement in which students report achieving a "flow" state" (p. 8). Using Voki in with students allows them to represent their learning in a very unique way. For many students, this will be a very comfortable way of presenting, rather than having to stand in front of their class themselves. By putting Vokis on websites and blogs, students are actively participating and publishing on the read/write web. Richardson (2010) says that students must be literate in the ways of publishing if they are to truly take advantage of the power of the read/write web (p. 149). Voki is a simple and fun way to have students enter the realm of publishing.


Kist, W. (2010). The socially networked classroom: Teaching in the new media age. Thousand Oaks, Calif.: Corwin.

Richardson, W. (2010). Blogs, wikis, podcasts and other powerful web tools for classrooms (3rd ed.). Thousand Oaks, Calif.: Corwin.

It's storytime!

A Storybird for storytime,

It doesn't always need to rhyme.

So cute and easy, it's lots of fun.

Pick some art and you're on the run.

Storybird is a lovely application to make beautiful online books. Storybird has a collection of art by numerous artists that are grouped together by theme. You choose the art for your book and get the whole themed collection. Then it is drag and drop - choose a piece of art you like and drag it onto the page of the book. You can shift the location - upper, lower, right or left of page. Then you add text and continue along to the next page. It really is easy to use and the beautiful artwork makes the books look professional.

What's Your Storybird: How to use Storybird  

Teachers can get an Education account (which I did), where they can manage classes, put assignments, etc. You can upgrade for other convenient features as follows.

I absolutely love Storybird! It is so easy to use and the results are so impressive and professional looking. I really want to get working with the Grade 2 and 3s on creating some Storybirds after the break - the nice thing is that we can do it in French!

In this blog post at Edutopia, Aviva Dunsigner, describes using Storybird with Grade 1s and 2s working individually, in partners and even using it during math centres while Stephen Davis uses it with his Grade 8 students (New Teacher Boot Camp Week 3 - Using Storybird).


Anne Coward at Educational Technologies for School Leaders suggests these reasons for using Storybird:

• Encourages reluctant readers to read and write
• Opportunities for students to collaborate and share ideas while they create their own story
• Students are easily able to navigate program to create storybook
• Great images and artwork for students that help inspire a story
• Student Work can be easily accessed to grade and review.
• The created project can be easily shared and downloaded so others can provide feedback or edit
• Embed anywhere i.e. class blogs, websites, email for others to see

On this wiki, http://kditzlerteacherresourcepage.wikispaces.com/Storybird, there is an example of an assignment about adjectives using Storybird. Students must choose an art collection and then create a book using adjectives to describe the art. There are also examples of collaboratively created Storybirds between classes in different parts of the country (USA).

Storybirds are an excellent way for students to engage in new literacies (Kist, 2010; Richardson, 2010). The ability to create and collaborate is critical as we move forward in the rapidly changing environment of learning and technology. Storybird allows students to participate in this read/write web, is fun and easy.

Kist, W. (2010). The socially networked classroom: teaching in the new media age. Thousand Oaks, Calif.: Corwin.

Richardson, W. (2010). Blogs, wikis, podcasts, and other powerful web tools for classrooms (3rd ed.). Thousand Oaks, Calif.: Corwin.

Another bird

Another bird, you can't be for real!

Why not arachnids? They will make a good deal!

Storybird is fun, for kids big and small.

With plenty of great pictures, even you'd like it all.

A day in the sun. by jmclarty on Storybird