This morning I had a look at the many online platforms out there that allow users to create their own stories or poems. An online program called Storybird popped up in a list of best presentation tools for students. This intrigued me and I registered with the program to have a bit of a peek at what it had to offer.
As a free registered user, this program allows you to choose and use a variety of illustrations to start building your story- the user chooses a ‘set’ of illustrations in the same theme (often by the same illustrator) to build the pages. Users can access Storybird anywhere with an internet connection and doesn’t require a student log -in so can be used at home and in college.
Storybird is highly user friendly, it is clean and intuitive and works across devices (I had a look at it on my iPad and it was fully functional). Pages can be added in the same way that you may add a slide in Powerpoint- using a plus or minus, to edit or amend your story. Pages can be moved around by clicking on them and dragging them elsewhere. The images can be formatted by a simple drag and drop sequence to cover a full two page spread, half a page (either on the left or right), 3/4′s of the page (either left or right) and 3/4′s of the page (up or down). Each has its own position in which to write the text, the largest spaces allocated to the half page formats and the least (apart from the full spread image) is given to the 3/4 up and down formats.
There are however limitations to the free registration, users are not able to access the embed code for the book unless it is paid for through a paid membership. The program doesn’t allow your own Images to be uploaded, front covers are limited and fonts are not available to edit, all of which I assume are available when a membership is paid for. The membership price, as it stands, is around £7 a day, which for a creative professional or for an educational institute this price would be feasible.
In the short time that I played around with the program I could see the merit of it- particularly for younger students, Level 1 and SEN students. As it is so easy to use this could be a way for these learners to present information, practice creative writing or present poetry is a visual way. Follow the link below to have a look at the short story I created in a short space of time to see if this could be something that you could use with your students.