Storybird

I'm exploring options of digtal story telling at present and woul like to use storybird. I've just signed up and had a little look around and it looks pretty self explanatory so far but one thing I may have missed is that if you want to write a story based on a theme rather than just being inspired by a particular artist how do you you do it?!

MY grade 3 class are exploring migration and are looking at a range of stories where children have had to move to a new home in a new country. I'd like the children to use storybird to either write their own migration story or create a story based on a real event.

Forgive me if I have missed a search by theme option!

Any help from storybirders with more experience will be greatly appreciated!

Tags: digital, story, storybird, telling

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Permalink Reply by David Anthony Procter on October 2, 2011 at 6:58pm

Thanks for getting back to me Elizabeth! i will try the search option and keep track of the tags. It's overwhelming with the huge amount of art available. Have a fine week!

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Permalink Reply by Colleen Young on October 2, 2011 at 11:41pm

There is indeed a great selection of art available - definitely worth taking the time to explore. I found it helpful looking at other stories to examine authors' choices of Art.

It sounds like you don't need them David - but other people might like Russell Stannard's training videos.

I have put various links here including my favourite story from my students - 7S: Their Amazing Story of the Wikispaces (this came about when I said we should document our use of various web tools - three of them asked if they could write a story!)

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Permalink Reply by David Anthony Procter on October 4, 2011 at 10:42pm

Dear Colleen,

Thansk very much for the help and I will check out the videos and have a good look at what's available. It's kind of crazy investigating digital resources as I've found recently wehn using applications for the first time that I spend a considerably longer time researching than actual teaching!

Thanks again,

David

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Permalink Reply by Katy Scott on October 5, 2011 at 1:11pm

I love Storybird, though sometimes I do feel boxed in by the available art. Have you tried Little Bird Tales? It's another great resource for digital storytelling with younger kids. If you're interested, you can get more info on it (and a few other storytelling websites) here.

Good luck!

Katy Scott

Stretch Your Digital Dollar

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Permalink Reply by David Anthony Procter on October 5, 2011 at 7:39pm

Thanks Katy, I'll check out the links.

Having your creativity boxed is far from ideal especially with children but in terms of learning to structure a story I think SB might be quite useful.

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Permalink Reply by Michael on October 5, 2011 at 5:13pm

Hi David,

I just stumbled onto Storybird through your post, and I have to say it looks like a lot of fun. But there's one thing I don't quite understand: Can I upload art work and then create a story or am I limited to the artwork that is available on the site?

Thanks!

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Permalink Reply by kathy hunt on October 5, 2011 at 6:16pm

You are limited by the artwork shown. If you want to create artwork you can but they have to okay your submission and then it is offered to the general public.

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Permalink Reply by David Anthony Procter on October 5, 2011 at 7:41pm

Hi Michael,

It doesn't look like you can upload your own art which is a genuine shame.

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Permalink Reply by kathy hunt on October 5, 2011 at 6:15pm

I posed this exact question to the creators of the site and they responded that was not the purpose of the site. The site was created with the artist in mind. I teach technology in our school. I worked with both the 3rd and 5th grade to create a story thru online collaboration. This was during the 2010-2011 school year (spring). At that time you could not print out the stories without purchasing the book thru them (very costly). On the bright side the students did enjoy creating the books and reading books created by their classmates.