Monday, 2 June 2014

Storybird

Create a picture book & learn a new piece of software
Storybird is an online book creation software that is very easy to use, even though there is the annoying step of having to register. Storybird provides thousands of pictures that children can place on “pages” and then write sentences next to them to create a story. The illustrations provided can be very beautiful and make the end products something any child could be proud of. In terms of use in a library, it would work best as an activity in computer literacy for children in grades 1-3 to do, most likely with their parents in attendance because of the necessity of having an email address.
I created a very simple, very short story as a method of learning to use the software and was pleased with the result, though I am perfectly aware I am not the best storyteller. The process was quite quick and I found the software to be quite intuitive, though I was annoyed there was only one layout for the front cover if not paying for the “Premium” service. The premium service did not seem to add much functionality and the software could be used quite well without paying a cent for it.
As it is online, it means that the software could be used at the library, then when at home, the child would be able to go online and see their work published. From an educational perspective, it could also be used in English lessons on story writing with the end product being something they could proudly show off to family and friends all over the world.

From a professional standpoint, I could see using this as a vacation program activity for young children. 

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