Thoughts and Ramblings about Storybird

Tonight in class a few colleagues and I created a Storybird story to become familiar with this online tool. Before last week I had never heard of Storybird. It allows educators and students to create their own stories using pictures within certain illustrators' galleries or listen to stories created by other authors. As we experimented with the new tool, there were a few things I really liked and I few things I found difficult. I'll list a few Pros and Cons below.

Pros:
- Allows students to use their imagination
- Only allows pictures from one illustrator for each story so stories look similar to a true published book with one illustrator
- A creative way for students to display their ideas
- Educators can create mini-lessons with a specific goal in mind (i.e. inferencing)

Cons:
- The program does not allow for much editing (i.e. font style, font size, addition of text outside the template, etc.)
- You cannot upload your own pictures and/or student work
- It is hard to maneuver around the site
- No auditory options 

Please do not take everything I say to heart! I am new to this online tool and may need more time experimenting on the site. These were only my first impressions.

Here's the Storybird I created with my colleagues. We created this book with the goal of having our students practice inferencing. See if you can answer the question at the end of our story.





  

Were you able to tell that Susie was really using her imagination for all her travels? She was at home the whole time!

If you use Storybird yourself, let me know what you think!!