Storybird Platform Review

   
Storybird logo

Storybird was created in 2010 and was simply a start-up. It began with Michael Ury and his son wanting to make a picture-book for his wife. (Owens, 2013) This sparked in him an idea that would revolutionize story writing and publishing. He and co-founder Kaye Puhlmann, created their start up out of Toronto, but soon gained social media backing from Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr and other sites. This spark of genius, kindled by social media support, began to engulf teachers, parents, and students with a fiery passion for writing and illustrating. The purpose of Storybird is to promote writing and give potential writers a place to create and channel ideas. (About Storybird, 2012) Their target audience, on the surface, seems to be young students, elementary-aged and pre-teens. However, by becoming more familiar with the site, you find yourself, a full-fledged adult, finding ideas for stories and given the option of writing poetry and long stories. 

Video here: http://www.screencast.com/t/8hh7Rjrm

This site is built around the theory of connecting writers with artists (and sometimes other writers) to create visual and engaging stories and literature. It’s framework would best be described as a buffet style approach. Here you have a fully-online (Fully-Online) platform where writers and artists can write and upload at their ease (Emporium) and interact with one another (Replacement) to find what they need from a plethora of ideas and artwork (Supplemental). Hence, a Buffet-style model seems like their approach—which is smart, because Storybird attracts people from all around the world and this provides them with whatever they need to engage in learning and content creation. 

Since this is mostly a “content creation” site, instructional material is not obvious. However, by accessing the “Help” tab, a series of articles with tips and facts is accessible to novices. 

This goes beyond a simple FAQs page, and offers strategies to novices users to help them feel more comfortable and “expert” at using this site. One of the main strengths of this site is its strength of community. Material is available to read, people are available to connect with, and help is available when needed. That is just for writers. For educators, using Storybird as an educational platform, there are how-to videos, slides and images for educators to use (to educate other educators) and testimonials from teachers, parents, students and writers. There is no danger of monotony, either. A blog can be accessed (another form of community) with tips and tricks on how to use Storybird.

Teachers interested in Storybird are able to create and manage classes comprised of students who are invited into virtual classrooms. Assignments can be made, managed and mulled over by instructors.

Students can share and read each other’s work, all with an instructor at the helm. Teachers and students can review, in comment form, each other’s stories—to ensure that comments encourage rather than encumber, teachers can moderate comments. This is an easy-to-navigate site is accessible only by link or website, as there is no app. Michael Ury, co-founder, didn’t want to add to the “nightmare” that app culture is for educators (Owen, 2013). This may discourage some teachers, since it has to been accessed online. Since material has to remain online (physical publishing costs money), students will have to log-in to read material. Physically published material however, can be sold and used as a fundraiser for classes and school.

As mentioned earlier, community is a reoccurring factor in Storybird. Not only are writers all part of a community—which can be accessed by reading their material and “following” them or their accompanying artists. By following an artist you can collaborate with them and request illustrations or gain access to more works. By following an author, you can collaborate on books, poetry and write together. Each book, once published online, can be reviewed—much like a blog is commented on.

Storybird’s blog is constantly updated with content and bolsters the idea of community by allowing users with common questions, needs, and/or ideas to come together and meet, work, and discuss. By creating classrooms, educators can use the power of community at will to improve work.

Technology requirements for this site are really very low. As mentioned earlier, Michael Ury believes in “the power of the link” (Owens 2013), and although no app is yet available, the website is very compatible across different mediums: ipads, tablets, laptops, mobile phones. There are very low technical skills needed to navigate and use Storybird.

As long as a person can “click and drag” images, and type words on a computer, they will master this eLearning site.

References:

Owen, L. (2013, January 24). With 2 million members, Storybird is ‘reverse-engineering’ the picture book. Retrieved April 26, 2017, from https://gigaom.com/2013/01/24/with-2-million-members-storybird-is-reverse-engineering-the-picture-book/

What is Storybird? (2012, November 11). Retrieved April 25, 2017, from http://help.storybird.com/customer/portal/articles/827771-what-is-storybird-

Images:

Storybird logo

[Storybird logo]. (n.d.). Retrieved April 26, 2017, from https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/552115156503646208/YSbBGAeR.png