Digital Storytelling

After looking at both options, I then looked at Michael Kauls's Zooburst and Heather Martell's Storybird projects to decide which one I wanted to try first.  Since Michael's was sort of an "all about me," and that's what I did for my Prezi, I decided to look at Storybird first.  Plus, I thought it might foster writing in my classroom.

I opted for the beta version of the poetry creating tool.  I was not impressed.  Once I chose a picture, then a bunch of words popped up on either side (like the magnets you would use on your refrigerator).  I chose some words, and then clicked to get more words, and all of my original words chosen disappeared.  The words hardly went with the picture, too -- they just seemed random.  You could change the colors of the words, but whoop-de-doo.

I know I could go back and try a story instead, as Heather did, but she wasn't very impressed.  Plus, I only get four more freebies.  So I'm gonna go look at Zooburst.

I'm disappointed, because this COULD have been a great tool for elementary-aged students, even with the stock images, but it's just not user friendly and doesn't allow for much creativity.

OK, here is my ZooBurst story.  I enjoyed this medium MUCH more.  It allowed for a lot more creativity and personalization.  I think it would be a great way to get students motivated to write, structure their writing, and want to read others' writing.  I think for third grade, the students would have to mostly use the stock pictures, because copying/pasting downloaded pictures might be problematic.  But, using stock photos would be a start!!!