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storybird:

Storybird is a Web 2.0 tool that allows you to make your own stories and collaborate on stories with other people. Perhaps you are a poet and you know someone else who has a keen eye for graphic design and visual arts or drawing graphic narratives. Together you can collaborate and create fantastic digital stories and visual portraits with just a joining of minds and a click of a finger. You don't have to even be sitting down together at the same computer! You can start a Storybird, invite a friend or colleague, and then he or she can log on from another computer and make changes. It's kind of like a wiki in this way...

The website states, "Storybirds are short, visual stories that you make with family and friends to share and (soon) print" (Storybird). If I start a story, titled let's say reflections, I could invite my wife or anyone else I choose to become a collaborator on the story. Once a collaborator is invited to work on a story, they can then access the technology. The templates are pre-established by various artists, so you choose an artist and begin the process. Storybird is fairly easy to use and could be used with all ages of students.

Current teachers are using this tool with children as young as kindergarten. Susan Haninger said, "I have used it to write a silly, simple little story about same and different and used it with a kindergarten class. We had a wonderful time with it” (Classroom 2.0 "Storybird"). Another teacher on the online, Ning forum "Storybird" had success using it with fourth graders.

Storybird, in a word, is fantastic. Check out my reflections piece if you have time. (You can click on the hyperlink from the word "reflections" above or click on the image below to view the story from Storybird's website). I just took a poetic verse and whipped up four pages to have an experience with this wonderful Web 2.0 tool. It's a tool that children, young and old, will have a great time exploring while learning some vital lessons of collaboration.