Preschool Storybirds: Collaborative Technology Project

Summary of Overall Project and Project Team
My collaborative technology project was called Preschool Storybirds. I worked with a preschool class of 3- and 4-year olds to create their own story on storybird.com. I regularly volunteer at this preschool, reading stories to the children once a week. This project built upon the weekly storytimes, including discussions of the parts of a story and what makes a story good, and culminated with the children making up a story to go along with artwork on storybird.com. I then created a parent letter in which I explained about the project, and directed parents to the children’s story on the site. I also downloaded a pdf of the children’s story from storybird.com and presented it to the teachers to add to the classroom library. The project team included myself; Eileen Zaccone, the director of the preschool; and teachers Ms. Laura and Ms. Lillian.



Needs Assessment
I decided there was a need for this project for two reasons. First, I have noticed that this preschool does not really incorporate any type of technology into their program. As it is a school for 2-5 year olds, I don’t think that this is a huge problem in itself; indeed, I feel it is important to limit screen time for young children, as it can often inhibit their creativity. However, an interactive storytelling website like storybird.com encourages much creativity in its users, and I wanted to encourage the children to be creative in a structured setting. While there is much creativity among the children during free play times at the school, most of their structured time does not allow for as much creativity, whether it be practicing writing letters and numbers, or following directions for a project. Knowing this, I wanted to introduce something new (technology, in the form of storybird.com) to both the children and the teachers. I knew the children would enjoy creating a story, as they are such enthusiastic listeners during storytime, and I hoped the teachers would be inspired as well, to incorporate technology into the classroom, and to encourage more creativity during structured activities.



Goals and Learning Objectives of the Project
The learning objectives were for the children to learn about the different parts of a story, be able to discuss what makes a story good, and learn about how to use the storybird.com website to create a story. The goal was to create a finished story on storybird.com that could be shared with the children’s families as well as the teachers at the school. A secondary goal was for the teachers to become more familiar with storybird.com, and consider using technology to foster creativity in the classroom.



Target Audience
My target audience was a class of 3- and 4- year old students, and by extension, their teachers and families.



Technology Used to Complete the Project
I used a 17” MacBook Pro laptop, connected to the school’s wifi network, to access storybird.com in the school. I had the laptop set up on a low table, and the children and teachers sat around the table in a semicircle so that all could see. After completing the story in the classroom, I downloaded and printed a pdf of the story to put in the classroom library. I also used the goo.gl url shortener to create an easy-to-remember url for parents to access their children’s story online.



Challenges Faced
I faced a few challenges, though none of them serious. The main challenge turned out to be time constraints, due to Hurricane Sandy and the school being subsequently closed for almost a week from October 29-November 1. I had originally planned on discussing the parts of a story during my storytime on November 6, then creating the storybird on November 13. However, the hurricane and closing caused the school’s Halloween celebration and my already-scheduled Halloween storytime to be pushed back a week to November 6, so I didn’t get to introduce my “parts of a story” presentation until November 13, the same day that we created the storybird. In the end, this worked out fine, as the children’s ideas about the parts of a story were fresh in their minds.

Another challenge involved the scope of the project – I had originally planned on creating two Storybirds, with two different classes (the young 3-year olds, as well as the older-3’s and 4-year olds). However, when meeting with director Eileen Zaccone, we decided that because of the lost week when the school was closed, it was best to just go ahead with the project with one class, as their scheduling didn’t permit such a long period of time to be devoted to the Storybird project all on one day.

Finally, the last small challenge was with the technology itself – since the school does not use technology in the classroom, they do not have any screens or monitors. They do have a television on a stand, and I was thinking of using my laptop hooked up to that, since it would probably provide the best sightlines for the children; however, the television was so old that I did not have the proper cables to hook it up. In the end, the laptop-on-the-table arrangement worked fine, especially since it was a large screen laptop.



Results
Overall, I think the project turned out very well. The children were able to identify the different parts of a story – I used as an example one of the books we had just read together – who the characters were, what kind of problem they had, and how they fixed the problem. After discussing this, I next showed the children an example of a storybird that I had previously written, and read it aloud to the group. I showed them the different kinds of art available on the site (though I had preselected the art style for the children’s story). We started writing the children’s story by going over the art, and what the children noticed about the pictures. Then we went back to the first picture, and started writing. The group consisted of eleven children and two teachers, and I was really impressed at the range of ideas the children had, and that pretty much every child contributed ideas to the story, though some were more talkative than others. At first, the teachers threw out a lot of ideas as well, and I was a bit worried that the children would just gravitate towards the children’s ideas, but after a while, the children were more forthcoming with their own ideas and stayed on task, helped by some of my question cues that I asked, such as “Do you think that animal is talking?” or “Where else might they be going in their cars?” After completing the story, we came up with a title, and then I read the story aloud. I let the children and teachers know that I would provide them with a letter to send home with parents the next day, so that the children could show their families their very own story, and even create more stories on Storybird at home. When I did provide the teachers with the parent letter and pdf printout of the story the next day, I was able to further discuss with them the options available on Storybird (making additional stories using other art, ordering a hardcover book of the children’s creation, creating a classroom account). The teachers enjoyed the project very much, and one teacher who was not involved in the actual story creation was very interested in finding out more, and working on a Storybird with her class in the future. I also received positive in-person and email feedback from a few parents who had viewed the story at home with their children.

The main thing I would have done differently would to have been able to create two Storybirds with two different classes. While the hurricane was certainly out of my control, I wished it had not been so rushed at the end so that I could have fit both in. Additionally, in an ideal world, the school would have a newer monitor available for the students to have the very best option for viewing the story, or I would have been able to get the cables together that I would have needed to hook up to their older television.



Reflection on the Experience
I feel that this project helped children learn about how an author creates stories, and showed them a way that stories could be created on the computer, and how computers and technology can be used in their classroom. It helped teachers by giving them some new ideas for creative instruction in general, as well as an impetus for requesting some technology possibilities in their classrooms. It helped the director to see that technology can be used to help creative learning in preschools.

Link to the project:
http://goo.gl/Wa5S6 (shortened link)

http://storybird.com/books/the-elephant-who-flies-in-the-sky/?token=725yrz (actual link)