Using Storybird to teach writing

The goal of this research was to identify and discuss the effectiveness of using Storybird, a Web 2.0 tool, in a graduate-level early childhood education method course. Teacher candidates were required to write a 3-4 pages of reflection paper on using Storybird in their learning as well as in their practice teaching. Teacher candidates were also invited to a focus group discussion after the course ended. For the first semester, a group of 6 out of 17 students participated in the focus group discussion; and for the second semester, a group of 7 out of 19 students participated in the focus group discussion.As the data revealed, teacher candidates stated that Storybird greatly improved their interests and engagement in this course. They also found that StoryBird was a useful tool for teaching writing because it could be used for complete writing process from peer collaboration to editing and final publishing. In addition, teacher candidates identified students as young as Pre-K could benefit from this web-based application because that Storybird greatly encouraged students to write individually as well as collaboratively. The paper concludes with implications that digital technologies such as StoryBird not only contribute to pre-service teachers’ learning experiences and the content knowledge, but also enrich PK-12 classroom practices which increase the likelihood of students meeting the technological demand of their future personal and professional lives.