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storyjumper

Mindprint Rating

Tags

ELA: Writing ^Music, Art and Makerspaces ^21st Century Skills K-8 Website

Skills

Flexible Thinking Expressive Language Organization Social Awareness Verbal Reasoning

Mindprint Expert Review

Pros

  • Clean, easy-to-use interface with bright colors and appealing features.
  • Children might enjoy reading other children's stories which is easily accessed on the site.
  • Encourages children to write creatively and narrate their books aloud using the recording feature.

Considerations

  • Users will need to pay to print books.
  • Younger students may need adult help with text and features.
  • Adults should be careful to oversee what children have published. There are a number of child authors who have posted personal photos with name of their school and location.

Mindprint Expert Review

This is a wonderful site for children to create original e-books. Creating and sharing books online is completely free, but users will need to pay to print books. Children create personal storybooks by dragging and dropping colorful images from the site or from their own personal images and then adding their own unique text. They can also record and narrate their books. The site uses a clean and simple interface, though younger children might still need adult support. Younger children might find it easiest to use one of four templates (All About Me, The Monster, ABC's of ... and Hero), while older students will likely prefer to create a completely original book. Students might also enjoy reading and commenting on other users' books which can be searched by category: Family, Friends, Love, Pets and Values. Students can save their books directly on the site or publish them to the storyjumper online community which includes books in Spanish, French, Portuguese, and Polish as well as English. However, adults should be cautious about publishing "so everyone in the world can discover and enjoy your story" if children have published books with personal photos and information. Overall, storyjumper is simple, enjoyable way to get children writing.

Academic Benefits

Improves academic skills

  • Provides sufficient and varied types of practice problems to maximize understanding and generalization of the targeted skill/concept
  • Manufacturer claims alignment with Common Core/Known Standards
  • Presents educational concepts accurately
  • Explains answers so students can learn from mistakes
  • Better for teaching the skill to new or struggling learners
  • Better for practicing or refreshing the skill
  • Skills are practiced through authentic, meaningful problems (not just rote practice)

Fun

Engaging for the Mindprint recommended age range

  • Appropriate for a broad age range to use and enjoy
  • Subject matter and problems are relevant, interesting and authentic to students
  • Visually appealing to children in the target age range
  • Provides virtual rewards or incentives after meeting specified goals or objectives
  • Provides a "break activity" between academic problem sets
  • Offers ongoing, progressive challenge
  • Overall - Enjoyable. Given the option, students would choose this option

Easy to Use

Understandable for children in the Mindprint recommended age range

  • Has a free or trial version
  • Provides teaching guidance for adults to support the child and set appropriate goals
  • Provides an age-appropriate tutorial/first time users can work independently
  • Student should be able to use independently after first use
  • Has a multi-player option to foster in-person collaboration or cooperation
  • Multiple users can save a profile
  • Student graduates to the next level or topic only after meeting a benchmark
  • Can play without sound and not distract others
  • Students can save work between sessions
  • Can effectively understand and monitor student's progress (email report or in product)
  • Requires registration before using the first time
  • Provides options to play in languages other than English/Good for ELL
  • Presents information in multiple formats (voice over, pictures and text, etc.)
  • Overall - Easy to use