Storybird Reflection

ISTE NETS-T Standard 3: 

• B. Collaborate with students, peers, parents, and community members using digital tools and resources to support student success and innovation.

Storybird addresses the above standard by allowing the students to interact with people outside of their own classroom. Whether it be someone they already know, will soon meet, or a face they may never see creating a story with them, they are able to see how people who may be in different places can work together to accomplish a common goal.

In today's world, the way people work together is different than it has ever been in the past. With all of the technology available, people no longer all have to work in the same office building to be a part of the sasme company. People from all over the world are able to come together to work on projects, help one another troubleshoot, and collaborate or guide members to carry out certain tasks. In the article Technology Enhanced Collaborative Learning they said, "[a]fter working for over a year on the bulldozer, he posted the problem on the company's web forum and received an immediate solution from an engineer in California who had had the same problem." In this example, two employees that had never met were able to solve a problem together just by collaboration through technology. There are so many advantages to this useful tool and students should be learning ways now to use this in their future.

(2009). Technology Enhanced Collaborative Learning. Retrieved from https://docs.google.com/

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These resources that we have used, such as Skype, Storybird, and Edmodo, are wonderful ways to get students involved in the classroom. However, they will help them so much more than that. Our world is constantly changing, and to get ahead or even keep up, you have to be updated with the knowledge of the latest technology. Chances are that by the time the children we have in class get into the workplace, things will be completely different than they are now in ways unfathomable by our minds. Yet if we continue to keep ourselves and our students "in the know" of what is coming next and learning the new tools available to us, then it will make the transition into that new technology so much simpler.