Not long after Bezos left the stage in NY, our art director sent this around. I sighed. We’ll actually/finally have to consider Android, too. [Shakes fists at sky] Damn you Jeff. Your Kindle is on fire.
One of the many reasons we love Tom.
We’re excited to announce the launch of Pro Teacher accounts.
Pro Teacher takes Storybird to a new level for schools. It gives teachers tools designed to make their use of the platform easier, faster, and more enjoyable.
The key ingredients in Pro are:
- a centralized Review dashboard to quickly manage all your activity
- the ability to comment on unpublished/in-progress stories
- an alternate “text only” view to focus on writing components
- grading tools that can assign number or letter grades
- digital stickers to reward students for a job well done
- bulk account creation via cut & paste or uploading of the class list
- printable student login cards and class lists
- class archiving
There’s also a Pro Plus account that adds:
- class linking, which enables students from across classes to collaborate and read/comment on each other’s work
- 20 free PDF downloads
Here’s the FAQ if you want to dig into details.
The introduction of Pro and Pro Plus creates an entry-level plan for teachers called Forever Free. Forever Free includes all the basics that have made Storybird a hit with over 45,000 schools in just one year. These include:
- class management
- assignments (now with the ability to upload Storybirds as the assignment theme)
- a private, safe environment
- embeds that work on any HTML wiki or blogging platform
- all the Storybirds you can eat
- the fundraiser platform
- free!
Our philosophy for these three plans is simple:
- Forever Free for teachers who occasionally use Storybird
- Pro for educators who regularly use Storybird and want more tools and resources
- Pro Plus for heavy users with lots of classes
Here’s the plan grid for a quick comparison.
In building the Pro infrastructure, we made a few key changes to the overall teacher/class/student footprint. These are:
- Student accounts are now ONLY student accounts. Our previous mixed state caused confusion. Who owned the account? The teacher who created it or the student who used it? Now it’s clear: a student account is owned by the teacher. And if the student wants a personal account, they can create their own with the blessing of their parents.
- Classes, and the stories inside them, are private. Before, students could choose to publish “personal” work from their student accounts to the public library. This caused confusion since teachers weren’t sure what “public” actually meant and students, worried that their classmates couldn’t find their work, kept changing their class settings from “school” to “public.” Now, everything generated by students is private. However, thanks to a new “class graph,” we enable Student A to find and read Student B’s work via search, on their profile, or in the public library. Everything “seems” public even while it’s completely private—and safe. (PS. Teacher can still embed stories on their blogs and wikis.)
- A 30-student limit for Forever Free accounts. We studied our data and found that the majority of teachers had registered 15-2o students into their class. A limit of 30 gives the vast majority of teachers the ability to use Storybird free of charge, a point that is very important to us (and, presumably, them).
These changes, some tweaks to Forever Free, and the introduction of Pro and Pro Plus are a big step forward in our goal to be an indispensable resource for teachers who want to inspire their students to write and read better.
We hope you enjoy using these tools as much as we did making them.
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After some fits and starts, we finally have momentum on an iPad app we like and a fall release schedule. Version 1 will be focused on reading/consumption and include a key feature we don’t yet offer on the web: the ability to follow your friends/favorite authors.
I’ve been playing with the interim builds and am impressed. The interactions are slick and the stories look gorgeous. What I’m most jazzed about is how the app crystallizes the idea of Storybird as a real-time publishing platform. You won’t buy a book app that’s ignored two days later. You’ll buy a lifeline to the Storybird community and a never-ending stream of stories and art that changes in tempo and mood day after day.
I’m proud of the work the team is doing and excited to get this into living rooms and classrooms around the world.
Chicago artist and designer Christian Jasckson’s take on minimalist children’s classics. See the set.
We are in awe—nay, gobsmacked—by the work of designer, illustrator, and hand-letterer Caroline Hadilaksono. Art-deco travel posters for Hogwarts turns out to be a perfect combination of form and subject, not to mention an incredible showcase for the LA artist. See how she made these here. Buy these posters or postcards here.
LA artist Claire Hummel sets the fashion record straight on the Disney Princess empire, reinterpreting seven heroines with authentic period costume.
“Oh, Pocahontas. Really not one of my favorite Disney films, but it posed an interesting challenge. Note that this is the Disney character, not the historical figure, so while I tried to make the outfit accurate to 17th century Powhatan clothing she is, most definitely, not a 12-year-old. It’s my happy middle ground when drawing a historical version of an inaccurate portrayal of a historical person. That’s a mouthful. My one big cheat on this was her necklace — the shell necklace should in theory be a deep purple (turquoise is a much more Southwestern commodity), but you lose so much of the Pocahontas visual identity without the splash of teal around her neck.”
See the full set and more of her narration at Flavorwire.
Japanese artist Shintaro Ohata playfully mixes 2D paintings with 3D sculptures to create an intangible effect that is utterly tangible. Via MyModernMet.
