Storybird #6: Tips for writing original stories

Storybird is my favourite free story writing application on the web. I use it with my classes all the time, and I love all its tips. This is a great post from the Storybird blog in 2015 on how to write original stories https://goo.gl/bJJSg4 -  I am going to add their ideas here, straight from the blog. Every time I get my classes to write stories I will show them this post.

                                        _____________________________________________

7 tips for writing original stories

"There’s that old saying that claims there are only seven plot lines in the whole world. 

"Below are 7 tips to use when you’re not sure where to begin.

"1. Look at the world around you, and ask “what if” about things we take for granted. What if the sky was red? What if your little brother was actually an alien? What if you found a million dollars?

2. Browse through the artwork on Storybird until a picture jumps out at you and makes you wonder, what’s happening here? Who are these people? Where are they, and how did they get there? What are they going to do next?

3. Start with a character who seems interesting to you. Maybe it is a character who has your same habits or fears or strengths and uses them in meaningful ways. Or maybe it is a character who is nothing like you, and that’s what makes them interesting to write about. How they would approach different situations?

4. Pick a genre, or type of storytelling. Do you like history? Then write about a time or place as it used to be. Do you like fantasy? Then start by thinking about how a world would work if it had different rules than ours, and fill it up with magic or supernatural creatures. Do you like romance? Then take two characters and put a lot of obstacles between them so the way they get together becomes a tale.

5. Ask your friends or family what they like to read, and write a story just for them! (Hint: this is a great Mother’s Day/Father’s Day gift idea.)

6. Solve a mystery. Which one of these characters is hiding a secret? Who is watching whom?

7. Remember those seven plots we mentioned at the beginning of this post? Use them to your advantage. Match a piece of artwork on Storybird with one of the storylines below, and take it for a spin!

- Overcoming the Monster
- Rags to Riches
- The Quest
- Voyage and Return
- Comedy
- Tragedy
- Rebirth"

              ________________________

Some great ideas from Storybird! If you haven't joined your class to Storybird go to www.storybird.com  and do so today!

Storybird #5: December challenge: The Do-over

Storybird is my favourite, free, story writing application on the web www.storybird.com. I use it with my classes all the time, and I love all its tips. I have been adding some of the Storybird challenges to this blog, Storybird to the blog.  Here is the December challenge https://goo.gl/VdLzLP.
                                               _______________________________________

December Challenge: The Do-over

"It’s hard to believe that we’ve almost reached the end of the year. And what a year it has been! We have read thousands of challenge entries and featured nearly 100 (!!!) writers here on the blog in our monthly roundups. But there is one more challenge left, so make it count!

This month, your challenge is to write a single-chapter longform story in response to this writing prompt:

It’s New Year’s Eve and you’ve been given the chance to do one thing over—to turn it all around. Choose wisely!

"With the upcoming holidays, we will be extending the entry period all the way to the end of the month, so you have until December 31st to enter your longform chapter into the challenge. We will post the featured stories in January. Good luck! We can’t wait to read your do-overs.

                                              _______________________________________

Sounds like fun, doesn't it. If you would like to participate in this challenge head over to the Storybird blog https://goo.gl/VdLzLP 

Storybird #4: Types of writing formats to use with Storybird

Storybird is my favourite, free, story writing application on the web www.storybird.com. I use it with my classes all the time, and I love all its offerings. In this post I want to outline the types of formats you can use in Storybird.

1. Create picture books

Picture books are "multi-page books with high visual content and a low word count. As their name suggests, they're ideal for writers looking to make short visual stories and younger students who are flexing their storytelling chops. Readers will find picture books work beautifully on their tablets and laptops, but you'll have to squint a bit to read them on your phone." https://goo.gl/tUHYLR

Here is a video showing how to make a Picture Book.

2. Create longform books

Longform books are "multi-chapter stories with high word counts and not as many pictures. They're ideal for amateur and professional writers looking to engage readers through serialized chapters and mature students looking to master their narrative skills. For readers, longform stories can be easily be read on your phone and you're notified when new chapters are published." https://goo.gl/tUHYLR 

"Chapters are individual Longform 'books'. Once you finish writing them, you can join them together. 

• When the first chapter of a Longform book is published there is a link underneath to begin the next chapter, and this joins the books together automatically.
• If you haven't published the first chapter yet you can still write the next chapter and join them later.
• You can use a different artist for each chapter for the interior art, but they will all share the cover image of Chapter 1.
• When you're on your 'your stuff' screen you can join different chapters together into the same book. They will both need to be published before you can join them. 
• Find the second chapter of your longform book, and click on the gear icon just below the cover, and choose 'edit details'. Once you're on the edit details screen, choose the 'part of an existing book' option and then choose the 'first chapter' book from the list. Click on 'publish' at the bottom, and ta-da! - Chapter 2 has been added to your book." https://goo.gl/R9LTEz 

Here is a video showing how to make a Longform book:

So, if you want your class to write novelettes, Storybird's Longform format is the way to go.

3. Create poems

"Making poems on Storybird is super easy and fun.

• On the art page tap the "Use this Art..." button and select "For Poetry" and the artwork will load into the editor.
• In the editor, drag words onto the art page to create your poem. 
• Use the Refresh button in the bottom-right corner (or the top-right if you're using an iPhone) to refresh/change the words or the art.
• Use the Menu in the bottom-left corner to Publish your poem or leave the app (and discard the poem). Note that, unlike stories, you can't "Save and Close" and edit the poem later. 
• Poems appear on your profile and in your Subscribers' feeds immediately. And, if you add tags to them, they appear in tag collections too. "
  https://goo.gl/4gwssG 

If you haven't yet signed up any of your classes to Storybird, head over to www.storybird.com today and join. Your students will love this application.  

Storybird #3: Join the November challenge

Storybird is my favourite, free, story writing application on the web www.storybird.com. I use it with my classes all the time, and I love all its tips. In my email newsfeed Storybird has posted their November challenge,  It's a lovely idea - "to write a picture book that shows someone that you care."  This is how Storybird words it below - this is taken straight from the Storybird blog:
 https://goo.gl/yceGrv

                                         _______________________________________________

November Challenge: Who Cares?

"There are so many ways to show someone you care. A smile in the direction of a lonely schoolmate. A hug for a friend who’s having a tough day. A phone call to a far-away family member. Here on Storybird, we often use hearts and comments to show our friends and community members that we care about their creations. And every story you create is a sign of how much you care about writing, and creativity, and art.

"This month, your challenge is to write a picture book that shows someone that you care. Maybe it’s a story about a mother and daughter who get in a fight, but ultimately learn to see each other’s perspective. Maybe it’s a story about friendship and beating the odds by working together. Or maybe it’s a tale of two sisters who can’t see eye to eye but share everything else in common.

"As you’re writing this book, think about a real person in your life who you would share this book with. Remember not to include any personal information in the book, like last names, schools, or hometowns. But experiment with what it’s like to share your feelings in a story, and show us how you care.

                                               _________________________________

What a lovely idea from Storybird! If you haven't yet signed up any of your classes to Storybird, head over to www.storybird.com today and join. Your students will love this application. 

Storybird #2: Sign up your class in Storybird - it's free

In my first post I introduced you to one of my favourite writing tools in the classroom, Storybird. You can find it at www.storybird.com. I have used Storybird with great success through the years. The wonderful thing about this tool is that you can sign up your whole class so that you have access to their stories on your dashboard. As a result you can edit the stories and keep a watch on your students' progress.

1. Sign up your class
Once you have joined Storyybird for yourself, the next thing to do is to sign up your class or classes. Since I am a computer teacher this means sign up classes for me. This takes a little bit of time, but once it is done its done. Your students won't need email addresses.

2. First wet your students' appetites... 
Prior to your class logging in to Storybird prepare them on what to expect. I told mine that this is a free program with the most exquisite art.  They don’t need to think of a story before they start – they’ll browse through many images until they see one that inspires them. When they select this image they'll suddenly be surrounded by a large number of other images that match their chosen theme. At the end of their writing they will end up with a lovely e-book. Just to wet their appetities I take them to the latest roll-out of good stories on the Storybird blog, such as this one https://goo.gl/LxY88h or this one https://goo.gl/rmrRFJ  and I give them five to ten minutes to browse through.  They will find a number of exciting titles, such as this one. Click through on the arrows below.

3. Log in to Storybird 
When it is time to get started with Storybird, the class will each log in on their temporary password that you have provided. The first time your students log in to Storybird they will need to update their passwords by changing their passwords to something they’ll remember. Please keep a copy of these as students forget their passwords all the time! What I do here is I already have the class added to Google Classroom.  I create a Google Form that says ‘Storybird’passwords and I put the link into google Claassroom. The students log in to Google Classroom and they each fill in their own form. Google Forms collects all the details and stores them on a single Excel spreadsheet. It is as simple as that.

Whatever method you decide to use - make sure you use it the first time they log in. Then keep the list of the passwords in an easily accessible place.

As they log in they'll notice that one is greeted everywhere by exquisite art.

You can also write poetry on Storybird
Look at this example from https://goo.gl/cDqQmx 

A storybird lesson example
I revise paragraph construction, and especially ways to write descriptive paragraphs, with the class before we start. Descriptive paragraphs include details that appeal to the five senses: sight, taste, touch, smell, and hearing. A good description allows the reader to be a part of your world, to clearly imagine the scene, to feel the sensations, the smells and the tastes of the subject you are writing about.

We also talk about creating exciting headings for stories and different ways of starting killer first lines! The storybird blog has five great examples for this:
1. Start with a shocking statement.
2. Start with an introduction of the character.
3. Start with the character talking directly to the reader.
4. Start with a description of the setting.
5. Start with an interesting fact.
6. Start with clever dialogue.

So get your students started on this fascinating journey of writing stories inspired by pictures. They''ll love it.

Storybird #1: Get to know Storybird

Do you have access to computer devices at school? Do you know about the great, free, easy-to-use online writing tool, Storybird, found at   http://storybird.com/?  It will transform your students' writing - that is what I have discovered at school. Storybird is one of the most popular free tools for digital storytelling in schools around the globe, a MUST in any classroom. You will end up with a room ful of young authors!

What exactly is Storybird?
Storybird is an application that provides simple tools that help one build books in minutes, online. In addition to creating your own book you can read other books that have been created. One of the innovative things that sets Storybird apart from other creative writing applications is that it curates beautiful artwork from illustrators and animators around the world and inspires writers of every age to turn those images into fresh stories. The art inspires the stories. The weakest writer in your class will be inspired to produce a beautiful, professionl looking story in the form of an e-book. The beautiful art will help them to express and develop their ideas and they will be left with a feeling of great success. They will be ble to show their family their stories at home. The stories can be made and viewed as e-books and they can also be purchased as hard cover books. My students love using this application. You can also use Storybook to fundraise for your school. Find out about this at http://storybird.com/fundraisers

Watch this short video (4.49 mins) that takes a walkthough of Storybird.

In our next post we’ll look at how to easily get your class signed up to Storybird.

Selected as a Microsoft Innovative Educator Expert for 2018...

Got the news today that I have been selected as a Microsoft Innovative Educator Expert – for the third year in a row! Yay!!! The email says, “...You are part of an elite group of educators in South Africa or Lesotho as well as globally who have taken the plunge and are experimenting with new ways of teaching and learning for your students, and exploring the role that Microsoft technology can play in this journey. Our most active Microsoft Innovative Educator Experts will stand a chance to win an all-expenses paid trip to the annual Global Educator Exchange Event being held in Seoul, South Korea in March 2018. Educators that have attended one of the 12 previous global forums have returned to their schools changed teachers with a whole new perspective on what is possible in their schools. We will also be hosting a local Educator Exchange in May 2018 so if you don’t get chosen to attend the Global event, you will still have an opportunity to join about 50 local teachers for 2 days of fun and learning in May 2018.” Excited!

Webinar recording and presentation download link 'Digital storytelling as a means to encourage students to write' by Fiona Beal

On Thursday 28th September at 3:15pm SchoolNet held a webinar which was presented by ypurs truly - me! The webinar was entitled ‘Digital storytelling as a means to encourage students to write'

Webinar description
This is how i described the webinar when it was being advertised: 'The world is changing. The way we write is changing! This is where digital storytelling comes in. Digital storytelling is a great way to give your students a creative way to tell their stories, and to get them to see the stories all around them in everyday life. In this webinar we will look at an overview of digital storytelling including how the Internet is changing writing. We’ll look at some key resources as well as useful free storytelling tools that one can use. Lastly we’ll discuss some simple ways of introducing digital storytelling in your classroom as well as some more advanced methods of creating a digital story. Perhaps you can share an idea or two of how you use digital storytelling in the classroom or in your life, if you attend this webinar?

The downloadable webinar presentation
Here is the downloadable presentation from the webinar available online in SlideShare from this link:

Digital storytelling as a way of encouraging writing - by Fiona Beal from Schoolnet SA

Webinar recording

The webinar recording can be listened to and viewed on the following YouTube link: (still to be added)

Hooray - I have started a Writng for Life Connect group...

Guess what! Our church has started Connect groups (in addition to cell groups) so that we can get to know folk who have the same interests as we do. I have always wanted to start a writing group SO... I took the plunge! Eighteen folk joined my monthly writing group called ‘Writing for Life’. We had our first meeting on the first Saturday afternoon of May and it was a really enjoyable, interactive, writing afternoon. I used many of  my tips and tricks from teaching writing at school. I think many of us were surprised that we could write so well! The goal is to craft a short story by the end of the year amid lots of fun, laughter, writing and sharing.

So, let's tell the story in pictures and words. 

Here is the advert for the Writing for Life group which is placed with the other groups on the church notice board. 

My goals for the group
I attended  a five-day 'short story' writing course at UCT Summer School this year and I think that really motivated me to want to start a group. I also belong to the Fish Hoek Scribblers which meets once a month. Basically, what I want to achieve is to get everybody understanding the basics of a short story and also to discover that they actually can write.

Our May meeting
As mentioned, our first meeting took place on the first Saturday afternoon of May and I was thrilled at the turn out. We meet in the coffee shop. At this meeting we got to know each other in a fun, interactive way and we delved into characterisation in stories.

Here are some photos from the May meeting.

This collage is a collection from Facebook

I had some lovely comments from folk by sms and  Whatsapp after the group which encouraged me immensely.

- Thank u soo much for a fun afternoon Fiona. These sessions teach us so much in such a lovely non threatening enviroment. You are real good at what u do girl!!!🌹

- Hi, Fiona, You offered such a lovely course today.  Thank you.  And sure, I may be an encourager bu be assured that I only congratulate when congratulations are due.  Be assured that I only congratulate when congratulations are due. You should, my dear lady, hear me complain :).  Then you'd know EXACTLY what I'm talking about :). SO looking forward to your next session. Peace, love and blessings 

- Hi Fiona, I enjoyed the first writing group today, and then forgot to ask when the next one will be.

- Hi Fiona, I wanted to thank you for the wonderful class and interaction that we had today. Thank you for taking the initiative and bringing us together as a group. 

- Hi Fiona, had a great time. Thank you, I will definitely be back! 

- People really enjoyed writing and I think surprised themselves

Our June meetingIn our June meeting we went on to PLOT before we did SETTING. We also moved venue to the small hall which has a big TV screen so that I can run a PowerPoint etc. I just loved the meeting! The focus, as mentioned, was on PLOT in a story and we came up with great ideas. We looked at different ways of getting inspiration for a story and tried out a few of them.

Here is the advert followed by a collage I put on Facebook.

Once again I received many positive thank yous that really warmed my heart.

Our July meeting
I decided to continue with PLOT in July as I had a really good idea for writing a children's story. We looked at hooks for children's stories and how to write good openings and endings. It was a real fun session. As one person noted ina thank you 'it was my most significant yet'. At this point I haven't downloaded photos from the afternoon, but I will do so soon.  Here is the advert:

And so...next up will be our August session. 

. 

Using Minecraft: Education Edition as a tool to demonstrate the solution in a problem-based learning activity at the Microsoft E2 event

This is a cross post of a post I wrote for the SchoolNet blog recently. This was such an exciting experience for me that I have to keep a record of it!

Last month I had the privilege of attending at the amazing Microsoft Educator Exchange (E2) Africa Forum in Johannesburg as a #MIEExpert Educator. The E2 had the theme of #Makewhatsnext and it was held at Microsoft’s headquarters in Johannesburg.  I was excited about the emphasis that would be placed on using Minecraft: Education Edition as an educational tool in our classrooms. As it turned out, the #MIEExpert Educators and the other invited guests completed a problem-based learning activity in groups using Minecraft: Education Edition as a tool to demonstrate how we would solve the problem we had identified. This was a great learning experience which I often think back on, and, in this post, I want to write about it and explain how we went about using Minecraft: Education Edition in our group project.

Problem-based learning is a variation of project-based learning. It is  a great way for everybody in the group to learn together. It facilitates active learning, critical thinking, collaboration, and creativity. Dr Preetha Ram says “Problem-based learning enables students to embrace complexity and joy in their learning, and enhance their capacity to make creative contributions to real-world problems."

As soon as we registered at the Forum we were given our seating arrangements and I was placed in Group 6 with four other members. This always works well at an event like this as you get to know and work with a new group of friends.  Quite a bit of the two day Forum was devoted to seeing how Minecraft: Education Edition can challenge and develop critical thinking in a classroom setting. Our problem-based learning sessions were facilitated by the awesome Minecraft: Education Edition Guru, Stephen Reid from Scotland who was an entertaining and knowledgeable presenter.  He was aided by Dominique Cave from South Africa, the only Minecraft: Education Edition Global Mentor in Africa.

Group 6 - I am taking the photo

The problem-based learning activity we were set was in the form of a competition - the winning group would win devices! Group 6 was determined to win…in other words our competitive edge was stirred! We were very fortunate in our group to have a Minecraft: Education Edition Expert as part of our group - Matthew Hains, a teacher from Crawford College. He’s a real techie kind of guy with the type of skills every group member longs to have. He was a great asset with helping us all work together to build our Minecraft model. We also had a project-based learning expert in Charmaine Roynon from Wynberg Girls’ Junior School.

So, how did we go about our project-based learning experience?

The task:
This was our task: "Come up with a problem you have observed in South Africa and demonstrate how you will solve this, using Minecraft: Education Edition. Present your solution on a Sway or as an Office Mix."

The tools
We decided to use:
a) A shared online OneNote notebook to work on. OneNote is very suited to problem-based learning as you can share content, images, videos etc very easily if you have a good Internet connection. 
b) Then there was Minecraft: Education Edition which we would use to demonstrate our solution. A Minecraft world had already been created for us by Stephen Reid.
c) The final product was to be presented on a Sway or an Office Mix. 

Step 1: Identify the issue
As a group we brainstormed problems in South Africa. Of course there were many! We then narrowed it down to three and eventually voted for one. Since we were all teachers it was probably natural to vote for the issue of many under-resourced schools in the country.

Step 2: Create the driving  question

The next step was to create the driving question related to our inquiry. A driving question is one that captures the heart of the project by providing the purpose of the inquiry and by using clear and compelling language. The question should drives the participants to discuss, inquire, and investigate the topic. Here is a useful post from Edutopia on how to create driving questions. What do you think of ours? “How can we address the problem of under-resourced schools in our country in a sustainable way?'

 Step 3: Brainstorm  
This step involved brainstorming what we would include in our under-resourced school to provide the needed resources. Here are some of the ideas we came up with.  We discussed these at length.

Step 4: Use Minecraft to demonstrate the solution

Now it came to the part of building using Minecraft; Education Edition to demonstrate our solution.

Stephen had taught us some of the basics so that we knew how to move around our Minecraft world.

We each appeared as little characters in the Minecraft world and we could see what each one in the group was doing at any stage.

We divided up the solutions we had thought of, and each one in the group built theirs (with loads of help from Matthew.) We had to take screenshots of the different objects that we built as proof of our solutions, and Matthew captured these for us and labelled them on the final PowerPoint.

Here is Matthew  capturing and labeling the screenshots for our group.

This is me getting Minecraft tips from Matthew!

We (actually Matthew again) then created a video of what we had done using Minecraft: Education Edition and we embedded this video into the PowerPoint. Here is our video.

Step 5: Present your solution

The important thing when you present solutions is to have some relevant role players present – the people who could make this solution happen as we present. These people could even be invited in via Skype.

Step 6: Give the project a title
We decided on the title of ‘A self-sustaining school.’

When it came to presenting our solutions using Sway or Office Mix, we decided on Office Mix. But, alas,  ours just wouldn’t upload. I am sure it had something to do with our embedded video. So we had to make a snap decision with only two minutes to go to hand in our PowerPoint as it was. There was no time to make a Sway instead. 

In the classroom setting there would be a rubric involved for assessment purposes, but for our session the judges were going to choose the best one. (Charmaine in our group provided us with a great rubric to take back to our classes for assessing problem-based learning activities.)

Winners
No! It wasn’t our group, sadly!  Here is the winning team below – they will each get sent a device as a gift from Microsoft.  There wasn’t time for us to see their presentation, unfortunately,  but it had something to do with outer space.  Below this image is another image of the winning team on the stage (captured by Tim Attwell) along with Sonja Delafosse from Microsoft USA and Stephen Reid from Immersive Minds in Scotland.

The winning group!

This problem-based learning activity was a great learning experience. I really felt like I was starting to understand Minecraft: Education Edition and its many possibilities in the context of education.

The final presentation
Here is our final presentation. I have embedded our PowerPoint from OneDrive.

                             . 

Challenge at the end
This screenshot of Sonja’s final challenge really got me thinking.  Coding and computational thinking has to become part of our thinking as teachers in South Africa. 

Use Microsoft Sway to introduce yourself on the Microsoft Educator Community...

This is a cross-post of a post I wrote for the SchoolNet blog https://goo.gl/w4YHxE . 

Recently, in a professional development session with a school staff in Bellville, I introduced a group of educators to Microsoft Sway. They were delighted with the application after creating a Sway introducing themselves. The plan was to then join Microsoft’s great one-stop-for-all space, the Microsoft Educator Community, and add the Sway they had created to their profile. I thought I would capture this process in a blogpost.

What is Sway?

Microsoft Sway is Microsoft’s newest, creative, free, online presentation tool released in August 2015, Sway allows users who have a Microsoft account to combine text and media to create an online presentation that includes text, images, audio, video, tweets and documents.

                         

How do you access Sway?
Sway can be accessed in a number of ways:
1) Via Office 365
2) Via OneDrive
3) Via http://sway.com

How can I learn to use Sway?
The best way to learn how to use Sway is to go to the Course section on the Microsoft Educator Community http://bit.ly/1T2eZEN where there is a free Introduction to Sway course that should take you from 45 minutes to 2 hours to do (if you are creating a Sway as you go through the videos on the course). You’ll find it at http://bit.ly/2lut4BC it will also give you 500 points on the Microsoft Educator Network. Take a look at this Sway course. It is very worthwhile to work through. This is what you’ll learn:

• How to create a Sway from start to finish
• How to collaborate with others on a Sway 
• How to share your finished Sway with others 

What can you do with Sway?
You can use Sway very effectively in a classroom as long as you have Internet access. It can be used to create and share interactive reports, make presentations of various kinds, create personal stories, create digital stories, create assignments, present study materials, present portfolios, do project recaps, create newsletters… The possibilities are endless. Best is that this can be done right from a phone, a tablet or a browser. Learners can collaborate on Sway and they can share their Sways with the rest of the class or a wider community. It is perfect to use as an introduction to yourself as the educators on the training mentioned above discovered.

How can I share a Sway?
It's super easy to share a Sway. Grab a link and send it by email.

What is some of Sway’s terminology?
You'll come across words like Storyline, Preview, Card, and Remix,

Create your own Sway
Why not do a task like the one below to create a Sway about yourself, and add it to your profile on the Microsoft Educator Community to gain extra points? As we go through this I will show you how I did it with my Microsoft Educator Community Sway. (Note: This is only one way to do it – you can use your imagination and do something completely different!)

1. Start with a title and add a photo of yourself as the background
When you open Sway you’ll see this template on your opening page:

After adding your Title Text, add an image to the section on the left labelled Background.  This can be searched for using the Search Sources box on the left if you wish to add an online image. This will search through Creative Commons images. However, If you go to the tab that says Suggested you’ll be able to upload an image from your computer. To do this click on Background,  Suggested (top left)  and My device (bottom). Upload your desired photo.

The result could be something like what is shown below.

2. Add text information about yourself in the next card

Click on the green diamond + icon under your finished title card and select the Text option.  Write about yourself in this card so as to introduce yourself to other teachers from other parts of the world who may want to collaborate with you.

 Here is my example:

3. Add an image and give an explanation about the image

For the next card, click on the green diamond plus icon, choose Image and upload an image from your device.

You can simply add a caption for your image, but you can also add an explanation of the image which is what I have done.

Here is my example. I added three photos in the way I described above.

Add three photos like I have done. Make one an image with an explanation and the other two images with longer text.

3. Add a video

There are several ways to add a video. Go to Cards – Video to add your video. Another way would be to click the green plus, and select three dots and video. From there you would click the Add the video button. Add your suggestion for online links. Once you have found the video drag it into the video box.

However, if you want to add a video from your device go to Suggested, My Device, and find the video on your device.

 Add two videos with an explanation like I have done.

4. Add a tweet
This gives you extra points on the Microsoft Educator Community.

This video takes you through the process of adding a tweet.

Here is my example

5. Finalise your Sway

Finalise your sway by adding a text card with a closing paragraph.

There you have it. All you need to do now is add your Sway to your profile on the Microsoft Educator Community. There are prompts to take you through this.

This is what you’ll see once it is done. Here is a link to the final Sway https://goo.gl/eJe02g 

Spend some time getting to know this great application, Sway. It's different! It is great!