Storypark

Wonderful Communication - Feels Like I'm There!

Kommentare: Overall, I loved using Storypark. I felt like I was literally at daycare with my nephew day in and day out. Anytime I wanted to check in on him, all I had to do was open the app! No need to call and ask about what he is doing or learning!

Vorteile:

I used this software to keep up with my nephew's progress while he was at preschool. On the app, I was able to see pictures, updates, and more. This made the line of communication so easy between me and the teachers, as I was able to post updates and ask questions, while they were able to post updates and respond to comments if necessary. It kind of felt like a timeline with graphics.

Nachteile:

I can't say that I really found any cons with story park, except that maybe there should be a feature where you can turn off comments on photos.

Basic app for tracking your kids day.

Kommentare: Very basic app doing its job but could be better. So many features are missing like bulk download, sharing albums with family etc

Vorteile:

Best part of this app is getting activities and routines of your kid daily.

Nachteile:

There is no feature to download all pictures captured during the day and downloading individual picture is a bit hectic task.

Storypark pros and cons

Kommentare: Once we learned to found our way around Storypark and used the mindset of not being scared or time poor to try things out, we haven't looked back.
The webinars and online videos are really useful. The help feature is great! Storypark operators are really prompt and we have used them often.
Keep improving Storypark.

Vorteile:

Storypark has been a fantastic way to engage with parents and whānau. Educators put a lot of passion into writing assessments. When I get a notification from a parent or extended family member ( sometimes from the other side of the world) about something I've posted about a child, it feels like formative assessment and not just another story in their portfolio. Community posts have been a great way to reach all of our parent community, or particular groups with information about upcoming events, readings, newsletters etc. Planning feature. Plans can be added too and shared with parents and seek their input. We share agendas and minute our staff, health and safety and termly planning meetings. We create individual plans for children or positive guidance plans to share with parents. Great to be able to link to stories, photos, notes and pdfs etc! We use child notes to communicate privately with parents. Each term we invite parents to share their aspirations and many do. Our kindergarten association has a community too and we receive posts from them about professional development, policy reviews and other important information that used to clutter up our inboxes. We share a monthly plan on here with our GM as a strategic update to help communicate what is going on in our individual kindergartens. We now do our appraisals on Storypark planning and are now looking at using the portfolio feature for evidence gathering.

Nachteile:

There needs to be a better way to edit our assessments when printing to utilise A4 paper efficiently. Make them aesthetic, they look awful on paper. More than 2 photos and the photos are too small. and there is 1/2 empty page! My colleagues all use 'Pages' to get a nice looking assessment and then upload pdfs, but that is time consuming. We want to be able to edit our online documents to create nicely printed documents. This would really maximise the time we have for writing assessments. The filters in the planning tab are limited and we struggle to find what we want. When you have a lot of plans as we do, it would be great to be able to put them in folders. The All about Me Plans (approx. 70 ) take up a lot of room. Also when we archive our meeting plans each term, we have to do that individually, is there a way we can select a number to archive at once? We have lost information by not clicking save on each cell-annoying Between our own learning tags and our association's (for appraisals), this area seems cluttered and we have to scroll through an awful lot in a very tiny box, to find what we need. Can they be organised better under headings that only open when you click on them? Portfolio section, maybe organise by Professional Standards? We want to filter our documents to easily identify how different indicators meet Professional Standards and Code of Conduct? Perhaps the Quality Practice Template from the Education Council could be a template for the portfolio?

Using Storypark from a Early childhood teachers perspectives.

Kommentare: Overall I love it, I love how it is free for parents to continue to use once they leave kindergarten and I love how parents are able to contribute to their child's learning.

Vorteile:

I like that the product is fairly user friendly especially going from the internet. I love how I can upload videos for the parents to witness what their child is saying and doing, video is much better than a photo to tell a story, however I will add photos also.

Nachteile:

The picture are easy to upload, however you can not do anything else with them apart from putting them straight up. I know another program we used to use allowed us to put the picture onto an angle and with stars around them etc. Not very happy with using the app as sometimes the picture just don't go up, however I just don't use it as often as I do going through the internet. As we are using tablet and windows computer, I struggle to be able to move pictures from one story to another. The photos go black and I have tried getting help a couple of times, not sure what I am doing wrong there.

Helping to create a school culture of open communication

Kommentare: Overall we are very happy with Storypark. It is making communication easier and more efficient. It is helping us to reach family members that in the past have been difficult. It fosters open and reciprocal information sharing.
With our children that are non-verbal, it gives families a chance to see pictures and videos and share in their child's day.
It is great fro reaching both sides of a split family in an equitable and open way.

Vorteile:

I like how easy i9t is for my staff to share wonderful lessons and daily experiences with families. It is also a great way to communicate with families on a more personal basis, it is easy for most people to access and is more secure than texting or even email.

Nachteile:

Some of our families struggle to use the app on their phone. We try to help but technology can be confusing. I can sometimes find the menus a bit complex and information can be hard to find.

Perfect for educators and families

Kommentare: Parent interaction has been made so easy, families from all over the world, country or State can use the app to follow their child's / grandchild's day at care.

Vorteile:

I love that parents / families can see in real time their children's activities, just upload and families receive a notification and can interact immediately. Also using on any device makes sharing stories so easy, laptop, tablet or mobile phone.

Nachteile:

Sometimes when uploading photos into a draft, it fails to load and you loose those photos that could have been taken using the camera feature. I always try to use my devices camera and upload from my device and not from the story.

Great educational software!

Vorteile:

This software is great for students of all ages! It is easy to use and provides so many educational resources for my students. I enjoy how it stores assessments and other data about each of my students and that parents can also check On the data.

Nachteile:

Nothing, it is a great program tiered well to all my students.

first parent app for my kid

Kommentare: Storypark is good communication tool between school and parents, also a good place to keep sweet memories for the families

Vorteile:

the UI of the app is quite clear, I can receive the news and kid photo/video by app, the parents can even create their own storybook and share with teachers which is quite cool

Nachteile:

need to support some in-app doc viewer for doc and page. for now, I have to save it to iPhone and share it with my mac, quite a detur

Perfect Software

Kommentare: My overall experience with Storypark has really been amazing

Vorteile:

Storypark is a wonderful software I use for reading stories to my children in my classroom. It's wonderful they love it alot.

Nachteile:

There is nothing I like the least about Storypark it works great and it's a wonderful software to use

Childcare updates on my mobile and PC on the GO!

Kommentare: Storypark has been a game changer for getting updates on my childs progress while he is in 3rd party care - going forward with our other children we will be sure to make sure future facilities have this software as I could not imagine sending our children somewhere without it!

Vorteile:

- Social media style updates about my childs progress at day care - Privacy meaning only those who I choose can see and share my child - Precanned responses to help get conversations started on different pictures and various updates.

Nachteile:

Super Minor con: can be a little difficult to navigate at times to find the information your are after when trying to search the interface.

Review by early Childhhod Teacher

Kommentare: I really love Story park, i would like to have the ability to download the full app on my Note 10 (phone) I have to open a desktop version to use all the features when I am at home. Great support when needed and I am finding our less confident educators are using our SP more recently :) Good Job!!

Vorteile:

I really love the ability to connect and share information, learning and special moments of the teaching and learning in my preschool setting. I really love using video and ability for families to share their at home experiences with us educators to maintain our collaborative curriculum.

Nachteile:

I really feel I waste so much time tagging children! I strongly suggest you look into adding face recognition software like FB...it is really painful as I have 50 children and basically post a minimum four posts a month and two daily posts, plus all additional posting I do. I will often miss children, last year I broke them into groups..but honestly there are too many small group sets to do that this year! FACE RECOGNITION WOULD BE AMAZING!!! I also would like to suggest the option to write learning stories collaboratively with other educators, I like to push the envelope when it comes to documentation. There have been so many opportunities lost where two educators could have contributed to the same story with their own different perceptions!

the best thing ever

Kommentare: its made learning and assessment very easy for all staff as it can cater for all different levels and experiences - having story park has given us more communication with our parents then we would have got in the past and its quite exciting reading the comments and making the connection - it also is a great tool to show parents who may be feeling at bit anxious that we can post things to show their child is engaging and it helps them to have a better day.

Vorteile:

that our parents have more knowledge about their childs learning and also what happens during the day at our centre, the instant learning and being in the moment is so much more vital and meaningful. The fact that parents can share the technology with their children and extended family. That is anything happens to the computer, its not all work lost - its nice to have things saved instantly in storypark

Nachteile:

that there are things that we can not change at our end - some of our parents struggle with technology and not having the internet and trying to change something or get it up and running is hard when there are lack of things we can do at our end once the parent has excepted the invite.

My Journey with Storypark.

Kommentare: I have realized by using Storypark we are seeing a massive level of engagement with our families and Staff, this takes the stress out of programming and our time management skills has also improved in relation to time off the floor, which means more quality time for children and those all important interactions.

Vorteile:

This app is fantastic it allows you to program ,plan and track your children all within the same app. You also can interacting daily with parents and family members which allows that all important collaboration between Educators and Families to naturally happen, while maintaining that all important confidentially. You can also add planning notes and conversations with Staff and even do your QIP. This app also allows for various levels of staffing and qualification to confidently use this app. Great tool for Assessment and Rating with all your information accessible in one click.

Nachteile:

It would be great if Storypark could allow some more administrative type features so you could use this as a sole app for your service.

Sharing skills with others

Kommentare: I love this app and would like to make others feel comfortable with this, once you are on this app, you will become very confident and easily approachable

Vorteile:

* best way to communicate with others *Exchange ideas or children learning skills with families * Receiving ongoing support from others, regular valuable suggestions and feedback from families and educators * Easy app for everyone to access anytime of the day * I love this app and I believe this the best way to develop our professional skills before 2020. * Sustainable approach to save paper copies and you can keep a record of your child learning

Nachteile:

* with the group stories, if you publish something, I don't like someone to save photos * We do use permissions before publishing but still don't want anyone to save others photos on their phones. * Some families can't access it because of no internet connection about we print the copies for them.

We love Storypark

Kommentare: We all love Storypark and I don't know how I'd cope without it now! Keep up the good work guys!

Vorteile:

I love that all information can be shared by not only our families but within the centre as well. It's a great tool for shared planning and documentation. Families find it easy to use and really enjoy the photos and videos we post. I would say that the educators use this to track learning and documentation while our families enjoy the visual presentations more. I have had wonderful experiences with staff when I've needed support and have found their responses fast and extremely helpful.

Nachteile:

I would love to see children's names as links to their portfolio page. This would be so handy. I would also love to be able to link family input to a story that I have written. I link child notes to stories all the time but would love this to be more obvious to families.

Great to use

Vorteile:

It is easy to write your stories on story park easy to follow format but you can also import your stories from other formats if that is what you want to do. I like that I can keep track of the stories I have written and posted on story park and the reports help me to determine who I need to write for. I also like the portfolio part where I can keep my evidence ect for appraisals. Being able to have discussions with the families and share their stories as well is so great and the parents really appreciate being able to access their child’s learning. Community notices and discussions is another great tool to use this helps you to promote the centre and what is going on and the happenings for the community.

Nachteile:

Only one thing is that it sometimes takes a long time to download a video to share with families or as a learning story

Storypark a great tool for Teachers

Vorteile:

Storypark is a great tool for teachers to communicate to parents how their child is progressing at school. From socially and emotionally to educational goals, parents can see how their child is acheiving. In our world where everything is instant, Storypark provides a great way of parents feeling involved and update on their child's schooling. Parents love watching videos of their child sharing their news or retelling stories. Storypark is a great tool and easy for teachers to use. With links to the Australian curriculum parents can see evidence of their children's learning, whilst teachers can keep track of the outcomes they are assessing. I love that I can use Storypark on my mobile device as well as on my personal computer. Storypark in our school has replaced our portfolios. I would recommend Storypark to all early childhood educators.

Nachteile:

I like to use Storypark on my mobile device, not all features are present for example editing and duplicating.

Love Storypark !

Kommentare: Storypark is user friendly, easy to log on and off. It is appropriate for all staff at our service as well as parents and management to use. Its a easy way to document our observations, our goals, our daily events, photos and share ideas . We find it faster and a more accurate way of sharing information.

Vorteile:

That we are able to upload photos and videos with ease. Its user friendly we can log on and use it in the child care room as well as in the office or at home. Parents are able to view their childs day from their home or office as soon as we upload information and photos. Its an easy way to share information. the support staff are helpful and return messages the same day. We are continuing to learn more about the many features as we use it more.

Nachteile:

My only issue so far and its a very small one i would like the option to duplicate my drafts before uploading them. Everything else seems to be working fine at present.

Storypark

Kommentare: Linking children's learning goals to stories. Providing a forum to parents for communications between teachers, groups of parents and the individual.

Vorteile:

Its easy to use and understand and if there is something you don't understand its a phone call or email away to get help and support. Its an easy form of parent communication from teachers about whole group events or the individual child.

Nachteile:

Some things come up as you use it... It would be good to have a 'like' button and to be able to duplicate a child for both parents of a seperated family or a family that seperates while you have already had the child for a long time. We write individual plans for children and for some reason the parents are unable to see these?

Taonga's Review of Storypark

Kommentare: Using Storypark has made an enormous difference to our organisation; for our children and their parents; for our teachers in their own learning and in support of their reflections; great for middle management to utilise all the features as part of their leadership requirements and follow through requirements; great for me as the operations manager to see overall what is going on (or not going on) through out the Centres.

Vorteile:

User friendly for all concerned/interactive for teachers, parents and management; data/report capabilities; meeting forms; prompts - love the prompts; love the blogs, which I use often for inspiration and for workshops and reflections;

Nachteile:

I don't think I dislike anything really; it's not FB but its comparable for what it provides for us.

Storypark has changed our parent feedback

Kommentare: See above

Vorteile:

Since beginning to write all our centre children's portfolios on Storypark we have seen a huge increase in parents and whanau commenting on the children's learning experiences. Our parents find the programme easy to use as they can have the app on their phone. Its easy for them to log in and see the new stories that are written, even while they are at work. We have some families who come from overseas, or have whanau in other parts of New Zealand. Storypark allows these extended family members to be part of the child's learning and have up-to-date knowledge of whats happening for the child whilst at daycare. When these family members visit the child they often want to come in to daycare as they feel part of the centre community already. Storypark has definitely improved our relationship with the families in our centre.

Nachteile:

Would love there to be more options to make the presentation more "fancy" For example add boarders, creative fonts, place pictures on angles etc. Whilst I realise you can upload a PDF from Publisher or Word it would be nice to not have to double-up... being able to do this direct on SP would help.

review of storypark

Kommentare: I really enjoy using storypark, I am able to save my stories and go back to it when I have more time. I can revisit their stories to complete an accurate evaluation of the child. We are able to have those two way conversations with whanau.

Vorteile:

It is instant you are able to access a graph that will indicate who you need more stories on any particular child. It gives you access to all staff when you are the administrator, this enable you to support your teaching team when completing planning and assessments. Whanau who were unable to visit the kindergarten for meetings could communicate effectively through story park. We used story park for our newsletters which is far better for the environment having a paperless app

Nachteile:

At the end of the day it was hard to access due to overload of internet everyone using it at the same time.

Overall not bad.

Kommentare: We are able to keep our families up to date with what their children have been doing during their time at the centre. Families get the opportunity to give feedback and comment about their child's day and other family members can as well after the families invite them to Storypark. Direct communication with the educators from families if they have any concerns about their children or would like an experience added to the program for their child.

Vorteile:

You can make your own programs to cater your own needs. Easy to create the templates as well. Just have to get another educators on board to use it properly.

Nachteile:

The tags about learning on the sides keep changing which is very confusing to the educators.

Hands down amazing

Kommentare: I’ve used it for a few years know and just love it! It’s so helpful everything/documentation is in one place.

Vorteile:

Love that you can share with family. Excellent for teacher registration Programme planning is vital for group and individual planning evidence Communication with families

Nachteile:

A tad technical with some features Would love more examples even though they say there’s knows set way but a base is always helpful to exe d on Would love the ministry to approve it as someone that works in it says they don’t know how it works so I am worried they might not approve of how we do things (just a thought)

Story Park Expereince

Kommentare: This is a great way to communicate with parents and to present children's experiences .
Also it is a great tool to share your teacher planning with colleagues. I use the Teacher Portfolio and would like to be able create different folders, so my work can be organised better.

Vorteile:

User Friendly, it is easy to use even for the moderate IT user.

Nachteile:

Limited font sizes and options . Limited columns. When I do my weekly teacher planning I prefer to have more columns than what is allowed in this software. Also when I print my plan - there is no option of font size hence I have to print in A3 paper in-order to be able to read.