| Tammy Christensen |  |
Storybook Weaver Deluxe Software Review
Synopsis
Storybook Weaver Deluxe, by The Learning Company, allows students to publish multimedia and interactive stories. The stamps, fonts, sounds, thesaurus, and spell checker all help make the process fun and manageable.
When students begin to create their story, they are presented with a title page that can be enhanced by borders and font changes. The story pages are 2/3 illustration area and 1/3 writing area. The writing area will automatically increase up to 2/3 of the page if a lot of text is written, but it will begin to cover up the illustration.
New pages are added to Storybook Weaver Deluxe by clicking on the “next” arrow. After the story is complete, it can be printed (very costly if you want color) or easily posted to the Web.
Unfortunately, this software intermittently freezes Windows 486 computers, iMacs with OS 8, and perhaps others. Consequently, I ask my students to save their work frequently.
Price
Storybook Weaver Deluxe is sold individually or in a Learning Company Early Learning Pack that includes three different pieces of software. Lab packs and site licenses are also available. The price varies between distributors so check more than one source. Search for this product online (try Learning Services).
Age
The software is recommended for children 6-12 years of age. Young children will easily learn its intuitive tools. Even if they don’t master it, they’ll have fun. Older children may create sophisticated stories.
Graphics
There are three types of graphics: (1) backgrounds, (2) stamps, and (3) personal drawings.
Backgrounds
Background graphics include patterns, colors, and simple or complex scenes—modern, medieval, western, and many more. Each background is divided into an upper and lower half, so halves are easily interchanged for hundreds of combinations.
Stamps
Stamps provide an array of objects and multicultural people. Certain colors within a stamp, such as skin tone and clothing color, may be manipulated. It is also possible to change the size and rotate stamps. Sometimes students think that if a stamp shows a person’s face, they can flip it to see the person’s back—not so.
Personal Drawings
The pencil in the toolbar allows students to draw their own stamps using any of the 37 available colors. Manipulating the mouse for fine details can be difficult.
Sounds
Page sounds
To add one of 60 sounds to an individual page, click the piano tool. The sound will play as long as the page is active, so it can become annoying.
Object sounds
To add one of 99 sounds to a stamp, select the stamp on the page and click on the whistle tool. The short sound only plays if the stamp is selected.
Record a voice
To insert a recorded sound such as a voice reading the text, select the microphone tool. The sound plays for its entire length, even if the reader moves to the next page.
Educational Value
Storybook Weaver Deluxe is a great way to quickly publish students’ work to the Web or share from a single computer. The extensive array of multicultural images, animals, backgrounds, and everyday objects make it versatile.
Summary
Personally, I love generic tools that students can use for many subject areas. With Storybook Weaver Deluxe, students might create and print a health poster using only the title page, write a series of instructions, illustrate a social studies report, or simply publish an imaginative story.
Storybook Weaver Deluxe, however, does freeze the computer. It might be wise to look for a newer version that has solved this problem. Otherwise, save frequently and in increments*.
*Incremental saving means having multiple copies of your file saved under different names, each at a different stage. For example, story1 may only include the title page and story2 may include the title page and 2 pages of the story.
System Requirements
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Platform: Mac 7.1 or better CPU: 68030/25MHz RAM: 8MB (PowerPC:16MB) CD-ROM: 2X Monitor: 13" monitor, 256 colors Sound Card: |
Platform: Win 3.1 or better CPU: 486/50MHz RAM: 8MB, 16MB rec. CD-ROM: 2X Monitor: 640x480, 256 colors Sound Card: Win-compatible |