New and Improved iOS Educator App

We have been working hard behind the scenes at Storypark HQ, on a not so little project that is about to make things a whole lot easier for you. It is now time for the big reveal…

DRUM ROLL PLEASE…

Introducing the revamped and improved iOS Educator App! Yes, you heard right, our app has just had a huge makeover, and we think you’re going to like what you see.

We listened to the challenges you were facing and prioritised creating solutions to the things you do most often and the things you spend the most time doing. These two things are creating stories, and engaging with your learning communities. 

We put on our thinking caps, spent a whole lot of time discussing, researching, and experimenting with ways we could streamline your work, and save you time!

We then created prototypes to test with some handpicked and willing participants. We asked them questions and even watched them do set tasks to see how easily they could implement them. 

The next step was releasing our beta app, and surveying the hundreds of users for their feedback. 

They’ve told us that the new app is providing them lots of value already. Particularly during COVID-19, when maintaining close contact with our communities has become even more important, the improvements offered in the new app can better support you through this time. 

Over time you will notice even more functionality added to the app, but we knew you would find the new features to be super valuable now! There are still a lot of things we would like to add, such as giving seamless access to plans. Be assured we will continue to make the new app even greater than it already is.

What problems will the new app help you solve?

• We know how important it is for you to be able to share stories of children’s learning the way you want to. Now, in order to make the best use of your limited admin time, you can do everything from your device! You can very quickly add photos and videos in the correct order for publishing. Stuck with finding the right learning tags for each story? Don’t worry, it is now very simple to find the right ones to include your curriculum. Tags are now organised in sets, and you can even see the descriptions that are attached to individual tags as well.
• Particularly at this time, keeping track of conversations, community posts and responses is really important and this is streamlined in the new app, with each group you’re talking to having its own channel, with messages in chronological order. You’ll see at a glance when a new message comes in, and it’s much easier to go back and find something. Best of all, in this all-new community area, you can now create community posts!
• Just when you think things couldn’t get any better, you will now be able to easily see individual children, finding their profile very quickly.
• Can’t get near a computer and want to change the date of a story? You can now do this on the new app too. 
• In the past you may have had times when you have been midway through creating a story, when your internet connection drops out and you couldn’t complete your story. Now, if this happens, your work will be saved on the device! The very next time you reconnect and open the app, you will find that your work has been saved and synced online!
• Responding and contributing to other educators and families stories just got even better too – now, you can comment with images and videos! This is an awesome way to show continuity of learning and contribute with your different lenses of children’s learning.

What about a new app for Android users we hear you say…

• We built the new iOS app first because our data showed us that it had significantly more users, with an increasing number of requests for new features.  
• For team Android, feedback told us that the current Android app provides a better user experience than the old iOS app. This doesn’t mean that it’s perfect, so if you use an Android device please let us know what improvements you would like to see. Also, we would love to know why these improvements are important to you. By giving us this valuable feedback, it will help us prioritise improvements for our Android users.

So there you have it! Our newest “duckling” is ready to venture out into bigger ponds. As always, if you have any questions or hit a roadblock, our superstar support team are always here to help you. You can contact them at hello@storypark.com

What is left to say? It is now time for you to go and download the new app here, have a play, get to know it, and then go out and keep being awesome!