Frankenstories

What is FRANKENSTORIES website and app?

FRANKENSTORIES is a website and app that helps users to develop their abilities, access and enjoyment around writing. It can be used as a tool for friends to socialise through their writing or it can be used in an education setting with a teacher personalising the type of text they wish students to produce. Ultimately, used in either of these ways it is a fun collaborative, writing site.

There is a lot to love about this website. Even though it seems like a simple premise; have people collaboratively writing together, however it’s all the other elements within the website that really make it stand out. The developers are clearly people who care about writing and helping young people to fall in love with stories and storytelling and they also clearly believe in the power of the site they have produced.

There are lots of incredibly useful videos on the website to help users to get the most out of it and although it is not predominately for teacher use they have also created a full teacher information page to assist teachers in utilising the website with their students to get maximum impact out of it. The developers are also clearly knowledgeable about education too knowing the impact that social learning can have on young people but also how to avoid cognitive overload through the gameplay in the app and settings tools that they have made available.

The main premise of the app is collaborative writing to help users improve their writing abilities and to foster a love of writing too. Using prompts and a social element there are a couple of different ways to access the writing side including a casual game and then a moderated group game, the latter of which is useful for teachers. Writing prompts can be chosen or random and are a phrase alongside a picture. I must say that one of the enjoyable features of playing on the site was selecting the random prompts and seeing what would come up. The pictures and phrases are both very good and well thought out, certainly aimed at giving the writer the best opportunity to engage with their writing and to want to write something based on the prompt.

The social element is also a really clever one. I especially liked playing with a group of friends as our writing spurred each other on and the challenge to keep up a specific writing style or theme encouraged all of us. From a teachers perspective I can see that there would be a lot of personalisation as they could chose the prompt and the style and genre of the writing that their students are going to write. Users can also write in any language they wish and it’s possible to view other stories that have created through a Hall of Fame area on the site.

What we love about Frankenstories

There are a number of really excellent aspects within the website, in fact I’d be hard pushed to find any negatives. However, the things I enjoyed the most was the fun and enjoyment that is created through writing a collaborative text. Each time you write, even with the same group you create a completely different story in terms of text type, genre and theme. The possibilities really are endless in such a site and this means that it can be used over and over again without it becoming boring, or ‘done’.

What skills does it improve?

The main area that FRANKENSTORIES website and app improves is users’ access and the ability with writing. As users will continually writing through the site it will improve all different aspects of this however with the ability to personalise the type of text being created it can be used to develop a specific style of writing, or to mimic a particular genre instead of just generic writing skills.

What age is it website and appropriate for?

FRANKENSTORIES website, I would suggest can be used for KS2 students upwards but the middle grade age range of students would probably get the most out of it.

Is FRANKENSTORIES easy to use?

For the user the website is incredibly easy to use and access.

How will students benefit?

Students will benefit from being able to access a website that will build their confidence when it comes to writing, whether this be generic writing skills or more directed type of writing. There are a number of different ways in which they can access the writing to so hopefully there will be something for all different interests when it comes to creating the stories.

How will teachers benefit?

Teachers will benefit from students using the website to improve their writing however as teachers can direct students and personalise the learning/writing through suggesting the prompt that’s used, telling students what genre or text type to write in there is a lot of personalisation that they can benefit from.

How will parents benefit?

There are many benefits for parents too some of which will be similar to teachers’ in the way that they can personalise any learning in the website. However, the will also know that if used their child will be improving their writing skills and abilities in a safe place.

How much does FRANKENSTORIES cost?

FRANKENSTORIES works on a subscription basis. However, there is a free element to it as well. For casual games it is free however for more content the is monthly and yearly subscription costing AUD $10 or AUD $100 respectively.

What is included with the free version vs. paid?

The free version allows the use of the casual game whereas the paid options allow more personalisation with the site, the ability to add unlimited student logins, to moderate replies and to download responses too.

Is FRANKENSTORIES safe to use

FRANKENSTORIES website and app content is completely child-friendly and contains no content that could be considered inappropriate or unsafe for children.

What FRANKENSTORIES can improve on?

Having spent a lot of time on this website I really can’t think of many things that could be improved on the site. The developers are clearly aware of the type of website they wanted to create and have give the user a great range of tools to support them in using it too. For what it aims to do the website does it extremely well!

Overall rating of the website and app

FRANKENSTORIES website and app has received a 5 star EAS rating and this is due to the premise of the website and app and the potential learning within it.