digital storytelling

As a similar blog post to my last, this one will look at e-books in a way but from different angles. Children’s picture books have evolved over the years and as my previous post showed – they are now available digitally in the form of e-books. Now, picture books are a bit different, they are PICTURE books not necessarily including text.

Cox (2015) argued that there are 5 different ways a picture book can draw the reader in whilst beginning the relationship between the book and the reader; Angles, Size, Framing, Colour and Demands and Offers. I know what you’re thinking, what on earth does all of this mean?!

1. Well, the angle at which the pictures are created to convey relationships between people and objects.
2. Size simply refers to the pictures size, this again also refers to the relationship between the reader and the images on the page e.g. a shy person may be created shorter to emphasise the personality of the character.
3. Framing – this is basically how much information is portrayed to the reader e.g. is it a close up or a long image and what does this show.
4. Colour, I guess this speaks for itself really! Using colour to create the mood!
5. And finally, Demands and Offers; “the eyes of the character in the image determine either a demand or offer. When the eyes are looking directly at the viewer, they are called a demand. When the eyes are not looking at the viewer, or there are no characters in the image, this is called an offer” (ibid).

 

From this we started talking about the skills that children need to a modern society in order  to thrive, (Cox , 2015):

• Skills to interpret and construct meaning from a multiplicity of media, narratives and points of view
• Awareness of how images interact with text to shape meaning
• Awareness of the malleability of information and knowledge
• Meta-cognition of information structure and narrative conventions
• Confidence to be interpreters, selectors and designers of meaning

Despite these factors, I believe its vital that children aren’t overly introduced to these aspects of a text/book. Such things can distrort the view the children have of the text and thus the illusions the stories create.

After this, we moved onto the more ‘interesting’ aspect of the lecture; digital storytelling.We started by examining some different multimedia which can be used to digitally tell stories; Tellagami and Illuminated texts are just two examples we looked at. Tellagami is a great app which allows the user to design a setting and add dialogue for them to say outloud. This is a great tool to aid the teaching of grammar as they need to ensure their dialogue makes complete sense  Illuminated texts are a way of putting a piece of text (e.g. a story or a poem) into a presentation and set to music.

In summary; digital literacy techniques are a great way to bring text to life in a way which really interest and enthuse children and their learning!

 

References

Cox, D (2015). Personal Communication.

eeeeeee-books

 

Now this week we have looked at E-books, in my mind E-books are becoming more and more common, especially with my generation. However, this lecture showed me that in reality this is a revelation which isn’t actually used that much within schools and the younger generation. In my opinion this isn’t how it should be and the lecturer moved on to examine why this is the case and how it can be implemented in the classroom.

First, we examined why some children don’t enjoy reading and the main reason we established was the fact that children have an unpleasant experience with reading during their school life. This if often because children don’t have the freedom to choose their own books from the outset, this strategy is usually put in place in upper key stage 2, often when children already dislike to read (Padak and Potenza-Radis, 2010). From this, we looked at how children can be motivated to enjoy reading and be fully engaged, Walsh (2006) conducted a study which showed that children are best motivated when the teacher knows the child really well, this ensures the teacher can choose books which the child will enjoy and thus engage with. This shows me that although some children dislike reading – we can motivate them to enjoy the activity.

 

Once we had looked at how children can be engaged with reading, we looked at how reading has developed over the years. So we all know that we can read physical books and words on paper but now we can read texts in the same world but on a screen, a tablet, smartphone or a computer. It’s scary how much has changed! In my opinion, E-readers are great and a great way to encourage children to read in a way which is kinaesthetic. Readers can also listen to sections of the book as audio recordings. This is greatly beneficial for children who potentially cannot read for extended periods of time or children who wish to read books which are not at their reading level. Thus, an e-book does not only support children’s reading but often they can aid a child’s understanding of a text and therefore their comprehension.

 

This graph shows some interesting research from 2011, obviously this could be more up to date but it is still relevent.

 

In contrast to all that I have read and that which we discussed in lecture, some research argues that e-books aren’t all that they are cracked up to be! Burrell and Trushell (1997) argued that the interactivity within books can be distracting for children and that they can distract from the real meaning of the text.

In the classroom, e-books can be used and created in many ways including reading for pleasure and in literacy sessions. In preparation for this we created our own e-books in class about something relevent to us. I created one about my summer working in America;

 

References

Burrell, C., & Trushell, J. (1997). “Eye-candy” in “interactive books”—A wholesome diet? Reading, 31(2), 3-6.

Padak, N., & Potenza-Radis, C. (2010). Motivating struggling readers: Three keys to success. The New England Reading Association Journal, 45(2), 1-7.

Walsh, F. (2006). A middle school dilemma: Dealing with “I don’t care.”. American Secondary Education, 35(1), 5-15.

Tray

This week we looked at Developing Tray with our other lecturer for this module; David. This proved to be an interesting piece of software and before the lecture I knew very little (if anything) about it!

2simple. (n.d.) an online website for use in Primary Schools states that Tray is “A key to unlock the English language and help children of all ages and abilities read. Bob Moy’s program addresses semantic, syntactic and grapho-phonic reading cues. (All Key Stages)”

This software is great and in particular holds the following features;

“Predict text from limited clues

Reveal text & clues to engage & challenge readers

Example video lessons and free activity booklet!

Write or import texts

Scoring system and game playback feature”.

The most interesting thing I learnt about Tray this week is that it is a very versitile piece of software and can be used with any age range – from Primary to Degree level.  Within the classroom it was evident from this lecture that Tray can be a great tool for teaching literacy via technology. It is the perfect tool for implementing the use of technology in the classroom, especially for collaborative group work or whole class teaching. It is evident from the training we recieved around Tray that if it is to be used in a modern day classroom a vast amount of support would be needed in the first instance.

Once the teacher has assisted the children’s learning on Tray for a few sessions, the children could then gradually become more independent over time – completing tasks in smaller groups or even independently.

Now, I know what you are thinking and asking yourself – how can such a tool be of any use in the classroom and how can it support children’s learning?

Well that’s simple; Cox (2015) stated that this can be done in many ways.

Tray aids children’s reading development as it shows children that reading is not only a visual process whereby children ‘bark at print’ but they must take in and comprehend the information. In fact, Tray has even been based on the belief that comprehension aids understanding. Thus, by completing such an activity like Tray the children have confirmation of the language and meaning and they can also implement their grammatical and syntactical awareness.

In addition to this, Tray is a great tool to enable children to work collaboratively and as a team. The children can support eachother and this could work especially well if the children were working in mixed ability groups.

Therefore, in closing; Tray can be used across the English curriculum with any type of text. Children and teachers can even create their own Tray text and this furthers how flexible the programme actually is. As a motivational tool children can be offered prizes and rewards for high scores and the best team work.

References

2simple. (n.d.). Developing Tray. Available: https://www.2simple.com/product/developing-tray. Last accessed 29/03/2016.

Cox, D (2015) Personal Communicaion.

Wiki wiki what

This week we looked at using Wiki’s in the classroom. This filled us with horror, how on earth could we used this in a meaningful manner and why would we want too?! (Pulman, 2009)

A Wiki “a group of webpages that allows users to add content but which also permits others (sometimes without restriction) to edit that content” (Pulman, 2009).

Well a lot of interesting facts were learnt this week about Wiki’s – it is not just Wikipedia, it’s a variety of websites, it’s a website which lets any visitor become an active participant, the content can be uploaded, updated or deleted by any visitor and no specialist knowledge is required! A great idea for using in a classroom!

The issue with using a Wiki in the classroom is that really, it is used in real-life situations by groups and families and for free expression (Stefnov-King, 2015). However, Pulman (2009) argues that using Wiki’s in the classroom are is a very positive tool. They are “simple to use” and so could be used across the primary age range with little training.

This video shows a very good, short clip about how to use Wiki’s and what they can be used for; www.youtube.com/watch?v=-dnL00TdmLY

 

Now,  I know what your thinking! Surely a Wiki and a Blog are the same thing?! But that they are not, a blog is personal and although it is public, it cannot be edited and the only addition to a blog post by outside users is comments and likes. A Wiki can be edited by multiple users and used as a group consensus.

Using these within a classroom can prove a difficult task but, it can be done! Tomaszewski (2012) came up with several ideas for implementing these across the school;

 

References

Pulman, A (2009). Pocket Study Skills: Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts & More. London: Palgrave Macmillan.

Stefnov-King (2015) personal communication.

Tomaszewski, J (2012) EducationWorld Online. Available: http://www.educationworld.com/a_lesson/using-wikis-in-the-classroom.shtml#sthash.K6PLbiVF.Ylg6rtVS.dpuf

 

Multi-What?

The big question is how does digital technology influence literacy development in children?

What is literacy?

This power point presentation from the lecture shows the importance of connecting emergent and early literacy to the multi-modal context of multi-literacy. We then moved on to discuss the different types of modalities within traditional literacy and multi-literacy.

Here are some of the multi-modalities used within the primary classroom;

The four main types of multi-modalities are; Print and Linguistic (oral and printed words), Visual (still and moving images), Spatial and Gestural (performance and body language) and Aural (Voice and music). However, a combination of the four is seen as a successful tool in the classroom (Trala, 2015)

Hamm and Adams (1992) discuss the positive use of computers within cooperative learning, this includes multimedia computer platforms. This shows that as a mode of learning multimedia platforms can be a very positive asset to any classroom. So surely this shows that teaching in many ways, catering for all students is the way forward.. so we should be catering for all learning styles, as we have for years? Confused? Me too. We associate so many things with the digital world that I think we have forgotten about learning styles, therefore academics have had no choice to come up with academic literacy and thus multi-modal teaching was born! “We live in a world of multiple literacies, multiple media and multiple demands on our attention” (Thomas, 2007).

Scholars have so many things to say when it comes to learning styles and it is interesting to read what they think BUT surely only one person can actually be correct? Piaget discusses his view of learning in a way which is hard to dispute. he argues that children are constructivists in their learning. They use intelligence to construct internal stability, as humans we act on our own and in our own heads, no matter what we are doing. Children become progressively detached from the world of concrete objects, mental manipulations of symbols, child as a scientist.

The problem with this is that Papert does actually dispute what Piaget says. Papert argues that the child is a “soft master” their intelligence and knowledge is forever changing, it is ‘under construction’ as they continue to develop it over their life. Personally, I prefer Papert’s view and love this analogy.

References

Hamm, M and Adams, D (1992). The Collaborative Dimensions of Learning. New Jersey: Ablex Publishing Corporation. Ch. 5.

Papert (Find complete reference)

Piaget (Find complete reference)

Thomas, S. (2006). Transliteracy. Available: https://suethomasnet.wordpress.com/transliteracy/. Last accessed 28/10/15.

Trala, C (2015). Personal Communication. 21st October.

Yelland (2008) (Find complete reference)

The world we call digital

“So I’m sure you have heard of learning styles such as; kinaesthetic, auditory and visual? Well forget them, they do not even exist” (Trala, 2015)

Today we had our third ‘Cybertexts’ session with a guest lecturer from another Education course at the University. And the above statement was what she opened with. We all listened in awe of her large statement she had just made, this threw out everything we had learnt about learning styles in the past two years! Trala claimed that we all have different areas within our brains which are used to aid our learning in different ways. If this is to be correct then we all have an aural section, a kinaesthetic section, a visual section and many more! When we are learning new things a section takes in the in and helps us to learn the information.

We also learnt today what different types of ‘modalities’ are when it comes to learning.

Firstly; we watched these two videos;

A modality is a a mode of learning (so a learning style???!). Your best modality is auditory because we take in information all of the time. Some people do have a better experience with other modalities but this does not affect what is taught in the classroom because most of what we learn is based on meaning, not how it is taught. Furthermore, when learning through modalities we can use multiple modalities at once.

On the above case study you can see that the children will be learning through multiple modalities!

Multiple modalities should always be engaged in every session: (Trala, 2015). Brains can be better at one or the other but the children need to be exposed to all modalities (ibid).

References

Trala, C (2015). Personal Communication. 21st October.

Tweet tweet twoo

A Tweet: “a very short message posted on the Twitter website: the message may include text, keywords, mentions of specific users, links to websites, and links to images or videos on a website”

Yes, you have guessed it, this week we explored ways of using Twitter within the classroom. In my lecture we began by writing Haiku’s, here is the on myself and my partner creatively came up with…

‘ We go to Costa
For all our hot drinking needs
Or for a muffin’

Now I know what you are thinking.. Because I thought the same! What on earth do Haiku’s and Twitter have in common? Well it’s simple, both are all about describing something in a set amount of syllables (or characters!!). So if a child can send a successful tweet they should be able to write a successful haiku. With both a haiku and a tweet you find out all of the information within a short glance!

We moved on from writing Haikus to writing tweets, to ensure our tweets had meaning we each read a children’s book. We then had to compose a tweet explaining the story. I was given the story ‘Voices in the Park’ by Anthony Browne and my tweet read;

‘Monkeys walking their dog together, the children make friends and then say goodbye. Everyone has a different view.’

This tweet more or less gave the overall themes and views from the story in less than 140 characters. Proving to me that it can be done.

The modern age of technology is moving so rapidly we have to be ready for the change!

Janet Murray (1997) made a statement which is very fitting for the rapid moving modern world we find ourselves in; “Every age seeks out the appropriate medium in which to confront unanswerable questions of human existence. We cannot limit ourselves to Elizabethan or Victorian forms any more than Shakespeare could have written within the conventions of the Aristotelian tragedy”.

This being said shows how important it is to continuously move and develop yourself and your teaching so that your children are given the opportunity to develop to their full potential. Using a social network such as Twitter, in a classroom can be a terrifying prospect for any teacher. However, once the initial fear isn’t overcome it can easily be used in most lessons! One history professor from Dallas, Texas used Twitter within her lectures. She used this as a mode of questioning and as a way of answering questions. She found that this was a great asset to her lectures, she was able to refer back to questions and answers throughout the sessions and ensure everyone’s Voice was heard. This was every student could participate even with such a large group. The limit of characters meant students had to be to the point and if they were answering a questions they really had to understand what they were saying, so it was a mode of assessment too. This just shows how powerful the social media can be!

References

Dictionary.com (2015). “Tweet” in dictionary.com unabridged. Available: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/tweet?s=t. Last accessed: 19/10/15

Kirkpatrick, M (2009). The Twitter experiment. [Online Video].Available from: https:///www.youtube.com/watch?v=6WPVWDkF7U8 [Accessed: 16/10/15.

Murray, J (1997). Writers guide. Available: http://www,australiacouncil.gov.au/writersguide/introduction/. Last Accessed: 16/10/15

Blogging about blogging

So today we had our first lecture of a new module ‘Cybertexts’, I did not know what I was expecting but I throughly enjoyed it and it exceeded my expectations. We began by discussing the use of diaries and as we progressed through our discussion we came to understand that diaries are not the usual day to day planner we all have. A diary is “a daily record, usually private, especially of the writer’s own experiences, observations, feelings [and] attitudes” (dictionary.com, 2015). Diaries have been around us for years, I mean we all used to write them as children! If we look back to the eighteenth, seventeenth and even sixteenth century we can see that diaries were published as books even then, thus showing their importance.

We then moved on to discuss blogging as a form of diary writing, this caused a lot of alternative viewpoints to arise throughout the classroom! Even on my table we had two different ideas. One student agreed that technology and blogging is a fine way of communicating and learning, however, myself and some other students were on the fence when it came to this idea. Does blogging help the child to learn to write? Yes! Does blogging keep them from communicating face to face? Yes we think it does! So is blogging good for the children of today or not?

Morris (2014), Stated that blogging can indeed “improve students’ writing skills and build their confidence as writers”. So surely it must be a well-researched topic and I imagine Morris is correct and it probably does aid writing skills. In my experience, using technology within the classroom can have a hugely positive impact on learning. On my most recent teaching practice, I planned and taught an English lesson which the children were writing facts about London. As an extension challenge, the children were each given and iPad and the task of creating their own fact files. The children excelled in this task and the work produced was outstanding. So, I do believe that technology itself has a great impact on children’s learning. Blogging however, I am still unsure about. Drennan (2012) stated that blogging in the classroom “raises challenge levels; it enables IT-skilling; it lets students see their own progress and differentiates well; it means more productive and accelerating learning-talk over rote-writing”. Surely any task in the classroom which covers all of these areas is an outstanding task for children to complete? Drennan moves on to explain how well his students wrote their blogs and he ends by saying that blogging is without a doubt a “powerful and stimulating and enriching” activity for children to complete. However, Bruner (1966) suggests that children need to be taught through “action-based”, “image-based” or “language-based” learning. Each child has one prominent learning style which they prefer and they may not learn anything through the other learning styles. Therefore, blogging may not be an appropriate learning tool for all children.

That’s all for now xx

Here are some of my peers deep in discussion!

 References

Bruner, J. S. (1966). Toward a theory of instruction, Cambridge, Mass.: Belkapp Press.

Dictionary.com (2015). “Diary” in dictionary.com unabridged. Available: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/diary. Last accessed: 07/10/15
Drennan, M (2012) Blogging in the classroom: why your students should write online. London: The Guardian.
Morris, G (2014). Using blogs in the classroom. Michigan, USA: LSA University of Michigan. Pg 1-8