1. Electronic storybooks & Digital storytelling
HOU AGG 66
Kosmas Vlachos & Leda Antoniou

2. Topics covered in the presentation
Electronic storybooks that can read stories to students
Multimedia activities based on story plots that invite students to recreate content
Story boards that encourage literacy and creativity
Software that allows students to insert visual and audio material to make a story

3. Part 1: Electronic storybooks or e-books (slides 3-27)

4. Why use e-books
Focus on interactivity & Social skills: Students communicate, work together & negotiate turn-taking
Computing: Continuous exchange of information between a computer and a user.
Control over movement: User can go from screen to screen, exit program when desired, read text at desired rate, etc.
Problem-solving: Students solve mysteries
Adventure plots: Motivating, represent real-life experiences
Listening, reading or both: Turn off sound, if desired
Speaking, writing or both: Individually or in groups students create stories

5. More specifically
Switch accessible
Visual Attention

6. Text to Speech
One fish,
Two fish,
Red fish,
Blue fish

7. Increases independent reading
Allows Text to be Adapted
Printable

8. In Video form without script
Examples of electronic-interactive stories Explore some of the sites and think how you would exploit one in a young learners teaching context
In Video form without script

9. User friendly: Student has most control (rather than other way around)
Now that you have explored the sites you may have observed that electronic storybooks are
User friendly: Student has most control (rather than other way around)
Motivating: Involve sounds, music, voice
Non threatening: Exploration without fear or frustration of errors or “no way out” and
Provide feedback
Open-ended stories encourage students to…
make choices and decisions
cooperate
problem solve
create, imagine
use senses

10. Equipment Computer, keyboard, mouse, printer
Tape/CD player, tape recorder, headphones, tapes, CDs
*Cameras- film, video, digital
TV/VCR, DVDs, videotapes
Electronic toys- books, games, music
Electronic devices- calculators, timers, weight scales, cell phones, iPod, speakers, SMART table/board

11. Teaching tips 1 Encourage students to use digital equipment
Assist students in operating devices (ie. operate tape players, cameras to document their work rather than teacher doing it all for the students, etc.)
Model, “think-aloud” and interact with students regarding use of technology and what they are experiencing.
Incorporate naturally into projects, curriculum, theme discussions (ex. conduct Internet searches for topics of interest or discussion, use a video website to take a virtual trip or see how something is done, made, etc.)

12. Teaching tips 2
Allow for social interactions/peer collaborations; encourage/facilitate students working together or sharing ideas at computers.
Offer a Wide Range of Reading Materials
Teach Important Vocabulary
Use Pre and Active Reading Techniques
Engage Multiple Modalities

13. Multiple Modalities
Involving multiple or varying modalities of learning, such as listening, can improve reading. Often an observation of a reluctant or remedial reader shows a student who is troubled when reading a passage, but often the student can also display good comprehension from listening to the same passage. It is important to present text information in more modalities than just print, such as presenting the material orally to the student.

14. Finding or creating appropriate reading material
Readability
Variety
Interest

15. Readability Tools (Help you control readability of ready made or created by students texts)

16. Simplified versions Word

17. Variety Short stories Stories by Children Graphic Novels Comics

18. Modern Science Fiction http://www. baen. com/library/books
Modern Science Fiction Select a book and link to “read online”

19. Picture Books http://science.hq.nasa.gov/kids/imagers

20. Early Readers & story songs http://www. rif

21. Early readers in the previous slide provide text-to-speech highlighting

22. Using a computer showing an eBook, a video projector and a screen, teachers can create their own digital big books.

23. Video eBooks Computer video,DVD, captions http://www. storylineonline

24. Audio eBooks MP3 http://www.wiredforbooks.org/

25. Audio Books read along with unabridged version

26. Vocabulary
Many e-book formats allow immediate access to dictionaries. When students come across an unfamiliar word, they click on it and use the interactive dictionary to look up the definition. If there is a 2nd unknown word in the definition, they click on it for a definition of the 2nd unknown word.

27. Reading Strategies Pre-Reading Active/Guided Reading
Cover/Title Concept
Anticipation & Prediction
Structure of text
Word/vocabulary Search
Executive Summary
Active/Guided Reading
Selective Highlighting
Power Highlighting
Margin/Sticky Notes
Single Sentence Summary
Literary Elements

28. Part 2: Digital storytelling: Creating stories (slides 28-30)

29. Digital storytelling
Digital Storytelling is the practice of using computer-based tools to tell stories.
Most digital stories focus on a specific topic and contain a particular point of view.
Digital stories usually contain some mixture of computer-based images, text, recorded audio narration, video clips and/or music.
Stories can vary in length, but most of the stories used in education typically last between two and ten minutes.
The topics used range from personal tales to the recounting of historical events, from exploring life in one's own community to the search for life in other corners of the universe, and literally, everything in between.

30. Storyboards Allow for creative story production
Provide graphics, text, audio and video
There are storyboards for students of all ages
Stories are saved as HTML pages, can easily be viewed by others & can also be printed
Teachers can make cartoon stories to model language and cultural conventions
Students can create stories as a stimulating and engaging way to practice their language skills

31. Technical Features (Note: Different storyboards include different features)
Character and background libraries
Import your own images facility
Text bubbles and information boxes
Accent key panel
Import voice recordings facility
Built in recorder to add your own voice recordings
A number of frames
Copy and paste frames
Preview
Print function
Saved stories can be opened and edited
Copy and paste text from other documents

32. Explore some of the following storyboards and think how you would exploit them:
With a group of young learners
With a group of adolescent students

33. Using different media to encourage students create their own digital stories An example of a project completed at Anatolia college in Thessaloniki

34. Building Communication and Digital Literacy in the Classroom with Digital Storytelling The steps of the project 1
Decide on a personal experience you wish to present in your story.
Draft a short script.
Select images that you wish to display in your story. Beyond your own digital photos, you can use images from the web that have a Creative Commons license.
Draft a script to accompany your images.
Select music (optional). ccMixer and Open Source Audio are two places where you can find large quantities of open music. Make sure that the track you select allows you to share and remix the original music.

35. Building Communication and Digital Literacy in the Classroom with Digital Storytelling The steps of the project 2
Pull it all together! Create a final storyboard that clearly shows how your images, script and music will all fit together. Use something like the template provided (see photocopy in PDF).
Select which software you are going to use to create your digital story.
Audacity (voice recording) -
MS Photo Story
MS Movie Maker
More advanced tools (Premiere, iMovie etc.)
Online tools (Animoto, Zooburst)
Use the web – plenty of resources!
Digital Storytelling in the Classroom (eBook)
Produce your digital story!
Share it with others!

36. Digital storytelling can be used:
As a medium for students' writing in a number of modes: conversation, narrative, persuasive or informative.
To revise a language topic
As an alternative assessment task
To practice pronunciation and spelling
As a collaborative task
As a window into culture

37. Students can:
create dialogues with their own text or voice recordings
use digital photos of themselves, act out a situation and add either text or voice recordings to illustrate the photos
search the web for culturally authentic images and import them as background to a story
Place pictures of themselves in front of culturally authentic images; they can imagine they are really there!
Teachers can:
provide a script or storyboard which students use to create a story
create partially completed stories which students can then open and complete
provide text only for which students must add their own matching voice recordings
provide questions to which students generate appropriate answers in the story

38. Thank you for your attention!
Kosmas Vlachos & Leda Antoniou