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

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

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

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

More specifically Switch accessible Visual Attention

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

Increases independent reading Allows Text to be Adapted Printable

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 http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/laac/story/sbi.shtml http://www.woodlands-junior.kent.sch.uk/interactive/onlinestory.htm http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/digger/5_7entry/flash/createastory.shtml http://www.bbc.co.uk/education/dynamo/history/stepback.shtml http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/digger/7_9entry/7_9.shtml http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/digger/9_11entry/9_11.shtml In Video form without script http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oBA6AUE2Z2Q

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

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

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.)

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

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.

Finding or creating appropriate reading material Readability Variety Interest

Readability Tools (Help you control readability of ready made or created by students texts) http://www.lefthandlogic.com/htmdocs/tools/okapi/okapi.php

Simplified versions Word

Variety Short stories Stories by Children Graphic Novels Comics

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Audio Books read along with unabridged version

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.

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

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

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.

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

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

Explore some of the following storyboards and think how you would exploit them: With a group of young learners http://learnenglishkids.britishcouncil.org/en/make-your-own/story-maker http://www.seussville.com/games_hb/storymaker/story_maker.html http://www.carnegielibrary.org/kids/storymaker/embed.cfm http://pbskids.org/sagwa/stories/storymaker/index.html With a group of adolescent students http://current.com/studios/storymaker/ http://www.bbc.co.uk/eastenders/games/storymaker/ http://www.digitalfilms.com/

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

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. http://flueblue.com/opicasaweb.google.com.html http://www.iclipart.com/ 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. www.ccmixter.org

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) - http://audacity.sourceforge.net MS Photo Story MS Movie Maker More advanced tools (Premiere, iMovie etc.) Online tools (Animoto, Zooburst) Use the web – plenty of resources! www.digitales.us Digital Storytelling in the Classroom (eBook) http://goo.gl/4KzC Produce your digital story! Share it with others!

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

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

Thank you for your attention! Kosmas Vlachos & Leda Antoniou