Today in Digital Technologies I took part in an E-Book Assessment. Before this in a group we created a mind map of what we thought an E-Book was. Things that we said were; that is an online book, it is easily accessible, it is colourful and bright and it can be used through mobile devices such as; phones, tablets, kindles and laptops.
I had an opportunity to look at a range of sources to see what the definition of an E-Book is, Oxford dictionary says “An electronic version of a printed book which can be read on a computer or a specifically designed handheld device” (Oxford Dictionary 2018).
A Digital Learning and Teaching Strategy for Scotland is structured around four essential objectives: Develop the skills and confidence of teachers; Improve access to digital technology for all learners; Ensure that digital technology is a central consideration in all areas of curriculum and assessment delivery; Empower leaders of change to drive innovation and investment in digital technology for learning and teaching (Scottish Government n.d).
BBC Web-Wise (2018) believe that the only downfall to an E-Book is when you want to lend the book you read to a friend it becomes difficult as it is on your handheld device and the person may need to go and purchase the book itself online or the paper version. E-Books can be multi-modal – A multi-modal text is a text that includes 2 out of the 5 semiotic systems these are; Linguistic, Visual, Audio, Gestural and Spatial (Anstey and Bull, 2010).
Today we were to use Book-Creator App on the IPad. I had some experience during my trimester 1 literacy module to make an E-Book with Book-Creator. It is simple and easy to use as their are tutorials available throughout YouTube and after watching in depth I felt that it was straight forward. You are able to add images, sound, videos and text to the E-Book. It is a beneficial app as it can bring books to life but you can also create your own lesson from a book that has already been written. This can help children who have additional support needs as you are able to highlight the important points in a story and point out different things that they may not understand or get the key message from reading the words in the book.
Today I took part in a group task that included the use of Book Creator to create a brochure about life at University of the West of Scotland (UWS) with this we used the IPad’s and went around the university taking pictures and videos to show what life at UWS is like. This was an interesting task as it allowed us to create a brochure using Book Creator before creating our own text. We got feedback on our Life at UWS Brochure and found it helpful that the feedback was positive. The only thing that could have been improved was the sound within our videos.
When Creating my own I chose a book that I read from when I was younger, Goldilocks and the Three Bears. The Curriculum for Excellence Literacy Outcome I used to create my E-Book was “I can show my understanding of what I listen to or watch by responding to and asking different kinds of questions. LIT 1-07a” (Education Scotland 2004)
The Technology one I used was “I can explore and experiment with digital technologies and can use what I learn to support and enhance my learning in different contexts. TCH 1-01a” (Education Scotland 2004).
With this I put all the main parts of the story onto my E-Book along with involving some words from the story I added in questions for children to answer with adjectives and also questions to see how well the children knew the book. Along with the children being able to ask questions about the book I had created. As it was not the whole book that they would have previously listened to or read. The story included images, sound, a recording, text and I made sure that the pictures were visible and that everything had a space where it could have been viewed. This ensured that my E-Book was multi-modal as it had visuals, audio, text and involved a spatial aspect. At the end of the book I never added the traditional ending of Goldilocks and the Three Bears I added a page to allow the children to use their imagination to create an ending involving describing words they had used when reading the E-Book. This was so it could inspire the children to use Book Creator to create their own E-Book with use of sound, images and text.
The use of apps like Book Creator within a primary school setting is useful as it can bring a story to life for children and allow them to hear sound affects to help them imagine what happened for example; what sound the chair made when it broke or what sound did Goldilocks make when she was eating the porridge. It allows them to imagine they are in the story. It also brings children up to date with technology as they could have a chance within the classroom to write an imaginative story and be able to bring it to life. It may assist the child’s imagination if they cant imagine it when writing it on paper.
References
Anstey, M. and Bull, G. (June 2010) Curriculum & Leadership Journal – An electronic journal for leaders in education – Helping Teachers to explore multi-modal texts. [Online] http://www.curriculum.edu.au/leader/helping_teachers_to_explore_multimodal_texts,31522.html?issueID=12141 [Accessed 6 February 2018 ]
BBC (2018) Web-Wise What is an E-Book? [Online] http://www.bbc.co.uk/webwise/guides/about-e-books [Accessed 6 February 2018]
Education Scotland (2004) – Curriculum for Excellence; Experiences and Outcomes [Online] https://education.gov.scot/scottish-education-system/policy-for-scottish-education/policy-drivers/cfe-(building-from-the-statement-appendix-incl-btc1-5)/Experiences%20and%20outcomes [Accessed on 2 February 2018]
Oxford Dictionary (2018) – E-Book Definition [Online] https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/us/e-book [Accessed 6 February 2018] Author: Oxford University
Scottish Government (N.D) – Enhancing Learning and Teaching through the use of Digital Technology [Online] http://www.gov.scot/Publications/2016/09/9494 [Accessed 6 February 2018]
