Today, class was quite different as we were out of class for a short time. We were walking around the university campus taking photographs and videos on an iPad in order to create an ebook brochure about life at UWS.  This was simply just a practice for us in preparation for our ebook assessment later in class. Some other ways that we prepared for our ebook assessment was watching youtube videos and tutorials about how to create an ebook using the ‘Book-Creator’ app on the iPad. The videos were easily accessible and it was fairly easy to follow the step by step instructions.

So why are we learning about ebooks? When a teacher plans a lesson, they will try to include many different kinds of text and as a trainee teacher it is important that I keep up to date with recent technologies. The reason for doing this is, we must ‘future proof’ our young learners because if we as educators do not keep up to date and teach young learners about new digital technologies we a basically short changing young learners in the classroom, according to Naughton (2012).

The variation of text now a days are pretty much endless, for example text books, white boards, short movies, comics, interactive smart boards and of course ebooks.  There are various benefits of an ebook, such as they can be interactive, personalised, interesting, space saving, reduces carbon foot print and they give young learners the opportunity to work and learn independently.

The ebook that I was creating today had to fall into the category of ‘multimodal’. For an ebook to be multimodal it must have two out of the five semiotic systems which are linguistic, visual, audio, gestural and spatial.  Beauchamp (2012) suggests that young learners need to be around digital technology in order to understand ‘metamode language’ this enables them to understand the meanings of the many different ways in which we can read and understand such as texts, images, sounds and information.

The ebook I created today was based around ‘Room on the Broom’ by Julia Donaldson. The reason I picked this book is because it is one of my daughters favourite books and I know it well, I knew I could create a good multimodal ebook based around the story. To ensure it would be multimodal the semiotic systems I included in the ebook were:

• Visual – Using a variety of colourful illistrations to attract attention.
• Audio – I recorded my voice and sound effects to play throughout the ebook for interaction.
• Spatial – I strategically placed the illustrations and text to ensure the ebook was easy to follow.

Before I created the ebook I looked at the curriculum for excellence experiences and outcomes and in order for me to decided which level I was creating the text for. I am aiming for level one, which is roughly p2-p4 children aged 5 – 8 years old, however I also feel that the text can be easily adjusted to suit lower or higher levels in primary school if need be. The experiences and outcomes chosen are listed below:

LIT 1-04a: As I listen or watch, I can identify and discuss the purpose, the key words and main ideas of the text, and use this information for a specific purpose.

TCH 1-01a: I can explore and experiment with digital technologies and can use what I learn to support and enhance my learning in different context.

Looking over todays activities and assessment it has opened my eyes up to the potential that is out there with in digital technology across the curriculum. As each week passes in this module I am delighted with the wealth of knowledge that I gain each week. To think this morning I hadn’t read an ebook before and now I have created one, it goes to show how fast technology is moving. Some say that they love nothing more than buying a brand new book, they like the smell and the feeling of pages however when you list these benefits next to ebook benefits the ebook will most certainly win each time.

References

• Beauchamp, G. (2012) ICT in the Primary School. [Online] Available: dawsonera.com/readonline/9781408251379 [Accessed: 7 February 2018].
• Education Scotland. (2004) Curriculum for Excellence; Experiences and Outcomes. [Online] Available: https://education.gov.scot/scottish-education-system/policy-for-scottish-education/policy-drivers [Accessed: 7 February 2018].
• Naughton, J. (2012) Why all our kids should be taught how to code. [Online] 31 March. Available: https://www.theguardian.com/education/2012/mar/31/why-kids-should-be-taught-code [Accessed: 7 February 2018].