Tuesday 5th February
In schools reading is a major part of the curriculum. In this week’s lesson we learned all about e-books. An e-book can be described as “an electronic version of a printed book which can be read on a computer or a specially designed handheld device” (BBC, 2014). A handheld device could include iPads, phones and many more. Our task was to create a summary of a children’s book into an e-book using book creator on an iPad. Coming into this lesson I was excited to get to recreate one of my favourite childhood books. I also felt confident using the book creator app as we had previously used it in a Literacy lesson meaning I would be able to use it effectively.
There are many benefits of using iPads and mobile devices in schools especially apps such as book creator. When given a mobile device, children are able to take control of their own learning. This may motivate many students to improve their learning especially those that do not enjoy sitting and listening to an input. A report from the University of Hull showed that nearly 100% of the pupils agreed that using an iPad made their learning more enjoyable (Burden et. al., 2012). This report also stated, “The device also encouraged many teachers to explore alternative activities and forms of assessment for learning” (Burden et. al., 2012). This shows that iPads also have benefits for teachers. It is allowing them to provide children with a different platform to work on and they are able to use so many more apps on it including book creator. The Government are currently working on introducing more Digital technologies like these into all primary schools to give all children equal learning experiences (Children’s Parliament, 2016).
The book I chose was ‘The Gruffalo’ by Julia Donaldson. I chose to use this book as it was one of my childhood favourites so I knew I would enjoy making a summary of it. To start I had chosen a background colour and the layout of my book. I made sure not to choose a plain white background so all children would be able to easily read it. I inserted a picture of the front of the book so children could see exactly what book it was. As I continued, I found many different ways to make my book interactive. I inserted sound, pictures and asked questions. For example, as the story goes on the mouse bumps into many different characters, one being an owl. I then asked, “Can you hoot like an owl?” which includes the pupils in the reading. I also decided to insert a question page to find out what the children thought about the book. In the end I was extremely happy with the outcome of my interactive, multimodal e-book.
There were many experiences and outcomes that fit in with my e-book and the experience of creating a book using book creator. These include:
• 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
• I can explore digital technologies and use what I learn to solve problems and share ideas and thoughts. TCH 0-01a
Take a look at the photos below to see what I created! I think the use of iPads and in-particular the book creator app is extremely useful to use in a classroom and I will definitely plan on using them in the near future.
References
BBC WebWise (2012) What is an e-book? [Online] Available: http://www.bbc.co.uk/webwise/guides/about-e-books [Accessed 3 February 2019]
Burden et. al. (2012) iPad Scotland Evaluation [Online] Available: http://moodle1819.uws.ac.uk/pluginfile.php/39914/mod_resource/content/2/Scotland-iPad-Evaluation.pdf [Accessed 16 February 2019]
Children’s Parliament Consultation (2016) A Digital Learning and Teaching Strategy for Scotland: The Views of Children.
