E-books along with book creator were the main element of today’s lesson. E-books are known as electronic books. They are exactly like a printed book but on technology. The Oxford Dictionary describes E-books as “An electronic version of a printed book which can be read on a computer or a specifically designed handheld device.” However, I feel they can be more than this. E-books can include audio, visuals and animations making a simple text into a multimodal text. Book creator is a program/app that allows us to create our own electronic books.
For our first task we arranged ourselves into groups and created a mind map including what knowledge we had about E-books and the benefits we felt E-books offers. We then had twenty-five minutes to make a sample E-book using Book Creator. We were to make a brochure about UWS the Ayr campus. We took multiple pictures and videos of the things we felt were an attraction to students then assembled them together to make the final brochure. This task allowed us to become familiar with the app Book Creator and the tools it offered.
Once the first task was completed we then had to create an individual E-book on book creator as part of our assessment. I chose to base my E-Book on the Roald Dahl book The Witches. We could go one of two ways when creating our electronic books. I decided to make mines an activity book where the children would have to engage and interact in order to complete each of the activities on The Witches that were given. I came up with a total of four jobs/activities to incorporate on each page. Job one included creating a mind map on the characters, the key points of the book and any similarities they noticed in this book with other books they have read. Job two included choosing their favourite character and writing a short paragraph which would include what their role in the book was and why they were their favourite character. Job three was a contusion of job two and the final job included them using their imagination to create a short paragraph to what they felt happened next.
This activity could relate to both literacy outcomes and experiences as well as technology. This is a benefit for teachers as it allows them to complete more than one experience and outcome with only one activity.
Related Experience’s and Outcomes:
”As I listen or watch, I can identify and discuss the purpose, key words and main ideas of the text, and use this information for a specific purpose.” LIT 1-04a
”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
After completing my own E-Book, I viewed them in a different way. I always thought E-Books where just books in electronic forms, However I could not be more wrong. I was surprised with how much you could do on Book Creator from adding images to voice recordings. I think it is important for children to experience literacy in different ways in order to be creative. Beauchamp suggests “Pupils need to be equipped to view language as a ‘metamode’ that enables them to access the meanings of a wide variety of texts, images, sounds and information….” (Beauchamp, 2012, p.81)
Overall, I feel Book Creator and E-Books are both beneficial tools I could use multiple times in a classroom environment.
References
Beauchamp, G. (2012) ICT in the Primary School: From Pedagogy to Practice. Pearson.
Oxford Dictionary (2018) – E-Book Definition[Online] https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/us/e-book Author: Oxford University
[Accessed 8th February 2018]
Curriculum for Excellence (2004) Experiences and Outcomes
[Online]
Available at: https://education.gov.scot/Documents/all-experiences-and-outcomes.pdf
[Accessed 11th February 2018]
