Digital Technolgies-Mobile Devices/Ebooks 6/2/18

 

Upon reflection of Digital Technologies week 5 lesson on the use of E-books in the classroom it is clear as to why the use of e-books is becoming increasingly popular in todays society. Firstly, the Oxford dictionary defines e-books as “An electronic version of a printed book which can be read on a computer or a specifically designed handheld device.” (Oxford dictionary). However, despite being aware of the definition of an e-book prior to this lesson, I was not aware of the multiple benefits of e-books. At the beginning of the lesson we gathered into groups to create a mind-map discuss the benefits of e-books before experimenting with E-books and creating our own for the lesson task.

 

 

 

Today’s task begun with us working in groups to create a multimodal brochure advertising student life at UWS.  To do this we had to take photos and videos of the university’s main attractions such as the library and lecture theatres.  We then combined the photos and videos to the text descriptions in the brochure, making it a multimodal text. Despite my group falling short of time to complete the task the activity gave us the experience and confidence of using the Book Creator App that we needed for the assessment task.

The assessment task involved editing a children’s book we had read into a multimodal e-book we could potentially use in a lesson. The book I chose to edit was “Froggy goes to bed!” by Jonathan London.  The book is about Froggy being feeling exhausted from a day of play however when it’s time for bed Froggy finds any excuse not to go to sleep.  After reading this book it is easy to see why children love the book, the book follows a child’s stereotypical bedtime routine of bathing and brushing teeth while adding an abundance of onomatopoeia and adding the comedic element of Froggy always losing his possessions. While editing the book I included questions for the readers to show their understanding of the book such as “use an adjective to describe Froggys mother” (see featured images).  To make my e-book multimodal I included the semiotic systems; linguistic, visual, audio, gestural and spatial.

 

 

As a learner I had pervious experience of reading E-books however no experience of creating my own. After watching some YouTube tutorial videos, I found the app and its features easy to use. I enjoyed adding text, drawings, audio and images to my book.

As a student teacher I feel E-books would be an educational and engaging resource to introduce to the classroom.  After using E-books, myself I feel children would have no trouble creating their own e-books and that they would find it fun and engaging. The Scottish Children’s Parliament released a document entitled “A Digital Learning and Teaching Strategy” that detailed children’s responses to questions on technology. When asked whether they would like to use digital technology more often for learning and how, many children answered that “this was seen as having the potential to make learning more fun or engaging” and “that accessing iPads or other classroom technology should be seen as the usual/normal thing to do, and not just something offered as a reward or part of Golden Time” (Scottish Children’s Parliament 2016). Additionally, the use of e-books provides children with an unlimited range of stories to choose from. Therefore, they are no longer restricted to the same books from their classroom library and in turn their literacy skills will continue to develop as they read new and exciting texts. Also, the use of e-books can result in the learner feeling more engaged with the text they are reading through its multi-modality. Lots of e-books now have engaging features such as sound and pictures to encourage the child to interact more with the story. For educators, e-books supply a helping hand to children who may struggle to read as there is a feature enables the learner to have the book read to them aloud, meaning they no longer must wait for the help of the teacher if they are struggling to read the text themselves.

In addition, e-books provide a classroom the opportunity to incorporate 21st century technology into lessons. Children in today’s society are heavily familiar with the use of technology such as I-pads and smartphones hence why they are considered ‘digital natives’ (Beauchamp 2012) as they are surrounded by it every day thus they are more likely to be excited to use technology that they use in their home life than they are to read a book. Beauchamp (2012) spoke on the implications this may have on a classroom as with more and more children becoming ‘digital natives’ it is likely that children have greater experience in the use of technology than their teacher does. Therefore, it is vital that we as student teachers expand our experience and knowledge of using technology to keep up with the digital age.

Furthermore, E-books can be used in line with multiple Curriculum for Excellence outcomes. For example, I feel my e-book would be a good asset to a lesson that is in line with the Technology and English areas of the curriculum:

“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

“To show my understanding, I can respond to different kinds of questions and other close reading tasks and I am learning to create some questions of my own.”     ENG 1-17

To conclude, todays lessons on e-books developed my understanding on the importance and impact of using e-books in the classroom. I now feel I have the skills and confidence to progress with using e-books to develop my ideas on the ways I could incorporate the use of e-books into future lessons. I look forward to introducing e-books into future lessons as I feel they will be a fun and interactive asset to many lessons within the curriculum.

 

References:

Beauchamp, G. (2012) ICT in the Primary School: From Pedagogy to Practice. Pearson

Children’s Parliament Consultation (2016) A Digital Learning and Teaching Strategy for Scotland: The Views of Children. [Online] Available: http://www.childrensparliament.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/REPORT_digital-learning-consultation_Childrens-Parliament-1.pdf . [Accessed on 6 February 2018]

 

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