WK 4

Week 4 Tasks

Task 1, Days 1-3: What are collaborative digital stories?

This week's tasks are all about collaborating to create digital stories. Your first task is to think about what is meant by "collaborative":

What are collaborative stories? Have you ever created one with your learners? In what way was the story collaborative?
What are the benefits of asking our students to collaborate?
How would you organise a collaborative project such as a story on a larger scale, such as with learners from other classes, schools or even countries?

Post your answers to these questions in our DigiKids EVO Edmodo Group and continue the discussion. We are looking forward to hearing your ideas!

Now you have tried and tested out some of the tools in our sandbox, it is time to think about how you can use these tools to create collaborative stories, Which tools would lend themselves particularly well to this type of story? Have a look at these examples and choose one you like, giving reasons for your choice in our DigiKids EVO Edmodo Group.

If you have a smartphone, you may like to try out the Posterous app and let us know how you might get your students to use it to create digital stories.

Summary of tasks for days 1-3:

a. Talk about the different ways in which students can collaborate to create a story and post your ideas in ourDigiKids EVO Edmodo Group.

b. Respond to comments made by other participants in our DigiKids EVO Edmodo Group.

c. Look at these examples of collaborative stories and choose one you like. Explain why you like it in ourDigiKids EVO Edmodo Group.

d. Visit the sandbox and play around with some of the tools including some of the apps. (Storybird, etc.)

e. Check out the Posterous app and post how you might use this app to create a collaborative story in our DigiKids EVO Edmodo Group. (Subject: Posterous App)

f. Post any queries you may have about the tools in the DigiKids EVO Edmodo Group.

Task 2, Days 2-5: Audio stories with VoiceThread

"A VoiceThread is a collaborative, multimedia slide show that holds images, documents, and videos and allows people to navigate slides and leave comments in 5 ways - using voice (with a mic or telephone), text, audio file, or video (via a webcam). Share a VoiceThread with friends, students, and colleagues for them to record comments too."

taken from the Voicethread website.

We can start by reading some of these blog posts about using Voicethread from our moderators:

High Tech Ideas for Low Tech Classrooms: Voicethread from Barbara's Teaching Village blog.
A Story Project with 6 year-olds from Michelle's So This Is English... blog.
Digital Storytelling with Voicethread (and How to Do It Offline) from Dave's Reflections of a Teacher and Learner blog.

We would like you to set up an account with VoiceThread in order to complete the next few tasks. Our main task is to contribute to an existing VoiceThread sharing with us your experiences of teaching young learners. You can choose the way in which you do so, by typing in the text box, recording your voice, or even recording a video. You can find tutorials on how to register and comment and how to create your own VoiceThread on our Week 4 tutorials page.

Once you have seen VoiceThread in use, explain how you would use the tool to make collaborative stories in your class, again in our DigiKids EVO Edmodo Group.

Finally, if you have not already done so, visit the #eltpics gallery on Flickr and browse the different topics.

Summary of tasks for days 2-5

a. Create an account with http://voicethread.com/

b. Share your experiences of teaching young learners in our example VoiceThread.

c. How can we use VoiceThread in class? Post your ideas in our DigiKids EVO Edmodo Group.

d. Visit the #eltpics gallery on Flickr and browse the different topics.

Task 3, Day 3: Collaborative written stories

A wiki such as the one we are using in this session, PBworks, can also be a suitable place for older students to create a more traditional, written story. Here is one example.

The main aim of a wiki is for dfferent people to provide input and share their knowledge (e.g. Wikipedia) so this makes them ideal for any type of ongoing collaborative work. Would you consider asking your students to create a story in this way? How might a wiki be more appropriate for a longer written story than the tools you have already used?

One of the advantages of a wiki is that it enables the teacher to take a more active role. The teacher is able to provide guidance and assistance as the story can be edited at any time. How would you, as a teacher, use the comments section at the bottom of each page, to guide and moderate the story as it takes shape?

There are also other tools that can be used for collaborative writing such as Google Docs, Primary Pad or blogs. How could you use such tools with your learners? What are the advatages and disadavantages of using them?

Finally, what can we do with the completed stories? Can you come up with any extension tasks based around the finished stories?

a. Discuss the pros and cons of using a wiki for collaborative written stories in the DigiKids EVO Edmodo Group.

b. Discuss how teachers can make use of the comments section to guide and moderate.

c. Exchange ideas for storytelling activities with other collaborative writing tools and the pros and cons of using them.

d. Say how you think teachers can extend lessons based on the completed stories in the DigiKids EVO Edmodo Group.

Task 4, Days 3-5: Create your own collaborative story

Your practical project is to collaborate with other course participants to create a story. You can collaborate on as many stories as you like. You can choose the topic of your story.

a. Choose a platform for your story (i.e. Voicethread, the Posterous app, Google Docs, PBworks).

b. Set up your story with an inital picture, paragraph or sentence.

c. Invite other participants to contribute by posting the link in our DigiKids EVO Edmodo Group.

d. When the story is "complete" email it to our Posterous group for all to see.

Task 5, Days 4-6: Showcase your work by attending our webinar

a. Attend our synchronous session on Sunday 10th February at 16:00 GMT or watch the recording.

Please attend our webinar to showcase your projects and ask questions! Sessions will be recorded, and the recordings shared in our archives, in case you can't attend. We will be using the Edublogs Elluminate Room. Your computer may take a few minutes to download the software and you will need to allow it to run.

Webinar 1

Sunday, February 10th at 16:00 GMT (17:00 Barcelona, 18:00 Istanbul/Cairo, 21:00 Bangkok/Jakarta, 12:00 Beijing, 01:00 Tokyo Monday, 03:00 Melbourne Monday)

(What time is this for you?)

If you've never attended a session in Elluminate, please watch this "how to" video on our tutorial page: How to enter our Elluminate room (for weekly webinars)

The goal for our first webinar is to help everyone become comfortable with our Elluminate room. If you have never used Elluminate before, you will need to join and create an account and download a program before you can join the session (all free), so be sure to allow yourself enough time (or take care of the set up prior to Saturday). We'll have moderators on Skype to help.

b. Comment on other participants' stories.

c: Leave feedback on the tools used and their possible problems.