Writing... a dreadful word to some students.
Why? Because it requires thinking, creativity, proofreading, rewriting. In one word... WORK!!!
What is Augmented Storytelling Thru Student Collaboration?
- It's a project done in 4 schools in Puerto Rico which belong to a federally funded program that serves schools which are located in the lowest 5% of achievement in our country. These schools serve low income families and range from Elementary to High School.
- The purpose of the project was to get the students motivated and excited about writing.
- No school is the same, so to reach our goal we had to take into consideration the available technology in each school.
Some of the materials we used were:
- Storyboards
- Pencils, crayons, markers
- Laptops and tablets
One school had ESL students use Chromville to create short stories in pairs, then they used tablets to see their characters come to life. Students were eager to write about their characters because they wanted to use the tablets to see how their characters were looking.
The other three schools used Zooburst to create Digital 3D Popup books. We used the app for the ESL and Spanish courses.
The first school used the poems that were written in the 3rd grade Spanish class and paired the students with members of the Microsoft IT Academy Club, in the after school program (TLE), and they converted the poems into 3D books. Then integrating the school community, the books were presented to parents. To integrate other students, the books were used to create multiple choice practice questions for the 3rd and 4th graders to review for the local standardized tests (META-PR). The work done by the students then became part of a Microsoft in Education Project who received an award for Innovative Educators.
The other two schools, used the App to create stories for the English class. Students worked collaboratively to write the stories and to create the 3D books. Students then presented their final books to their classmates. A gallery walk was created in the schools so that the whole community could read the augmented reality stories created by the students.
In the end we had over 75 stories created by students. Throughout the project students were engaged working collaboratively. Writing was no longer a dreadful task and even if they had to present orally in a non-native language they did it. They were proud of the work they made.
Integrating technologies like these made our students want to come to school every day, some stayed after school to work on the project while others arrived early too. This was not just a way to integrate technology in the classroom it was a way to collaborate, create and engage students who are typically reluctant writers. This project supported the curricular goals of these schools and helped their students effectively reach their goals.
As Zucker and Light said: “Simply adding technology to K-12 environments does not improve learning. What matters is how it is used to develop knowledge and skills.
Why? Because it requires thinking, creativity, proofreading, rewriting. In one word... WORK!!!
What is Augmented Storytelling Thru Student Collaboration?
- It's a project done in 4 schools in Puerto Rico which belong to a federally funded program that serves schools which are located in the lowest 5% of achievement in our country. These schools serve low income families and range from Elementary to High School.
- The purpose of the project was to get the students motivated and excited about writing.
- No school is the same, so to reach our goal we had to take into consideration the available technology in each school.
Some of the materials we used were:
- Storyboards
- Pencils, crayons, markers
- Laptops and tablets
One school had ESL students use Chromville to create short stories in pairs, then they used tablets to see their characters come to life. Students were eager to write about their characters because they wanted to use the tablets to see how their characters were looking.
The other three schools used Zooburst to create Digital 3D Popup books. We used the app for the ESL and Spanish courses.
The first school used the poems that were written in the 3rd grade Spanish class and paired the students with members of the Microsoft IT Academy Club, in the after school program (TLE), and they converted the poems into 3D books. Then integrating the school community, the books were presented to parents. To integrate other students, the books were used to create multiple choice practice questions for the 3rd and 4th graders to review for the local standardized tests (META-PR). The work done by the students then became part of a Microsoft in Education Project who received an award for Innovative Educators.
The other two schools, used the App to create stories for the English class. Students worked collaboratively to write the stories and to create the 3D books. Students then presented their final books to their classmates. A gallery walk was created in the schools so that the whole community could read the augmented reality stories created by the students.
In the end we had over 75 stories created by students. Throughout the project students were engaged working collaboratively. Writing was no longer a dreadful task and even if they had to present orally in a non-native language they did it. They were proud of the work they made.
Integrating technologies like these made our students want to come to school every day, some stayed after school to work on the project while others arrived early too. This was not just a way to integrate technology in the classroom it was a way to collaborate, create and engage students who are typically reluctant writers. This project supported the curricular goals of these schools and helped their students effectively reach their goals.
As Zucker and Light said: “Simply adding technology to K-12 environments does not improve learning. What matters is how it is used to develop knowledge and skills.