African Storybook Project #1: New stories added to the African Storybook Project website

I love the African Storybook project website http://www.africanstorybook.org/. For a couple of years I was involved in the discussions around creating it and I also ran online courses in digital storytelling for teachers wanting to create stories with their classes. This week the African Storybook Project sent out a newsflash showing their most recent story updates. I have displayed them below with links to their spot on the website.

Have you visited http://www.africanstorybook.org/, the home of the African Storybook Project (ASP)? It is a truly amazing, local website.  The stories, which are all for the younger grades,  can be read on site or downloaded to print and use. Their current collection of Featured Stories on the website home page is a great reflection of the ASP's growth and diversity after just one year in existence. The aim of the African Storybook Project is to provide Creative Commons-licensed stories for the children of Africa in all the local African languages as well as the languages of wider communication used on our continent.

Do click on the links below and read the English versions of their  latest offerings shown below:

Anansi and Turtle http://goo.gl/RrwRhV	A very tall man http://goo.gl/CRLB3R
'M'e Maneo's pumpkin http://goo.gl/GLrlmH	Hen tricks Eagle http://goo.gl/59fRhl
Elephant and Chameleon http://goo.gl/b3Smco	Colours of a rainbow http://goo.gl/qZez62
A Tiny Seed: The Story of Wangari Maathai http://goo.gl/HiuaCd	The animals dig a well http://goo.gl/lJIlxn

The first Microsoft Meet held at Bishops in April

Don't you love attending TeachMeets? One learns so much from the various short presentations.
It was exciting to make my way to the first Microsoft Meet at Bishops in Cape Town. Linda Foulkes one of our really enthusiastic MIEExpert15 teachers obtained permission from Sally Bowes for the use of the venue for the Meet.

Unfortunately we had connectivity issues on the day as there was no WIFI in the room (only dedicated connections) and many of the 3G devices also couldn’t seem to connect to their service providers. Hence no tweeting took place.

Here are some of the takeaways from the day:

1. Warren Sparrow joined us by means of a video that he had created on Office Mix on how to use office Mix. – Introduction to OfficeMix. You can watch it at this link. http://1drv.ms/1QlDf0W

2. Linda Foulkes gave a hands-on overview of the Microsoft Educator Network its benefits. She chatted about the MIEE (Microsoft Innovative Educator Expert) program, the process and benefits of entering. She also mentioned Microsoft Sway and the benefits of using OneNote in the Classroom.

3. Fiona Beal spoke about different ways of using Microsoft PowerPoint other  than as a presentation tool.

PowerPoint is alive and well! 25+ ideas for using PowerPoint creatively in the classroom (by Fiona Beal) from Schoolnet SA

4. Sachita Jeeta, from Mauritius, joined us via Skype and presented on presented on  ‘Skype in the Classroom / Mystery Skype’

5. Mabore Lekalakala also joined us via Skype with a presentation called ‘Mix to Learn Maths’ but because of connectivity issues we weren’t able to connect with her.  – https://goo.gl/DuRkRH

6. Bradley Lawrence from Living Maths – presented an energetic demonstration of Kahoot (https://getkahoot.com/) and got the audience involved in the process. We needed to log in to the computers for this so that we could access the Internet.

7. Marija Preteska also sent us an Office Mix video – https://mix.office.com/watch/11jwvp0bgumn9 on how to use One Note



Photos from the day




Further plans
Upcoming Meets will be held at Rondesboach Preparatory School next term thanks to Warren Sparrow’s generous offer. After the Meet the participants asked if we could included other webtools and not just Microsoft tools in future Meets. We say a big thank you to Linda Foulkes for organisng such a great Microsoft Meet.

I have enjoyed using Microsoft Sway with my classes at school

Sway is a free,  online, presentation web app - part of the Microsoft Office family of products I have been using with Grades 6,7 and 8 at my school. . It is also available as a iOS app. All you have to do to get started is go to this URL https://sway.com/ and join up by creating a Microsoft ID. Then just explore! What I love about Sway is that it allows one to combine text and media to create an online presentation with a difference! You can pull content locally from your device, or from Internet sources such as Bing, OneDrive, YouTube, Facebook etc. One can add videos, text, images, sound…you name it. Before you know it you have a lovely presentation!

Here are some of the ways I have used it in class

1. An assignment

I set the Grade 7s and 8s an assignment on social networking using Microsoft Sway. The aim was two- fold – for them to experience using Microsoft Sway, and for them to investigate the dangers and advantages of social networking. I presented them with the assignment using a Sway as a demonstration so that they could see it in action.

Here are some of their Sways:
Why teenagers like Facebook

YouTube and Teenagers

Why is Facebook risky?

Using social media as a teenager

2) Digital storytelling

With the Grade 6s we used Sway for digital storytelling. The class had previously written fractured fairy tales using Microsoft PowerPoint and illustrated them with a programme called Storymaker2. We added the finished products to Sway to display the stories. Here are some of the Sways:

Little Red Riding Hood

The Gingerbread Man

3) A writing portfolio

With the Grade 6s we've started to collect the poetry we've written this year and display it in Sway as a portfolio of our poetry.

Here is an example.

My Writing portfolio

A video tutorial to get your started

This short Microsoft video tutorial is presented by Koen Timmers.

This application, Sway, is fun for students! They latch on to how to use it very quickly. The possibilities are endless… Why not try it?

Webinar recording from SchoolNet’s free webinar on Thursday 11th June at 3:15pm ‘Microsoft Sway – what it is, how to use it in the classroom, and how to create one’ by Fiona Beal

On Thursday afternoon 11th June we held a SchoolNet webinar entitled, ‘Microsoft Sway – what it is, how to use it in the classroom, and how to create one’. I was the presenter and the host!

Background to the webinar
Sway is a new, free presentation web app - part of the Microsoft Office family of products. It creates lovely eye-catching, attractive, online presentations. It is also available as a iOS app. All you have to do to get started is go to this URL https://sway.com/ and join up by creating a Microsoft ID. Then just explore! Sway allows one to combine text and media to create an online presentation with a difference! You can pull content locally from your device, or from Internet sources such as Bing, OneDrive, YouTube, Facebook etc. One can add videos, text, images, sound…you name it. Before you know it you have a stunning presentation!

The webinar description
Fiona says, “You'll love Sway - it's a free, online presentation tool that can be used in many different, interesting ways. In this webinar we'll discover what Microsoft Sway is all about and we'll go through the process of creating one. We'll also discover the many ways of using Sway in your classroom. Please join us on the webinar.“

The downloadable webinar presentation
Here is the downloadable presentation from the webinar available online in SlideShare:

‘Microsoft Sway – what it is, how to use it in the classroom, and how to create one’ by Fiona Beal from Schoolnet SA

The webinar recording
The webinar recording can be listened to on the following link: http://meet78641452.adobeconnect.com/p342htcs13j/

SchoolNet South Africa provides a short, free webinar on most Thursday afternoons during the school term.

I’m swaying with delight after using Microsoft Sway in class!

I am writing about a new Microsoft product called Microsoft Sway that I have been using with Grades 6,7 and 8 at my school. Sway is a free presentation web app - part of the Microsoft Office family of products. It is also available as a iOS app. All you have to do to get started is go to thisURL https://sway.com/ and join up by creating a Microsoft ID. Then just explore! What I love about Sway is that it allows one to combine text and media to create an online presentation with a difference! You can pull content locally from your device, or from Internet sources such as Bing, OneDrive, YouTube, Facebook etc. One can add videos, text, images, sound…you name it. Before you know it you have a lovely presentation!

How have I been using it?

1) A social networking assignment

I set the Grade 7s and 8s an assignment on social networking using Microsoft Sway. The aim was two- fold – for them to experience using Microsoft Sway, and for them to investigate the dangers and advantages of social networking. I presented them with the assignment using a Sway as a demonstration so that they could see it in action. 

Here are some of their Sways:
Why teenagers like Facebook

YouTube and Teenagers

Why is Facebook risky?

Using social media as a teenager

2) Digital storytelling

With the Grade 6s we used Sway for digital storytelling. The class had previously written fractured fairy tales using Microsoft PowerPoint and illustrated them with a programme called Storymaker2. We added the finished products to Sway to display the stories.

Here are some of the Sways.

Little Red Riding Hood 

The Gingerbread Man

3) A writing portfolio

With the Grade 6s we've started to collect the poetry we've written this year and display it in Sway as a portfolio of our poetry.

Here is an example. 

My Writing portfolio

This application is fun for students! They latch on to how to use it very quickly. The possibilities are endless with Sway. Why not try it?