Webinar recording: It's time to write our stories (25/04/2013)

The webinar summary
This webinar looks at the task of writing a story for the African Storybook Project. We will look at the different parts of story writing such as audience (characteristics of a Grade 3 child), finding inspiration, getting started, story structure, elements of a story, rubric for the African Storybook story contributions, and more...

Webinar recording
It will be useful to listen to the webinar to get the full gist of what is being said about licensing. Thank you to those who attended. I am adding the 6pm webinar:
http://meet78641452.adobeconnect.com/p1db9meti2z/

The presentation used for the webinar
SlideShare is a useful free tool for sharing PowerPoints, Keynotes or PDFs on the web. I use it constantly. I have put my presentation into Slideshare

Its time to write our stories from Fiona Beal

So let’s get writing – it might not be as difficult as you think. Maybe just give it a go and see where your story takes you. If you don’t like it you can write another one!

Have you spoken to your students about Online Safety/Digital Citizenship?

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When practising online digital writing or digital storytelling it is useful to consider issues around online safety (or Digital Citizenship as it is called) especially when working with students. 

Digital Writing: the art and practice of preparing documents primarily by computer and often for online delivery.
Digital Storytelling: Digital Storytelling refers to using digital tools for writing stories

A consideration of online safety is always good place to start now that the world is becoming increasingly digital, and connectedness with others via social media grows.  The Internet is an incredible resource – one of the greatest inventions of mankind in my opinion -  but the main thing for anyone to realise is that once one starts working online they develop a digital footprint and an online reputation. Best is to keep it good right from the start.

So it is a good idea to now and again chat to your students about the significance of a ‘digital footprint’, including what things are appropriate to post online, how to protect your identity and ways to interact with others in an online space. 

Useful informative blog posts about online safety
1) Jacqui Murray has a whole list of useful sites for teaching Digital Citizenship to students of all ages.

2) For older students this post from Lisa Nielson has a useful infographic to look at 4 things you need to know to help your students manage their online reputation

This is really just an information post, but I would love it if you added any comments about this subject in the comment box below. 

A prompt a day from Plinky.com

If you have access to 1:1 computers, or if your students have computers and Internet access at home, you could introduce them to daily writing exercise using a website called Plinky (http://www.plinky.com/)

How does Plinky work?
This is what the website says:
“Every day we provide a new prompt (like a question, or a challenge), and everyone gets a chance to answer. It's simple to add photos, maps, playlists and more. You can easily share your Plinky answers on Facebook, Twitter, WordPress, Tumblr, and most major blogging services. We know you've got something interesting to say. Plinky is here to help you say it in a fun and compelling way. Sign up below to get started!”

What happens when you sign up?
There is a fairly lengthy form to fill in

Whew! At last. This is quite a mission and it makes me wonder about involving younger primary school students. The daily prompt is shown as in my first illustration above, but there are a number of prompts to choose from if you don’t like the one displayed.

My conclusion
This could be a site for an older student. If one could get past the sign up process the site could be quite useful just for spontaneous writing.