Student Tutorial Designers

Application: My Story School eBook Maker

Knowledge:
My Story is a creative application that promotes teaching through storytelling and book making. This application allows for children to be the authors and illustrators of their own book. Students have many options when creating their illustrations. They can use the in app backgrounds or stickers, upload photos, or even illustrate their own drawings. Students also have options when it comes to the text of the book, as they can type it, write it, or even record their own voice. Upon completion of their book they can share their story on the web, export it as a movie, or as a PDF. The teacher friendly interface allows for many authors to create in one location. The interface is user friendly to young children due to the easy to use design of the application, with very little reading skills necessary, and the ability to voice record, in addition to or in place of writing or typing.



The user can add multiple authors, organized by name and photo.




The user can add multiple books and they are all organized in their own folder.


Application:
Book making becomes a very popular activity in the Pre-K classroom, as students are beginning to draw in a more realistic and comprehensive manner, and start to verbalize their own knowledge and findings. Students of this age are also starting to master the writing of letters, beyond the letters in their name, and begin to understand that words are made up of letters, and words convey meaning. These concepts trigger students to ask how to spell and write particular words. They are not yet able to write independently to convey meaning, yet they begin to demonstrate the ability to draw and explain their understandings. The use of this app would allow for students to not only create their own stories, but with teacher assistance they could convey and teach their understanding of curriculum concepts to not only peers in their classroom, but with their own family, and globally with other children on the web. The ability to voice record allows them to convey meaning through the use of their own words with the addition of photos, images, or their own drawings. The capability to share their book on the web, within the app, or printed as a PDF, allows students to share their findings and teach students current curriculum concepts. This app is also a useful assessment tool for teachers, as it is a way to document their understanding of concepts. In addition, teachers can share this documentation with parents. Students have many "ah-ha" moments at this age and it is sometimes hard to document their understanding with the exception of photographs. As students begin to emerge in their literacy concepts they are able to write or type the words in their book and read along with the use of the voice recorder, with the ability to share the books globally with more extensive content.




Students have the option to write their own words using the pencil, marker, or paint tool. It allows them to choose line thickness, the color, and the tool. It allows provides an eraser tool to remove mistakes.




Students can record their voice on each page, which makes it use friendly for younger users.




Students can also type the words to their book.




Students can upload their photographs, or use images or stickers within the app.




Students can also use the drawing tool to illustrate their book.




Students have the ability to view their story, edit their story, or share their story.


Upon completion their book can be made into a movie or a printable PDF.

Reflection:
This app is very attractive to me as a teacher, due to its ability to adapt to young, literacy emergent students. While there is a limited amount of reading necessary to get the app started, once you are building the book, almost all of the options are image based with the exception of the "done" button, and the search fields to find images. This app could independently be used by students in higher grades with little to no instruction, assuming they have basic screen skills. As an early childhood teacher, this would have to be a project that is managed one-on-one or in very small groups. With practice I am confident that students in the Pre-K classroom could use this app successfully with little help. On their own, they might be limited to the use of the drawing tools, in-app images, and voice recording. There are some higher level computer skills such as uploading images, searching for images, and typing words that could be useful to older or affluent students. Although young students might struggle with these features, I think it is an app they could progress with as their skills emerge. While younger students could create their own stories of any kind independently with the use of the drawing tools and voice recording, to be used as a tool to share academic concepts with other students it would take some teacher planning and instruction. Teachers would need to have previously uploaded photographs from the classroom, and assist in the organization of the book. There are many times that young students have a moment when they figure something out through experience or exploration and I think this app creates a great opportunity for teachers to pair photographs from the classroom with the understandings and meanings that students have gained. The ability for students to record their explanation of what they are doing or learning in a photograph, allows for teachers to not only document their understanding but to also share it with other students, or parents with both imagery and descriptive language. While this app might not be appropriate for daily use in the early childhood classroom, I think it could be a very useful way for students to share their knowledge when they have an "ah-ha" moment.