The True Story of Hansel and Gretel

Password: fairytales

Why was this the right tool for you to use to tell your story?

I chose to create my digital story using Zooburst because it is an online pop-up book that is easily created by adding clip art, narrative text and caption bubbles.  Zooburst gives teachers the opportunity to create online storybooks to share with their class. It also allows students a chance to practice storytelling with digital media either as an individual project or collaboratively with peers.  Zooburst creates a product that is interactive and fun to read; the pages turn like the pages of a real book and the characters and props pop up as you turn to a new page. Students will love the process of creating an online storybook because it creates a unique and engaging project they can share with their parents and classmates. 

How did you purposefully select this tool?

I purposely choose this tool because I wanted a program that was user friendly so my young students could use and navigate it easily and quickly. The free version of Zooburst provides a variety of choices to customize the look of each page through changing the page and background color, and objects can be moved, re-sized and rotated. If you want to upgrade with a purchased version there are more choices to add in audio and sound effects. 

Students will have the opportunity to be content creators as they can create their stories to and share them on an online gallery. Zooburst is a good choice for school teachers because projects can be viewed privately, can be protected by password, and it is possible to disable the comment box; therefore providing young students with safe introduction to social media. 

With this program you can easily add photos from Zooburst’s existing clip art gallery or upload your own photos from your computer or the Internet. It provides an easy interface for students to use however, it does allows for room to develop further editing skills by allowing digitally augmented pictures to be uploaded to your picture library. I uploaded pictures from the Internet and then altered them by removing their backgrounds using Gimp (free downloaded program from the Internet) because I wanted specific pictures that would match my fairytale story.

Although I thought Zooburst is a great digital story making tool there were a few limitations to this tool: it is easy to set up a class roaster for your students to use however, for this option you must upgrade with purchasing a license to use the program; the other drawback is that it will only allow you to create 10 pages per story.

How does this story work within a course that you teach using sound pedagogical arguments?

If you want your children to be intelligent, read them fairy tales.

-Einstein

This digital story will combine seamlessly into a grade three language arts unit that studies the common forms and features of well known fairy tales. The viewing and creating of digital storybooks will fulfill both the reading and viewing prescribed learning outcomes as well as the writing prescribed learning outcomes of the BC curriculum. After studying the features and form of many famous fairy tales students will create their own fractured fairytale book based on their favourite fairy tale. Students will use imaginative writing following the patterns modeled in well known fairy tales. With this online tool, students can create their book online rather than a paper copy and would fit seamlessly with my pedagogy and the BC curriculum while incorporating the use of technology.

References:

The Province of British Columbia Curriculum. Integrated Resource Package. http://www.bced.gov.bc.ca/irp/welcome.php

Zooburst

http://www.zooburst.com/