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Interactive Digital Stories

The following article was contributed by a member of ISTE's SIG for handheld computing (SIGHC). We're hoping to make member-shared best practices a regular part of SIG News. If you have an idea for a member tip or resource for a future issues of SIG News, please send an email to ksvoboda@iste.org.

Dr. Michael Vallance
Future University, Hokkaido, Japan
michael@fun.ac.jp

The iPod allows the portability of interactive digital stories that support, or are supported by, Podcasts. Although essentially an audio and video player, the iPod can also display text. By using iWriter 1.2 software (http://www.talkingpanda.com/iwriter/), teachers and students can develop interactive stories that may be displayed on iPods.

As a faculty member at Future University in Japan, I use iPods to facilitate science communication. My students plan, record, edit, and upload Podcasts of faculty, and then link ‘interactive stories’ that complement the information provided within each interview. For instance, students select an academic staff member to interview. They then conduct pre-interview fact finding about the professor and his/her teaching and research. This is followed by a pre-arranged interview conducted in English or Japanese. The recorded interview is then digitized as an enhanced podcast using Apple’s latest Garageband software, and uploaded to a dot Mac account.

What makes the experience unique is the next step; students have to develop an “interactive story” to support the professor's content. The linked podcast and interactive story text are then accessed via the “Extras - Notes” folder on the students' iPods. Students use iWriter 1.2 software to input their text and create multiple-choice questions. These multiple-choice questions allow the story producer's peers to follow different paths through the story of the professor, his/her interview, the discussed topic, or any additional relevant information provided by the student.

Of course, such paths result in a maze of links that need careful planning. To ensure navigation and correct linking, concept-mapping software called Inspiration (http://www.inspiration.com) is utilized. During the user-defined interactive journey, the enhanced podcast is often linked and can be heard again if desired. It is acknowledged that for some teachers, such interactive stories or mazes may simply represent old teaching ideas in new technologies: “old wine in new bottles” (Higgins, 1995). However, text-based, interactive digital stories linked to audio files and supported by authentic and meaningful pre- and post-podcast activities can be an effective learning resource. If utilized in an “informed way” the activities can:

• support group work;
• be flexible in process and outcome;
• provide opportunities for peer review and support;
• offer a wide and authentic readership so the writing becomes more purposeful;
• provide opportunities for authentic and meaningful communication in project development;
• create opportunities for multiple media and multimodal experiences; and
• develop digital literacy through creating, organizing, managing, evaluating and presenting information as a digital artifact. (Towndrow & Vallance, 2004).

References

Higgins, J. (1995) Computers and English Language Learning. UK: Intellect.