Using digital technology in English

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Combining images and words to support vocabulary development Combining images and words in labelled photos can support the development of subject specific vocabulary across the curriculum. Creating word banks with visual clues can be a step towards learning and remembering new key words. The same apps and tools mentioned on the previous pages can be useful. Adding yourself or the child pronouncing the word aloud can be an additional useful cue.

Making the world talk with Chatterpix ChatterPix is an example of a digital tool that works best when combined with real life resources and used in a collaborative context. Giving children googly eyes to use along with the app can inspire ideas and speech. These can be bought from various places (as separate small items or as self adhesive eyes on a roll, linked below) or made, laminated and reused. There are a set you download below)

application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.wordprocessingml.document

ChatterPix eyes.docx

Black White Wiggle Eye Stickers Labels on a Roll

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PicCollage PicCollage (or any other photo collage maker) is an easy to use app or tool to create grids of images and add text to make poetry. To follow Richard Long's example you (or the pupils) can devise a rule to follow to create the structure for the visual poem. The poem can be recorded in photos, a collection of objects, written words, spoken words or any combination of these. This type of poem can be called a shape poem, where the look of the poem on the page reflects the theme. Lesson plan and case study <a href="https://docs.google.com/document/d/1LELRLmlcp3SBuY04xHbotWjwionorxhefLs9DnA473A/edit?usp=sharing">here</a>.

Richard Long Richard Long is a British artist who works in outdoor locations around the world. One strand of his art making is to go on linear walks following a self imposed rule. He records these walks in words and phrases that read and look like poetry.

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Explore this ThingLink to find out how to use Google AR on your mobile device.

ThingLink

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The Big Book Creator Activity Book

This book has been made by Book Creator and contains lots of ideas for children's activities.&#160;

This book was made as part of an international project in a group of four countries called Digital Learning Across Boundaries (DLAB). It is a record of one of our international days.

#DLABCLIL3

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Contents Introduction Making the world talk back Story inspiration Putting yourself in the action Combining images and words in poetry Speech to text and real time collaboration Using digital approaches to support learners Other interesting tools and apps References

Flash blue

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Interesting tools to explore There are many apps and online tools that can be used in English.

Telescopic Text This is an online tool that allows you to expand sentences by adding words of different types. It is useful when exploring grammar and the difference words and word order can make to text.

Telescopic Text

Interactive word clouds This tool allows you to share a link with an audience who can then type key words. These will be displayed live on the screen with words changing size according to their popularity.

Create live word clouds

Keezy An eight tile recordable keyboard. Read the blog post to find out more.

Jean's Apps for learning and teaching | Keezy

Book Creator This digital book has been made using the online tool and app Book Creator. This tool allows you to make and publish digital books. You can include a range of material inside your book and format it as a book or a comic strip You can make a free account in Book Creator <a href="https://bookcreator.com/">here</a>. Choose 'teacher' when you make the account. With a free account you can make and share up to 40 books in your library. You can watch a short 'how to' video <a href="https://support.bookcreator.com/hc/en-us/articles/201908301-Your-first-book">here</a> that demonstrates how to get started.

Why use Book Creator?

When the book is accessed the user can choose to have the text read aloud.

Users can each make pages which the teacher can combine to make one book.

When you make the book you can add speech buttons to the text.

Many types of media and products from other apps and tools can be added to your book.

Adding hidden sound effects to an image in BookCreator can spark children's imagination and support their descriptive writing of settings. Speech and thought bubbles can also be added to explore character's dialogue and motivations. 

Wide ruled paper

Tools used in this book: Book Creator (online and app) ChatterPix (IOS app only) Clicker (online and app) Dictation in Microsoft Word (online) Google AR (online google search) Keezy (IOS app only and similar can be made using Padlet or ThingLink) Menti word clouds (online) Mote (online) Screenshot (on your device) Screen record (on your device) Text reader (on your device) Telescopic Text (online) ThingLink (online and app) Voice typing in Googledocs (online) Voice recorder (on your device) Widgit (online and app) YouTube (online)

Clicker Clicker is a software that supports writing through using letters, words and pictures on the screen for pupils to choose using eye gaze or switches. It will also read the words and sentences back to the child.

Willow Dene Special School - Success Story

Clicker (Crick software)

Writing support from Clicker

Widgit Go | Symbol Activities and Grids for iPad | Widgit

Widgit Symbols in Special Schools | Widgit

Widgit Widgit is a software that supports pupils who use Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) by using symbols. Symbols can be printed out and / or used on digital devices.

How can this app be used in English? As an adult you can use it to make story starters or prompts in the form of images or video to inspire children's creative writing. You can teach children how to make these themselves and then they can make their own images or video to use in their creative writing or swap to inspire each other. Involving the children themselves in their stories and / or including a visual aspect to their story can support them as writers with the plot, characters, setting and dialogue.

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Bear in my garden

Combining images and words in poetry Another way of combining images and words is using photos that the children have taken or choosing from those supplied to them and adding words. This can help them develop vocabulary, apply grammatical conventions and devise and write poetry. Apps such as PicCollage, Path On and Poetics are easy and useful for this and it is also possible to do it using slide making tools such as Microsoft Powerpoint, Apple Keynote or Google Slides.

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Speech to text Many apps and tools allow us to dictate our words onto the page. These can be useful for children to capture their thoughts and ideas, especially where they can say more than they can write. They can then edit their text for sense, spelling and punctuation. They will often add more detail having made a start and overcome the stress of the blank paper. Watch a video demonstration at the link below.

speech to text - MediaSpace Northampton

Voice recording on mobile devices Most mobile devices have apps that will allow you to record your voice. This can be a useful tool to capture ideas, conversation and help pupils recall their thoughts. Explore the devices you typically use in the classroom so you know where these tools are and how to use them.

The Mote extension can be added to the Google Chrome browser. It can be used to add 30 second voice comments in Google Docs, Slides, Sheets and Classroom. The user clicks on a link to hear your voice commenting, explaining or defining.

mote: voice notes & feedback

Talking Tins Talking Tins and other similar short term record and playback devices can be useful to use with younger children. These allow you to record for a limited amount of time eg 40 seconds and then repeatedly play back. You, the adult, might record a short reminder of the what to do in a learning activity so that children can listen back whenever they need a prompt. Children might record themselves speaking their ideas aloud and then listen back as they write.

Talking Tins for Education by Talking Products Ltd

Talking about art KS1

Talking about art LKS2 

Talking about art UKS2 

Across the curriculum: These books explore talking about works of art at three age phases: key stage 1, lower key stage 2 and upper key stage 2. The questions and vocabulary reflect the increasing demand. They are made in BookCreator to allow the text to be read to the reader and ensure that the reader can see the work of art as they read or listen.

Here's an example where a PE teacher has used the app ComicLife to make an information sheet for pupils. An image, text and a QR code are used to work together to communicate the key information. The QR code takes the pupil to a YouTube video clip which is especially useful here given the nature of the subject.

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Making the world talk with Chatterpix Chatterpix (Duck Duck Moose LLC, 2013) is an app for iPads and iPhones. <a href="http://www.duckduckmoose.com/educational-iphone-itouch-apps-for-kids/chatterpix/">Website</a> It allows you to take a photo and then add 30 seconds of recorded speech (the version of the app called ChatterPix Kids does not allow any sharing outside the app if you want to restrict these features when working with children).

Make any object or picture tell you its own story!

PDT1068 CP

Real time collaboration Online word processing tools and real time sharing of documents allow us to work together on one document from a variety of locations. This might be in the same classroom at school; between classes in the same school or between schools locally and internationally. A pupil and a child might be working in the same document simultaneously so that the child gets immediate feedback and encouragement. Individuals and groups of pupils can work together on the same text collaboratively co-constructing as they go. This is something older pupils could already be used to in other online multi-player scenarios.

Example: live collaboration in Powerpoint

In this example students have worked together to make slides live, and I have been able to prompt, ask questions and provide information as they work, instead of after they have finished.

Story inspiration with Google AR Using a mobile device (phone or tablet) and a Google search you can find augmented reality (AR) objects and view them in your environment. There are about thirty different AR objects, with more being added all the time. Find out more about how to do this by accessing the ThingLink on the facing page or at the link <a href="https://www.thinglink.com/scene/1309489897752494082">here</a>.

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When I got home there was a penguin on my doorstep...

Introduction There are many digital tools and apps that can be used to support and inspire learning in English or be used where English is part of a cross curricular learning experience. This book introduces you to some of these apps and tools, as well as online resources that you might find useful. Many are open and it is for you to devise how they could be used with your pupils with their age in mind along with your knowledge of their learning and the curriculum. Some digital resources and tools are essential for inclusion and help pupils with communication needs. Others are useful for engagement and motivation.

These are examples from a project called 'the secret life of the outdoors'.

How can this app be used in English and other learning? To bring book characters to life and ask the children to speak as the character To bring real people to life across a range of subjects and ask children to speak as that person To bring inanimate objects to life and describe / explain their function and composition As a starter activity or prompt As part of research, script writing and performance activity

Putting your self in the action using comic strips Comic strip tools and apps are useful in English as they can connect speech and writing and draw upon the conventions of stories, comics and graphic novels that children are familiar with. There are a number of apps and tools that allow for this approach, one being BookCreator itself.

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