Literacy Now

“Awesome! (The T. rex) exploded the crate!”

“It’s like you’re holding it!”

“Can you make it roar? Press the button.”

“Try to make it run or jump.”

“Can T. rexes jump?”

This snippet of dialogue between three 8-year-old boys exploring an augmented reality (AR) informational book vividly captures the excitement and engagement of young readers discovering a new reading technology. In this case it’s an AR pop-up book about dinosaurs of the kind described by Joan Rhodes. The boys’ excitement is contagious.

At the same time, the snippet also illustrates some legitimate concerns we may have:

• Highly engaging AR features may lead to misconceptions (e.g., Children inferring that dinosaurs are alive today and can be captured in crates)  
• Technology learning may eclipse content learning (e.g., Children may learn more about controlling the movements of a digital T. rex on a tablet than about T. rex anatomy, evolution, and so on.)
• AR texts may create expectations about what reading should look like and feel like that then actually make it harder for readers to engage in sustained, effortful reading and thinking with non–AR texts (e.g., “This book is boring—it doesn’t have any pop-ups”)

To be fair, the snippet of dialogue also contains a comeback to these concerns. The last boy asks, “Can T. rexes jump?” AR enthusiasts believe that’s what an AR reading experience can do—ignite curiosity and thoughtful inquiry. Without an AR text, some kids might never become interested enough to ask questions. You need the AR to lure readers in. Once they’re engaged, you can try to deepen the thinking and the conversation.

This comeback may be especially persuasive to parents and teachers who fret that their children will not otherwise pick up a book at all. Still, whatever the current reading habits and motivation level of the children we’re working with, it makes sense to ask, “What exactly are we hoping to augment with AR texts?”

Aspects of learning we care about and want to monitor for growth include the following:

• Minutes our students spend “on task” with books
• Underlying motivation to read
• Level of curiosity about a particular topic or about the world in general
• Vocabulary growth
• Quantity of classroom talk (with peers and with us) generated by books
• Quality of the talk generated by books
• Depth of their understanding of key concepts
• Comprehension and recall of essential information

Which of these would you prioritize with the students you work with? What other indicators of learning would you want to track?

It’s not the tech that’s good or bad—it’s the ways tech is used

There is an urgent need for more research on the impact of e-books, AR books, and other digital media on the reading behaviors and outcomes of diverse learners of all ages. Recent studies with young children by researchers at Wake Forest University and Northern Arizona University suggest mixed effects, with traditional print texts outperforming digital texts and toys with regard to the quality of verbal interactions among readers and comprehension and recall of information. However, drawing big conclusions from a small number of small studies would be a mistake.

It can also not be repeated often enough: Technology by itself doesn’t cause anyone to learn better or worse. It’s how technology is used, in context and with purpose, with or without particular forms of guidance, that may improve—or impede—learning.

Further, often, a difference in a single factor may make a big difference. For example, if students have little or no background knowledge about a given topic (e.g., dinosaurs), an AR book may lead to misconceptions. However, with students who have just a bit more background knowledge, the same AR book may stimulate all sorts of powerful learning—with students learning basic facts but also noticing inaccuracies, fact checking details, constructing arguments, and so on. Indeed, you might purposefully choose a poorly made AR book to teach a memorable lesson about fact checking!

Every teacher needs to be a researcher

If you’re lucky, you’ll find a study that comes close to testing exactly what you want to know about—the impact of a particular AR book and intervention very similar to the one you’re considering on learners very similar in age and background to your students. More likely, though, you’re going to have to rely on studies that aren’t exactly “spot on” to inform and guide your decisions.

And it’ll be up to you to decide which factor(s) or indicator(s) you want to track, informally or systematically, to decide whether that new AR book you’ve decided to use with learners is actually having the impact you want. In an age of such rapid innovation and change, we all need to be researchers.

Paul Morsink is an instructor in the MAET program at Michigan State University.

This article is part of a series from the International Reading Association’s Technology in Literacy Education Special Interest Group (TILE-SIG).

Like many of you, I am always looking for a new tool to place in my teacher toolbox, something that will help me reach each of my students more effectively. However, we see trends come and go as educators, and often we see strategies repackaged and given a new name. So when I began hearing things like “gamification” and “gaming in the classroom,” I was skeptical at first. My mind was filled with images of students spending hours in front of screens with little reaction to those living in our three-dimensional world.

I would not call myself a gamer. Sure, I enjoy playing games—digital and otherwise—but I have learned how easily one can get sucked into them. I asked myself, does this “new” idea have merit? Will it support my students’ learning goals, give them a voice, and help them make the world a better place?

With that skepticism in mind, I began attending gaming sessions at conferences, reading articles and blogs, and engaging with other educators through social media to learn more. I heard about complex systems of badges and rewards in addition to detailed directions for student-designed video games. Although hearing about how this was working for other teachers was impressive, I, like many of my colleagues, was failing to see the connection between these ideas and the practicality of my middle school classroom. I wondered how bringing gaming into my classroom would support student learning.

Then, in an Edcamp session facilitated by Laren Hammonds, I learned that by taking the principles that make a game exciting for players and translating them into classroom practice, a teacher can foster an environment where students are engaged. Does this include a teacher or student using games to support learning? Yes, sometimes. Does this include students creating games to prove mastery of standards? It absolutely can.

Here are a few practices that game makers use that translate well into classroom practices. My bet is that you are already using most of these with your students.

Competition

Many of our students thrive on competition. In our sixth-grade classroom, my male students tend to work much harder when there is a competition in place, even for something as small as bragging rights. For some of our students, competition is the way to reach them and get them to connect with our content. It can help to build relationships among team members, and it teaches them a valuable life lesson: how to win or lose gracefully.

Challenge

Like with any task, if you make it too easy, the audience will lose interest. We want our students, the next generation, to have the opportunity to fail, learn from their failures, make new plans, grow, and work toward success. Yes, our students need our support and their peers’ support along the way. This not only engages them in a growth mind-set, but also helps to build a strong work ethic. They become stronger, self-motivated, and more independent.

Communication

Our students are no longer dying of dysentery on the Oregon Trail. Today’s games include connecting with others in real time. Our learners need that opportunity. Today’s learners expect to be able to get timely feedback. They crave the opportunity to have real-time sessions to discuss, analyze, plan, and strategize their next move. They write, speak, listen, and learn about putting all of their literacy lessons into practice in a meaningful manner with an authentic audience.

Camaraderie

Our students want to belong. In today’s games, they have the opportunity to build teams, chat with others, and learn from one another. In our classrooms, we have the opportunity to provide our learners with opportunities to collaborate, both face-to-face and through digital tools. Our students want to feel that they belong to something bigger than themselves. And isn’t that what we want our classrooms to be—a safe environment that includes and supports everyone?

Do all of these strategies work with all students? Not more than any other strategy. However, games have been around for centuries. To dismiss them would be to deprive our students of rich learning opportunities.

With this in mind, I may be a gamer after all. How about you?

Julie D. Ramsay is a National Board Certified Teacher and the author of “Can We Skip Lunch and Keep Writing?”: Collaborating in Class and Online, Grades 3–8.She teaches ELA to sixth graders at Rock Quarry Middle School in Tuscaloosa, AL. She also travels the country to speak, present, and facilitate workshops in applying technology to support authentic learning. Read her blog, eduflections.

In a recent study, nearly 8 out of 10 parents reported their kids watch videos or play games on an electronic device. As the parent of a 14-year-old, I would fall into this demographic, as my son seems to be perpetually on his phone or computer. Given my profession, I have stressed to him that he needs to be cautious when online on any device, and we have an open technology policy, meaning I can examine his devices at any time. Yet, even with my careful approach, we found out how quickly a mouse click can turn into a very problematic situation.

As a bit of background, for a recent birthday, my son received a computer that we selected specifically for his online gaming. He was in the process of searching for content and game downloads when a pop-up window appeared on the screen, informing him that his “computer was at risk.” The message indicated that he needed to speak with a representative to fix the problem. Taken aback, my son obeyed the message. Within 10 minutes, he had made two phone calls and allowed an unknown individual to access his new computer remotely. Realizing something did not feel quite right, he called me on a different phone, and I told him to shut off the computer immediately and hang up on whoever was impersonating technical support.

Thankfully all appears OK, but this situation underscores the need for parents and teachers to remain vigilant and educate children on the nine themes associated with digital citizenship. Various documents provide some foundational support in this process (see AASL, ISTE, or Manitoba, Canada’s LwICT,); however, my recommendation for a truly comprehensive resource is Common Sense Education’s website. Given my space constraints, I’ll only briefly describe elements associated with the Digital Citizenship Scope and Sequence and Family Toolbox, but would suggest you give yourself a few hours to explore the many resources on the website.

The Digital Citizenship Scope and Sequence represents a free curriculum built around eight categories, including Internet safety, privacy and security, relationships and communication, and information literacy. In total, there are 80 lessons in units that teach skills ranging from sending an e-mail to identifying cyberbullying within grade bands of K–2, 3–5, 6–8, and 9–12. The lessons are aligned with the Common Core Standards as well as the AASL and ISTE standards, providing a solid basis for their use in the classroom. Each lesson is available in .pdf format in English and Spanish, yet there is the potential for greater interactivity using digital workbooks in iBooks or accessing content through Nearpod, although these require purchase. On the other hand, the Family Toolbox was created to enable connections between home and school. Resources, which are designed for parents, include videos, conversation-starters, and guidelines that will help them talk to children about how to make good digital choices. I especially like the Family Activity Worksheets, as each contains a three-step activity that involves a child and adult working together to learn a skill or concept related to the lessons within the scope and sequence.

As I think back on the situation with my son, we both learned a valuable lesson and, in retrospect, I should have done more to prepare him. If there is any solace, it’s that through our conversations he suspected something was wrong during the interaction with “tech support” and knew to call me. Given a recent report revealing 72% of parents expressed concern about teens’ online interactions, I think it’s imperative for educators to highlight resources like those found on Common Sense Education and continue to help parents hold conversations with their children by providing other resources focused on Internet safety (e.g., the FTC's Protecting Kids Online page, Kids.gov, and NewSmartz Workshop). Given our children and youths’ use of digital resources is unlikely to diminish, we must do everything possible to enable them to make wise and responsible online choices.

For additional information and resources from Pew Research and Common Sense Media, visit:

• Teens & Technology
• Education
• Privacy & Safety
• Media Use by Tweens & Teens

S. Michael Putman, PhD, is an associate professor and interim chairperson in the Reading and Elementary Education Department at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. His areas of research include the impact of teacher preparation and professional development on teacher self-efficacy, student dispositions toward online inquiry, and the effective use of technology within teaching practices.

Listen to the soundscape around you right now. What do you hear? Perhaps the subtle buzzing of lights, distant voices in the background, or maybe you have music softly streaming on your computer. No matter where you are in the world, life is rich with sound.

Creating soundscapes has been a longstanding practice in cinema by foley artists. Most sounds you hear in a movie were not there to begin with and are made post-production. Just as music, sound effects, and ambience amplifies the experience for moviegoers, sound is important in students’ multimodal composition.

This New York Times piece highlights the power of aural environments in our lives, and at the same time illustrates the power that sound can play in multimodal composition. Composing with and through sound is often overlooked in the classroom. How might we engage students in thoughtful sonic composing to develop a stronger, more embodied sense of audience, cultural soundscapes, and emotional impact of tone and mood when digitally writing?

The #hearmyhome Project

Two digital trailblazers in the area of (re)imagining sound and sonic composing in classrooms are Jon M. Wargo, a doctoral candidate in Teacher Education at Michigan State University (as well as one of ILA’s inaugural 30 Under 30 awardees), and Cassie J. Brownell, a doctoral student in Teacher Education at Michigan State University.

Wargo and Brownell’s 2016 #hearmyhome project is a unique networked soundscapes inquiry that encourages people around the globe to share everyday soundscapes using the #hearmyhome tag on various social media. By hearing and listening to the community soundscapes collected, Wargo believes it may reeducate the senses and attune us towards cultural difference. Participants with geotagging services on will have their audio, comments, usernames, and locations generated on a live map on the #hearmyhome website, planned to go live late January).

You can follow #hearmyhome across multiple social networks (Soundcloud, Twitter, Instagram) and can join an up-to-date mailing list to learn about the list of participatory “sonic events” for your classroom to get involved in.

Using Booktrack Classroom to Soundscape Text

Booktrack Classroom is a free Web-based Chrome app (also available for iOS and Android devices) that combines written words and synchronized sounds into an immersive reading experience. This is not an audio book in which a recorded voice reads the text to the listener, but instead the reader reads the text on his/her own while hearing sounds that correspond with the print on the screen. Simply put: a soundtrack for the book!

To keep sounds in sync with the text, Booktrack can be adjusted to the reader’s pace. The reading speed and volume of sounds can be manipulated by the reader. When the text is paused, a setting gear appears which allows the reader to turn on/off the text tracking indicator and more.

To experience a Booktrack for yourself, scroll about halfway down the page and click on one of the free samples.

Not only does Booktrack Classroom provide students with access to a number of books with soundtracks, but students can create brand new soundscapes to books housed in their library or  create their own Booktrack with an original piece of writing that can be published for others to read.

Creating a Booktrack

Students can either type in their own story or select a book from the library. Next, they layer in sound–ambience, music, and sound effects–by highlighting specific parts of the text they want the sound to accompany (see screenshot below). As they soundscape the text, students engage in many critical skills: analytical listening, determining where to add sound and include sound effects, deciding what specific sound will create the right ambience, , understanding how to evoke the right emotion with music, and in the end, discerning whether their sound choices will enhance the overall reading experience for the intended audience.

There are a few considerations to be made before bringing Booktrack into the classroom, such as how can soundtracks and soundscaping assist students with comprehension? Furthermore, teachers will need to model and discuss with students how to efficiently search, listen, and select sounds from the more than 120,000 clips available on the site. Also, students will need headphones/earbuds for composing and listening. Some students might find these soundtracks to be a distraction; the sound can be turned all the way down to eliminate this issue.

Getting our students to tune in and become better listeners and producers of sound will help them grow as thoughtful digital composers, and #hearmyhome and Booktrack Classroom are just two of the many ways you can explore sonic literacy with your students.

Amber White is a reading specialist/literacy coach for North Branch Area Schools and a teacher consultant for the Saginaw Bay Writing Project. You can follow her on Twitter.

Revision can be such a grueling process for middle school students, so I am always on the lookout for ways to make it more fun and engaging. Technology motivates my students, and I have found that if I use it in the right way, it can inspire and transform students’ writing.  One way that I have used apps is to have students to transmediate, or change, one aspect of their writing into another medium such as art, poetry, or song. The process of transmediation can help students reenvision an idea, a character, or a conflict and in turn help them revise their writing.

One app I use to foster transmediation is Faces iMake. After students write a first draft of their personal narratives, they use Faces iMake to transmediate one aspect of their writing: character’s descriptions. We have all used the mantra “show, don’t tell,” but sometimes I wonder if students truly know how to do this well. I found that using Faces iMake helps students take a step back from their original writing and consider alternative, unique ways to describe their characters and make their writing more colorful.  With this app, students create face collages using a variety of materials such as fruits and vegetables, musical instruments, different textured cloth, sports equipment, and the like.

At the revision stage of writing, I invite students to create collages for the characters in their narratives. After they create the collage, they write similes or metaphors to accompany their collages. For example, a student might drag and drop a xylophone to be the mouth of their iFace and accompany it with the simile “her speech was as punctuated as the percussion section of the orchestra.” Then I ask students to reread their drafts and contemplate whether any of the ideas they came up with during their collage making could be incorporated into their writing. I am often amazed at how students transform their writing based on this activity.

Another app I use is Lark, by Storybird. Lark is a poetry app that allows my students to transmediate an aspect of their writing into poetry during the revision stage. Students can select a background image, change the colors, and select vocabulary from a finite set of words to create a poem—think magnetic poetry set. At the revision stage, I invite students to choose a conflict in their narrative and turn it into a poem using Lark. This gives students an opportunity to consider the conflict in more depth. Often the poems produced are much more riveting than the description of the conflict in their narratives. Afterwards I ask students to consider using aspects of the poem in their narratives to bring their conflicts to life. They often use key phrases and vocabulary from their poems and imagery conjured up through the poetry and image in Lark working together.  

Transmediation is the process of transforming writing into another medium such as poetry, music, or art. This process can inspire students see their writing in a new light. Using apps to facilitate transmediation is a fun and rewarding activity to enhance students’ creativity during the revision process.

Noreen Moore is an assistant professor in the Department of Educational Leadership and Professional Studies at William Paterson University.