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Collaborative web based story writing.

Richard Wilson's rural school bag

Richard Wilson

Monday 12 June 2006

I am issuing a challenge to all educators and pupils out there who have read my blog. On my return from summer holidays I am going to be working with a P5 class trying to develop writing in a meaningful, interactive and highly stimulating way. I will set up a collaborative writing project that any pupils or educators can contribute to on the web.

My idea is this, I will set up a wiki page which can be accessed through the school website or here. The contributors will be faced with a selection of different stories and poems which they can read and add to, following the genre.

There will be a menu of story lines to which new characters can be added and plots and sub-plots developed. This could be added to live from the web at home or at school as a class or individual contribution.

The pupils will then vote on the 'best' stories and each school can then voice record it, add art work and then podcast it as a digital story. I would also like to invite pupils/actors/famous people to join the project to do voice overs.

To those who don't have the skills I am offering to come to your school and either train staff or pupils to take this task on. If it is outwith Scotland, you pay the costs!

If any East Lothian teachers ( or any others) would like to join me in setting this up please let me know and we can meet to discuss and improve the concept.

If you have ever experienced difficulty in motivating learners to take part in writing then this will be a great opportunity to collborate with others in a novel way.

Comments

Collaborative story writing

Anne Rose

Sunday 25 June 2006

Really like this idea. Count me in. More than half my class next session will be made up of boys with varying talent and interest in story writing this might just be the angle I need to motivate them.

Digital storytelling & www.slidestory.com

David

Wednesday 21 June 2006

Hi Richard,
Slidestory www.slidestory.com offers a very quick way to combine images and recorded audio into a web-based presentation, ideal for storytelling. There are plenty demos on the site.

As with odeo (www.odeo.com) for audio, the results are stored on their site, and it's easy to make it into a podcast. They als provide HTML snippets to enable you to embed the result in your own class blog or web site. My example using Odeo is at:
http://www.exc-el.org.uk/david/podcast_time_odeo_makes_it_easy_and_links_well_with_exc_el_why_not_try_it

Dean Shareski provides a demo on his blog which he made up in 15 minutes. See http://ideasandthoughts.org/2006/02/15/slidestory/.

The down side? Unlike Odeo, which is entirely web-based, you need to download a client application, which might be a problem...

Story Writing with a difference!

Susan Stewart, Lawhead Primary, St Andrews

Tuesday 20 June 2006

This sounds really interesting. This would certainly appeal to many of our pupils and staff. Would love more info so that I can put it to the staff in school.

Collaborative writing

Hazel Cranie

Sunday 18 June 2006

This sounds very interesting Richard. I have P5,6 &7 pupils who could benefit from this stimulus. I would like to know more.

Sounds like a nice idea...

Dawn Finlayson, Stenton

Saturday 17 June 2006

I'd like to try this with my P3's next year - I've kids of struggled to get them properly involved in ICT tasks this year - partly because of my own dislike of the dreaded ibooks (I'm a PC addict through and through) but it's been a shame because when I worked in another region where PC's were the order of the day, I loved doing ICT with my classes and they were all really enthusiastic about it.
I'm determined to do something about this next year and overcome my ibook predjudices! And this seemed like one of many good opportunities to do so!

Never ending story

Richard

Wednesday 14 June 2006

Thanks for your response, it's much appreciated. I intend to set up a blog/wiki specific to this topic to explore the way forward. Details soon. Maybe a time limit on stories or a limit on numbers of verses in poems? I feel all warm and enthused, not bad for a decrepit 52 year old, or maybe some Lagavullin still clings to my remaining brain cells...............

Collaborative web based story writing

Karen Robertson

Tuesday 13 June 2006

I'd be interested in supporting you with this. It could link nicely to the East Lothian Blogging Challenge. I have had quite a few responses to this and I have pointed those who have expressed interest recently to your project. I think this could be a real motivator for writing - I like the never-ending story idea!

Writing

Debbie Beveridge