"KidsCongress™ is a unique technology and learning conference for 9-12 year olds. Open to all primary schools in New Zealand, the two-day conference challenges the digital generation and their teachers to take part in fun, problem solving workshops using cool software and technology. The delegates choose one breakout from a range of breakouts offered and work with an experienced presenter for the two days, solving problems in an authentic situation by using thinking skills, ICT tools and a range of computer software. What’s unique about this event is that it’s run by kids for kids. A second strand to this conference is the opportunity for teachers to experience the event themselves through a fully facilitated and structured professional development programme".
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Kids Congress 2005 Kelly Tarlton's
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As a presenter at this conference my objective was to plan and deliver a full 2 days of learning for a group of students as well as model and support professional learning opportunities for teachers who attended the conference. This included modelling effective integration of e-learning to enhance the learning and providing teachers with a clear understanding of the learning process and how this can be applied to support curriculum learning. I followed up the conference by providing each of the teachers and schools that attended sessions with resources to support planning and implementation in their schools. This post includes resources, links and examples of student learning.
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Our corner of Kelly Tarlton's for two days.
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Digital Story Telling at Kids Congress venues such as Kelly Tarlton's provide a wonderful source of motivation and inspiration for the students to develop ideas for their stories from the exhibits through to the on-site specialist guides and educators. After spending time exploring the venue, researching ideas and questions, and taking photos, story ideas are planned and pitched to a buddy using the VPS ( see below for details). Students then storyboard and identify the relevant images they will need to illustrate their comic. Students were able to use digital images they had taken at the venue and draw their own using software (Kidpix) and Wacom drawing tablets. These illustrations were saved as image files and imported into Comic Life software to present.
"Within the context of digital story telling, The Visual Portrait of Story (VPS), was included to support the story planning process, after coming up with the idea but before students storyboard or outline their script. Key to the VPS is that it supports the necessity of a good story to include the main character experiencing some kind of transformation (Transformation: Jason Ohler)
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| Creating illustrations in KidPix |
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| Adding original images and illustrations to ComicLife |
If you track the VPS alongside a familiar story you will see what I mean. I have used a similar strategy with students providing them with a hard copy to draw on and 'plan the pitch' for their story. The VPS has become a useful step in pre-production however its impact can also be evident throughout the production process"
See my blog post to read more Bad Guitar Players and Bigger Amplifiers and The Hero’s Journey by Iskander Krayenbosch
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| Students wove ideas and information gleaned from exploring the venue exhibits and talking to the guides |
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| Page layout can help tell the story eg: a page with many frames can represent a scene with lots of action. |
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| Time Passing: Images can be duplicated and cropped to create the effect of time passing |
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