| Yolandi Ferreira (the English teacher and Nolene (the computer teacher) participated in the Digital Story Creation course run by Fiona Beal of SchoolNet South Africa in the second quarter this year.
The teachers asked every child from Grade 4 to Grade 7 to develop a story. They did a session launching the project in the hall using two of the videos that Fiona Beal created. Yolandie showed a PowerPoint using some of the examples from the course that seemed to get the class excited for the task. As a class they also used the Smartboard to collectively brainstorm one example story so they could get used to the terminology like "theme", "character" and "plot".
The kids were very excited about writing a story for a genuine audience and purpose. They have been told that only the best ones will make it on to the African Storybook website - so they are really keen to make sure that their stories are good.
Here is a sample of the 60 stories the children created. We thought that these showed what can be done at a government school with a computer lab with Internet access, but most of all, with dedicated teachers. (Click on the picture to read the story).
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