I am feeling very invigorated after today’s briefing meeting for the New Technologies, New Stories project that is being run by the English folks over at the DET Curriculum Directorate.
And why wouldn’t I? The focus of the project is the development of teaching resources and lesson sequences to support the integration of ICT into English curriculum – right down my alley 🙂 What I love most about this is that the emphasis is on using ICT as a tool to enrich the curriculum that we are already familiar with, rather than treating technology as an ‘add-on’.
The other thing I love about this project is that we won’t be building resources for applying ICT generally, but instead we are targeting NARRATIVE, and exploring how ICT can be used to enrich the teaching of narrative. I believe English teachers are going to love this. I have run many a workshop now, intorducing general ICT and Web 2.0 tools, and teachers always leave feeling like they have learned someinteresting new things, but not neccessarily with a clear direction for applying their new skills. By placing the teaching of narrative first in this approach teachers will see a strong connection between the technology and the teaching that they already do.
I’ll post again soon with some notes about the sequence of lessons that I am planning for this project. In the meantime, does anyone want to add a comment about how they are using (or would like to use) technology in the teaching of narrative? I’d love to hear your thoughts.
Kelli McGraw 
#1 by darcymoore on March 25, 2009 - 6:46 am
Have you seen the “Lost Generation’ video?
#2 by Troy on March 25, 2009 - 4:22 pm
Hey Kelli…
All I could do today was rave about the endless possibilities.
I like the narrative focus as well. I think having a focus like narrative (or character or sound) can really tighten a few things within ICT and English.
I’ve use film making, simple tools like movie maker for a few years, as well as MSFrontpage as well for news ‘stories’.
We must move beyond ‘life skills’ ICT…
#3 by kellimcgraw on March 26, 2009 - 1:43 pm
Moving beyond ‘life skills’ ICT – nail on the head, Troy!
And without a focus (like narrative) don’t you sometimes feel like talking about how to ‘use ICT’ is like talking about how to ‘use words’? i.e. hopelessly unspecific!
#4 by kellimcgraw on March 26, 2009 - 2:46 pm
@Darcy – yeah, I do like the lost generation video as something to show bitter adults who don’t actually like kids (!)
But, I must also confess, I do find such pieces a bit ‘fairytale’. In my experience, heaps of kids feel like this at some point. The tragedy is how society ends up pushing them into being cynical, disconnected, narrow-thinking adults. I think the real challenge is not finding kids who are inspired like this, but helping them to carry that inspiration and hope through to adulthood.
#5 by Anya on March 30, 2009 - 12:36 pm
Hi Kelli, I keep meaning to ask you about this project! It sounds fantastic!! Is there a URL or details I can get about it to share with others, even a blurb about the basic details would be fab.
Thanks,
Angela