The African Storybook Project (ASP) is a project that is currently creating and encouraging the use of a multilingual, digital library of stories for the first few years of reading. The website was launched recently at a multilingual symposium in Pretoria and can be located at http://africanstorybook.org/
Recently a free, five-week, online course entitled ‘Digital Storytelling for the African Storybook Project 2014’ was on offer for teachers in Africa from SchoolNetSA and the African Storybook Project team from Saide. The course was created and managed by Fiona Beal from SchoolNet with help from Lorato Trok from Saide. The course, which took place from 21st July – August 23rd 2014, was a cross device course ie. PC, iPad, Android tablet, Apple computer, Windows phone etc. It was deliverd by means of a course blog, webinars and a closed Facebook group. Topics covered included
- Introduction to digital storytelling,
- What makes a good story for a learner in the early grades,
- How to use the African Storybook project for reading and writing in the classroom,
- Finding Inspiration for your story, Adding your story to a suitable presentation template and discovering ways of illustrating your story,
- Converting your digital story to a video
- Presenting your digital story online.
227 teachers signed up from eight African countries and we are now waiting for the stories that have been written. We are hoping that those teachers who have classes can get their classes writing. The African Storybook Team will then begin the task of selecting stories for the website from the stories that were written. Last year’s stories are all displayed on a wiki http://africanstorybookproject.wikispaces.com/
Get your class writing stories for the African Storybook project
If you are a class teacher why not consider getting your class writing (and illustrating) stories for the African Storybook Website. These can be submitted to fiona(at)schoolnet.org.za. Here are some templates, ideas and posts to help you:
1. This is the link to the folder containing the two PowerPoint templates for writing your digital story:
https://app.box.com/s/p3dt64xrwhon9ijrsd1o
2. This is the link to the to the Google Drive versions of the template:
a) ASP Landscape template CC BY NC
b) ASP Landscape template CC BY
3. You can download the PowerPoint with the six copy-and-paste Creative Commons licenses licenses from from this link:
https://www.box.com/s/ojw9pv80pu6m739vsnkl
4. Consent form if you are using photographs of people in your story
https://app.box.com/s/077bezpbg9sxflw7nxjr
5. Useful posts on the SchoolNet blog:
