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Introduction
This strand of the project was concerned with literacy - particularly in reference to students with
'Special Educational Needs'. It aimed to look at the potential of ICT in developing literacy, through story
writing, and set out to explore whether ICT itself is able to bring about a multiplicity of new
literacies (New London Group, 1997). It also
investigated the effects of ICT on independence and autonomy in writing, upon the
motivation to write, and the learner's engagement with that writing
This research was interdisciplinary by nature and framed by the following four areas:
- Special educational needs (SEN)
- A Socio-cultural approach to teaching and learning
- Information and communication technologies (ICT)
- Literacies, multi-literacies and ICT
Aims
The aims of the project were:
- to investigate the ways in which SEN students use an ICT multi-media environment to
produce stories. This involved studying students' writing processes when
using a multi-media software environment and, in particular, how they integrate text and
images. It alsoalso be consideration of the 'ownership' of the students'
writing.
- to investigate the role of the Zone of Proximal Development with respect to literacy
learning of SEN students. This involved considering the externalisation
process and considering the role of talking aloud, tracing the processes used by the
students
- to investigate the affordance of the 'chosen' ICT environment for producing stories.
This involved analysing the potential for integrating image and text and, also,
considering the spatial and temporal aspects of writing in a multi-media environment.
Setting the Context
Students were withdrawn from the 'normal' class setting and work with the
teacher/researcher on a one-to-one basis for an hour each week. These students were drawn
from years 7 and 8, and were working at literacy levels 1 - 2 of the National Curriculum.
The teacher/researcher both taught and observed the students, assisted and
enhanced by the use of data from video recordings. The multimedia authoring software
'Textease 2000'wais used to assist the students in developing their story making skills.
The first phase of the work was based on the story of Beowulf, as the students had been
working on this in their class setting.
Using this story as a canvas, the students became familiar with the software
environment and learned how to use a scanner, having first made collages to be scanned in
to the computer.
They also recorded sound effects onto the computer and produced films of themselves
taking part in dramatic representations of parts of the story, learning how to use video
and import it into the program. These component parts were then put together
as complete multimedia presentations.
The second phase of the work was much less structured and required students to
produce a story of their own making.
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