ICT teacher handbook/Communicating with graphics

Chapter Objectives

1. Understanding the power of story telling as communication
2. Understanding how to tell a story – developing a story board and determining how/ when to introduce different elements – text, images, designs
3. Creating digital art
4. Creating a graphic communication - combining images and text Pictures can tell a story
5. Understanding the pedagogic possibilities in digital story telling
6. Helping student develop a critical perspective on communication for community

Additional Resources

1. Storytelling - how to tell a story
2. How to make an animation
3. The effectiveness of digital storytelling in the classrooms: a comprehensive study

Transaction notes for activities

The transaction notes will include the following components. The activities are expected to be cumulative.

1. Time estimate
2. Prior preparation
3. Methodology
4. Discussion questions
5. Instructions for student led activities
6. Subject integration
7. Assessment (portfolio as evidence of digital skills)
8. Student portfolio as learning resources for other students
9. Teacher reflections

Photo and Image essays

1. This activity will take 80 minutes
2. Keep ready pictures/ images/ slide shows for demonstrating how to tell a story. Alternatively prepare the students in advance for them to collect images
3. In addition to image in the activity, use the computer timeline slideshow, picture gallery of microscope and the timeline of communication technology to talk about how pictures, combinations of pictures and text can be used to communicate. Important areas to focus can be on (i)what is the key idea(s), (ii) how to structure it, (iii) determining when is text useful, (iv) evaluation of the method of graphic communication
4. For each one of these, let the students collectively share their ideas about story line and they could do so either with a mind map or text document
5. In small groups, students should pick up topics both for individual image essays and collective digital essays.. Emphasize to the students that they will build upon this in future units.
6. Any image that can be used will reflect a subject area. In addition to demonstrating the students' grasp of the subject, the teacher can also use this discussion to build learning skills needed. These can be the rubrics for assessment also.

Tell a story

1. This activity will take 80 minutes.
2. Students must add narratives to the image and picture essays
3. Focus on the students' comprehension rather than language

Stories and songs come alive with pictures

1. This activity could take 80 - 120 minutes
2. The teacher has the choice of doing the illustrations by hand and digitizing or using a digital art creation tool; this could be a group activity
3. It will be useful for students to make a concept map of ideas being communicated in the song/ story and abstract the important story line items for illustrating. The teacher can facilitate this discussion, encouraging students to express their understanding using multilingual expressions.
4. Here again, focus on the choice of ideas for illustraton

Comic Strips

1. Help students identify appropriate sequences - 3-5 pictures
2. Helping them think about how to create conversations (this can be an useful method to help students with discourse creation)
3. Illustrating with a digtal art application
4. We will use LibreOffice Writer to put together images and conversations

Making posters

1. This can be in the nature of a cumulative project
2. The students should be able to build critical perspectives and narratives on social processes and events, being able to see the issues, argue out multiple perspectives (using comic strips) or make an infographic. Digital image creations are to be encouraged.