Blog 8: Literacy Apps

During the seminar, we were give the opportunity to explore and trial different Apps on iPads that could be used to develop both literacy and ICT skills.

‘Book Creator’ is an iPad App which enables users to create their own books by adding text, images, video, music and narration to tell a story. Once the book has been created, it can be read in iBooks, sent to friends or submitted to the iBooks store. The National Curriculum (DfE, 2013) states that it is essential that teaching develops pupils’ competence in word reading, comprehension, transcription and composition. ‘Book Creator’ can be used to achieve this as it can develop children’s skills in both reading and writing, through creating books or simply reading them on the iPad. Rudd and Tyldesley (2006) state that literacy is no longer limited to reading printed books and other paper texts therefore teachers need to incorporate ICT to enhance children’s learning as they are growing up in a digital world (Palfrey and Gasser, 2008). Furthermore, ICT tools can provide a great degree of challenge for all pupils but they can particularly support pupils with learning difficulties (Rudd and Tyldesley, 2006).

After exploring ‘Book Creator’ and creating my own book, it enabled me to see how I could use it with children in school. I do not believe that it is aimed at a particular year group or age as I think it can be differentiated accordingly; however I think that it would be particularly useful for children who struggle with story writing or story telling. The App enables users to record their voice therefore children could use this to tell their story whilst uploading pictures and images to show what is happening. This would be useful for children who struggle with story writing and would provide them with an alternative way of telling their story. It is also content-free which is beneficial as children can create the content themselves, however this could be very time-consuming therefore teachers would need to take this into consideration before using the App. Once the children have created their books, it can be shared with friends or saved in iBooks which stores the book safely on the iPad so the teacher can read the children’s stories to the class at a convenient time. From my personal experience of using the App, I feel that it is a very motivating and fun way to create stories and also an alternative to simply writing stories on paper.

After using this App, I have a better understanding about how to integrate ICT into a literacy lesson using Apps on an iPad. I have not yet had the experience of using iPads with children and therefore hope that I am able to use them in my future practice as I this has built my confidence in using them.

Department for Education (2013) National Curriculum in England: English programmes of study. London: HMSO

Palfrey, J. and Gasser, U. (2008) Born Digital: Understanding the First Generation of Digital Natives. New York: Basic Books

Rudd, A. and Tyldesley, A. (2006) Literacy and ICT in the Primary School: A Creative Approach to English. London: David Fulton Publishers Ltd