The first three examples I have today all use screenshots with an aim to develop written production of language. The fourth example seeks to foster both written and oral fluency respectively.
I have used The Sims for literacy practice with individual students but never in a classroom setting. I will freely confess that I am not 100% sure how time would allow for such a project within the confines of a standard school day. However, with individual students (either in a tutor/student situation or a parent/child situation) at home or as an alternative way to complete an assignment I think it is workable. Essentially, I am not trying to claim that this is the ultimate solution for literacy instruction but merely an alternative that may work for certain individuals.
While digital stories are typically used to tell personal stories there is a lot of potential for digital storytelling to be portray informative non-fiction and fiction stories. The first example of digital storytelling I remember encountering was actually in the game manual for the original Sims game--specifically the "Vacation" expansion pack. The purpose of this story was to teach the player key elements necessary to complete the game but to do it in an entertaining way that featured actual gameplay. Based on a sadly extensive collection of game manuals from the period this seems to have been a trend in gaming to make content learning more fun. The Sims however, cleverly parodied the soap opera genre and used in-game screenshots to fashion a simulation of real gameplay, thus allowing the player to see how and why different events happen based on player or AI choices. In essence, the writers of the Sim’s game manual created something akin to the ‘how-tos’ we ask students to create as part of their writers experiences using digital media. You can click on the following images to enlarge them if the text is hard to read.
the_lady_in_the_woods.doc |
Last blog I discussed mainly how digital storytelling can aid in fluency acquisition through script writing and narration. To demonstrate this with the Sims I took the original story I co-authored and set it to music and recorded (admittedly rather quickly) an audio track of me reading the tale aloud. One of the things I like about having students produce both a paper and video copy of a story is the ability to hit common core standards for both literacy instruction and technology instruction in one project.
The final cut of The Lady in the Woods can be found here.
A music video version can also be found here.
As always I would love to hear other people's thoughts and comments on technology use in the classroom.
References
Burkinshaw, Robin (2009). Alice and Kev: The Story of Being Homeless in The Sims 3. Retrieved from http://aliceandkev.wordpress.com/
Chong, David & Cohen, Mark. (2002). The Sims Vacation Expansion Pack Prima's Official Strategy Guide. Roseville: Random House Inc.
Maxis (2000) The Sims [computer software]. Redwood City: EA
Maxis (2004) The Sims 2 [computer software]. Redwood City: EA
The Sims Studio (2009) The Sims 3 [computer software]. Redwood City: EA