Bringing Stories to Life

                With the massive amount of video capabilities this day and age, it can be difficult to find ways of promoting reading to students. It sounds much easier to a young one to downloada  book on tape to their iPad and listen to a story. With interactive storybooks, students can improve their reading abilities while also enhancing their personal enjoyment (Roblyer & Doering, 2012, p. 175). An excellent example of this hypermedia product is found here http://www.wanderfulstorybooks.com/teachers.php#activities. This website provides access for parents and teachers to applications, some of which are free, that provide interactive story telling for children. Roblyer and Doering (2012) point out that “online interactive storybooks allow students to read at their own pace, with interaction available as the student requests it” (p. 175). Wanderful Books allows the students using the applications to do just that. It is also important to note that these interactive storybooks offer a plethora of language options, musical choices, and a multitude of game play. All of these characteristics would be useful in the classroom in terms of engagement and encouragement for reading.

                Along the same lines as interactive storybooks is the multimedia authoring tool virtual environments. These can be invaluable in a classroom that attempts to bring a subject to life by creating realistic worlds in which students can manipulate their surroundings and environments (Roblyer & Doering, 2012, p.193). In the area of social science, a subject which can be passed off as “dull,” a virtual simulation could keep students engaged. Would it not be amazing, instead of discussing Jamestown, to place students in it by replacing their surroundings with manufactured ones that create an illusion of the real thing (Roblyer & Doering, 2012, p.94). Another example is found here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wSh8-mmEN9Y where students are using a virtual environment to interact with each other. This specific kind of environment is a web-based VR in which avatars interact in virtual space in order to collaborate and build communication (Roblyer & Doering, 2012, p. 194).

                It is more plausible that teachers could more easily utilize interactive storybooks over virtual environments. This is due to the sheer amount of programming and filming that it takes to create a virtual world. It is because of the expense and great amount of required technology that virtual reality is not more widely used in education. Interactive storybooks offer a cheaper and effective alternative.

KPR777. (2008, November 03). Virtual learning labs. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wSh8-mmEN9Y