[audible and visual pedagogy]

In a seemingly text-centric academic culture (where students must write essays and submit written coursework) I've been thinking about how to bring in more of our other senses including image and sound. What follows is a simple attempt to allow students to move within other kinds of literacy (oral and visual).

Name of the lesson: Hearing and Seeing Sounds

Level: Can be adjusted to suit age or level.

Subject: New Media, English, Creative Technologies,

Materials: Computers with PowerPoint, Internet Connection, Access to copyright–free images (http://www.freeimages.co.uk/, http://www.pics4learning.com/, http://freestockphotos.com/) and sounds (http://www.edu-cyberpg.com/Music/waves.html), recording equipment (microphones, digital cameras, video),

Overview:
Students will become aware of the role sound and image play in telling a story.

Objectives:
Students will collaborate in pairs to create a short story. They must develop a narrative employing various modes including sound, a recording of their voices, images (scanned in, photos, or free–pics) and text (while being aware of how words sound and being able to explain why they chose certain words).

Activities & Procedures:
1. Have students read a selection of online stories: any episode from Inanimate Alice, Pirate’s Treasure and Number Story.
2. Discuss what students liked about each story. Talk about the role of images, colour, text, and sound in each work. Pay particular emphasis to the rhythm and tone of language.
3. Students collaborate in pairs to create their own stories using PowerPoint (due to its ease of use and general availability) or Istories if available.
4. Students can record their voices telling parts of the story or making sounds. Students can use digital cameras to take photos of classroom or school artefacts to use in their stories. Students can visit the sites suggested to collect royalty–free images.
5. Students present their creations to the class and explain how the various modes, specifically images and sound, tell their story.