Interactive literature review

Citation: Education Services Australia. (2014). Scootle: Discover Learning Resources. Retrieved from https://www.scootle.edu.au/ec/p/home

Scootle Education. Making a Difference: Oodgeroo Noonuccal. (2016)

Scootle resources – Oodgeroo Noonuccal TLF-ID R10907

Summary of digital resource

This resource is an excellent interactive digital resource that explores the life work of Indigenous activist, poet and artist, Oodgeroo Noonuccal. This resource contains 13 digital resources especially designed to cater for students in Years 7 – 10. The curriculum resources are organized into four subcategories that look at her life, her role as an activist, a poet and visual artist. The collection includes a variety of resources which includes photos, interviews, artwork and maps and levels of interactivity that engage students in a meaningful way.

This resource meets the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Histories and Culture Cross Curriculum Priority (OI.4, OI.5, OI.6, OI.7, OI.8, OI.9) and the following curriculum content indicators in Year 7 English (ACELT1619, ACELY1722), Year 8 English (ACELY1732), Year 9 English (ACELY1746), Year 10 English (ACELA1564), Year 10 English (ACELT1815) as well as Year 7 History (ACHHS208), Year 9 History (ACDSEH141, ACHHS172), Year 10 History (ACHHS188) and Year 7 Humanities (ACHASSK173) (ACARA, 2010). This collection of resources is a relevant and valuable teaching resource across English and the Humanities, and highlights great recognition of Indigenous identities in Australian society.

Format, features and suitability

Scootle is a national digital learning hub which provides Australian teachers with access to over 20, 000 digital learning resources aligned to the Australian Curriculum. Access to this Scootle resource is via Teacher accessibility. It is an excellent resource centre that teachers have access to via their educational email address. Teachers select learning paths and provide students with a PIN number, which they use to access the resource. Scootle has also released a free app for students to access teacher-directed resources on any device. Students would need to have access to the internet to access this resource.

Resource Learning, Language and Literacy

This interactive resource provides students with an interactive learning experience about Oodgeroo Noonuccal’s work, life and contributions to Australian society. Students click through the sequential screens, left to right, with an option of going back and forward, to reread information or check for understanding. Students begin at L5210 – Making a difference: Oodgeroo Noonuccal (‘view content’) and engage in a chronological journey of Noonuccal’s life. The appearance of the content is not dissimilar to a powerpoint presentation and students navigate at their own pace. According to Cullen (2015), interactive media has great potential to enhance educational and learning outcomes by providing content that allows students to progress at their own pace. On every ‘screen’ there is a notebook icon at the bottom right hand of page, which provides students with an opportunity to engage in analysis, comprehension activities, multiple choice and note-taking. Students can navigate independently, moving between screens, and can go back at any time to complete the notebook activities. Once the notebook activities have been completed, students have the option to print the page, or screen shot their responses. Once ‘print’ is selected, a new screen appears with a clear and organized summary of the students’ notes.

Students are required to make judgements about the information presented to them, allowing them to engage in higher order thinking skills such as synthesis and evaluation, to complete the activities in the interactive notebook (Kopka, 2014). This resource does not require a high cognitive demand, and because students can self-pace, they have an increased sense of control of the text and activities required of them (Edwards, 2013). This digital interactive text provides an opportunity for students who are otherwise disengaged in traditional print texts, to engage in a format that presents a variety of photos, interviews, artwork and text and thus provides students with the opportunity to then synthesize this information in a meaningful way. The notebook activity is incredibly effective as students are presented with multiple choice that they click to select, and then a writing activity, whereby students can leave the notebook at any time, and reread pertinent content. Student engagement with this interactive resource reinforces meaning-making strategies and influences how students develop literacy skills because decision-making, comprehension and evaluative skills are the skills that students will predominantly engage in (Roskos et al., 2014). Essentially, technologies and literacy practice that enables students to learn from their online environment, harnesses the skills necessary to navigate digital learning and literacy (Leu et al., 2015). According to Larsen (in Lamb, 2011) students want to be immersed in multimodal resources that combine a variety of digital media, whereby they can learn by what they see and hear, rather than simply reading about it.

This Scootle resource is user friendly and is easy for students to navigate (Parrott, 2011), making it an excellent teaching resource. The inclusion of this resource in a classroom setting provides opportunities for students to demonstrate 21^st century skills including critical thinking and digital literacies (Leu et al., 2015) as well engagement in an online environment that is a highly suitable teaching resource.

References

Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority. (2010). Cross curricula priorities. Retrieved from Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority website: https://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/f-10-curriculum/cross-curriculum-priorities/

Cullen, M. (2015). How is Interactive Media Changing the Way Children Learn? Education Technology Solutions. Retrieved from https://educationtechnologysolutions.com/2015/12/how-is-interactive-media-changing-the-way-children-learn/

Education Services Australia. (2014). Scootle: Discover Learning Resources. Retrieved from https://www.scootle.edu.au/ec/p/home

Kopka, S. & Hobbs, R., (2014). Transmedia & Education: Using Transmedia in the Classroom with a Focus on Interactive Literature [Blog]. SeKopka. Retrieved from https://sekopka.wordpress.com/2014/05/07/transmedia-education-using-transmedia-in-the-classroom-with-a-focus-on-interactive-literature/

Leu, D.J, Forzani, E.,Timbrell, N., & Maykel., C. (2015) . Seeing the forest, not the trees: Essential technologies for literacy in primary grade and upper elementary grade classroom. Reading Teacher 69: (2), p.139-145. Retrieved from https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ1073399.

Edwards, J. T. (2013). Reading beyond the borders: observations on digital ebook readers and adolescent reading practices (ch. 9). In J. Whittingham, & IGI Global (Eds.), Technological tools for the literacy classroom (pp. 135-158). Hershey, PA: IGI Global.

Roskos, K., Burstein, K., Shang, Y., & Gray, E. (2014). Young children’s engagement with e-books at school: does device matter? Sage Open, 4. doi: 10.1177/2158244013517244.

Parrot, K. (2018) Five questions to ask when evaluating apps and ebooks. ALSC BLOG. https://www.alsc.ala.org/blog/2011/07/5-questions-to-ask-when-evaluating-apps-and-ebooks/

Lamb, A. (2011). Reading redefined for a transmedia universe. Learning and leading with technology. 39(3), 12-17.