Activity Description
I explored the website Story Box Library which presents Australian children’s books in video form read by Australian storytellers. Access to the website is provided to library card holders of my local library, the State Library of Tasmania, and forms part of their e-collection. Titles can be searched for from within the Story Box website or the library catalogue.
I viewed four stories whilst navigating the site, some I discovered by scrolling down and seeing what was available in the themed lists on the homepage, some were suggested in the ‘More Videos’ section of already viewed stories and found through direct searching. There is also the option to filter searching by a range of ways including by age, story length and theme.
Each story has a page that explains what the story is about and its credit details. It is clear from the language used on the page that Story Box Library is geared toward adults using the site with children, rather than children navigating the site independently.
As the story is read music or sound effects are heard, but none of the text is visible. As the text is not seen there is less emphasis on the development of print conventions and awareness, and letter knowledge (Ghoting & Martin-Díaz, 2013, p. 30).
Story page – Littlelight (Story Box Library, n.d. a)
How was the activity relevant to your professional practice?
I currently manage a photographic library for a Tourism marketing organisation and so I have not professionally encountered products like Story Box before. I found the layout and design of the site to be consistent and visually pleasing. I would recommend the site to friends with children as a supplementary reading activity but would hesitate to say it replaces being read to and actually seeing the book.
Each story has an activity related to it, allowing listeners to reflect on and understand the themes of the story better. As the website explains ‘Activity Time is designed for use by families to help them and their children connect with the themes and characters of each story’ (Story Box Library, n.d. b). The activities I looked at were appropriate to the target age range of the story and had clear written or video instructions. I also found reviewing these activities useful to generate my own Storytime activity ideas for my first Assignment for this subject where I designed a Storytime program for migrant preschool children.
What did you learn?
The use of this website would require adult guidance, especially for the completion of the associated activities. There is a function where playlists can be set up, so once that is done children would be able to use the site relatively independently.
Knowledge gaps
Overall I found the website easy to use and had a good range of titles for different age groups. I was pleased to find a story read in multiple languages, but I did not find a way to search for stories in languages other than English. Hopefully this search filter is added in future.
I feel Story Box Library would be good as an alternative to television screen time, but it does not replace in person storytime. As Davidson et al. comments the need for an adult reader and mediation through questions about the text cannot be overlooked in relation to children’s language and literacy development (2020, p. 2).
I am unsure why the animated illustrations are shown and not any of the text. I do wonder if the site purposely does not want to replicate the physical book experience too much as each story has a link to the Booktopia listing to purchase the physical book.
References
Davidson, C., Danby, S., Ekberg, S., & Thorpe, K. (2020). The interactional achievement of reading aloud by young children and parents during digital technology use. Journal of Early Childhood, 0(0), 1-26. https://doi.org/10.1177/1468798419896040
Ghoting, S. N & Martin-Díaz, P. (2013). Storytimes for everyone!: developing young children’s language and literacy. American Library Association
Story Box Library. (n.d. a). Littlelight. https://storyboxlibrary.com.au/stories/littlelight
Story Box Library (n.d. b) What is Activity Time? https://storyboxlibrary.com.au/faqs/what-is-activity-time
Hi Julia! Thank you for informing me about this website; I hadn’t heard of it. It seems similar to Kanopy Kids, a website I looked at for the ‘Diversity’ part of this assignment that is also offered for free if you are a member of a participating library.
However, Story Box Library is more centred around the reading aloud, storytelling aspect. A website like this might be helpful for a child who is blind or vision impaired, or who just likes stories being read to them.
The service has potential; as I commented on another student’s blog, it would be nice for more celebrities to get involved in story time. Someone like Chris Hemsworth would be a big draw for kids who want Thor to read them a bedtime story!
I think you raised a good point about the video not featuring text. It might be possible with closed captions, but what about children and families for whom English isn’t a primary language? This lack of accessibility might deter them from the website.
Overall, I think Story Box Library shows potential and it will be interesting to see how it develops. – Makeda
Blog Comment 3
Thanks, Julia and Makeda for bringing to my attention these wonderful resources! I also looked at the video streaming of storytime for my activity and found a really interesting recent study showing that children can benefit equally from either in-person and video storytimes (Gadreau et al., 2020) which makes services like these potentially very valuable. One takeaway from the study was that interactions with the child played an important part in the storytime sessions (Gadreau et al., 2020), so I wonder if these Story Box videos can be expanded to include that type of engagement. Julia, as you pointed out, Story Box appears to be a tool geared towards adults to present to children and guide them through activities. Perhaps the next evolution of the service could involve videos that have pseudo-interactive segments that require less involvement from adults.
References
Gaudreau, C., King, Y. A., Dore, R. A., Puttre, H., Nichols, D., Hirsh-Pasek, K., & Golinkoff, R. M. (2020). Preschoolers benefit equally from video chat, pseudo-contingent video, and live book reading: Implications for storytime during the coronavirus pandemic and beyond. Frontiers in Psychology, 11(2158). https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.02158
Hi Julia, your reflection increased my awareness of a digital resource I was not yet familiar with. The use of activities connected to the stories has the potential to promote creativity, engagement, and learning from the younger users (Kerry-Moran & Aerila, 2019, p. 3). The wide range of titles and narrators available, and the lack of cost for users who have access to this resource through their public library, mean this could be a valuable resource for many families.
I was interested in your discussion on how the navigation of the site appears to be targeted toward adults. I wondered about the possibility of increasing the engagement of the younger readers in this process, and limiting the risk of adults disregarding a title that may be of interest to a child (Hartsfield & Kimmel, 2020, p. 423). I agree with your point around the lack of text, and how its inclusion could further assist in building young readers overall literacy skills (Aerila & Ronkko, 2015, p. 354). Your reflections reinforced to me the potential value of digital resources for younger readers, and also that these resources are often not a substitute for in-person interactions with adults and peers.
References:
Aerila, JA. & Ronkko, M. (2015). Enjoy and interpret picture books in a child-centred way. The Reading Teacher, 68(5), 349-356. https://doi.org/10.1002/trtr.1313
Hartsfield, D. E. & Kimmel, S. C. (2020). Supporting the right to read: Principles for selecting children’s books. The Reading Teacher, 74(4), 419-427. https://doi.org/10.1002/trtr1954
Kerry-Moran, K. J. & Aerila, JA. (2019). Introduction: The strength of stories. In K. Kerry-Moran & JA Aerila (eds), Story in Children’s Lives: Contributions of the Narrative Mode to Early Childhood Development, Literacy, and Learning. Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-19266-2_1
Hey Julia!
This was very informative, I loved the way you discussed all the different aspects of navigating the resource. I had never heard of this website before but it sounds like a valuable tool for children to use as an additional reading service! I think it’s good that the website was made for adults to use for children, it allows them to be present with their child rather than letting them have screentime by themselves. It is interesting that the text of the book isn’t displayed though, I wonder what the creators thought the advantage of that would be.