Oat the Goat (Ministry of Education & New Zealand Government, n.d.) is an interactive, online narrative aimed at 4 to 7 year olds.  The purpose of this story, as described in the ‘Parents and whānau’ section of the website, is “to teach children about empathy, acceptance and tolerance” (Ministry of Education & New Zealand Government, n.d., para.1).  Focusing on themes of kindness, this resource uses animation and choice to encourage children to make positive decisions when faced with issues of bullying.

This story follows the adventures of Oat the Goat as he travels up a New Zealand mountain range.  He meets a number of characters along the way – both bullies and victims – and is obliged to make decisions as to whether to help the victims or ignore the actions of the bullies.  For each dilemma along the way, there are three or four choices for the viewer to make to assist Oat in his decision-making.  Ultimately, the viewer is coerced into making the correct decisions which lead Oat to the top of the mountain and see the bullies take a path towards kindness.

This notable example of digital literature provides a memorable experience to complement teaching of bullying prevention in line with the Health, Wellbeing and Relationships strand of the NSW PDHPE K-10 Syllabus (2018).  The narrative itself is fairly short in duration but would provide a perfect introduction to a PDHPE lesson.  Alternatively, this resource could be used as a teacher-led whole class activity to stimulate conversation about the choices that are offered.

As an interactive composition, Oat the Goat provides the opportunity for students to read the text themselves, have it read to them or watch the story.  All three options contain relevant sound effects and background music that builds atmosphere but could be quite distracting to young students.  An interesting feature of this digital literature piece is that it can be read and viewed in both English and Māori – an acknowledgement of the traditions of the New Zealand people and a teaching point in regards to culture.  The English version contains a small number of culture-specific words (“Kea”, “kauri”) and colloquialisms mostly relevant to New Zealand (“bro”, “fulla”) but their inclusion does not hinder the overall understanding of the text for students outside of New Zealand.  The text in general is simple enough for the target audience with the use of rhyming to aid decoding and comprehension.  For those requiring reading assistance or the full auditory and visual experience, the ‘Read to Me’ voice is slow and clear with emphatic intonation to engage listeners.

When the ‘Watch’ option is chosen, the choices are presented but are selected for the students.  Whilst this initially may seem counterintuitive, the incorrect choices are chosen first and the students are able to see the consequences of those choices, before the correct choice is shown and the story continues.  When the ‘Watch’ feature is chosen, the resource does lose its interactivity, becoming more of an animated video; however, this function may be useful for students who are yet to develop the technical skills to be able to click through the story, or for students who have learning or physical disabilities.

Navigation through the story is represented by pulsating circles.  Whilst convention would suggest that arrows in the same position on the page may be more conducive to the ease of reading path, the pulsating circles draw the eye enough to dominate the user’s attention.  Also, the circles do not appear until the text has been read or enough time has been given for the student to read the text.  Therefore, this interactive feature is useful in promoting engagement and does not distract the student from the story (Hoel & Jernes, 2023, p.13).

Using Yokota’s (2015, p.78) questions for evaluating the quality of the digital format of this story, it is evident that Oat the Goat is a high standard of digital literature as it provides interactive features that ensure the integrity of the story and support students’ learning of reading as well as involving digital elements that go beyond the possibilities of a print version.  Oat the Goat’s ease of navigation, flexibility of delivery and simplistic use of language features make it an ideal resource to support anti-bullying programs in infants (Kindergarten to Year 3) classrooms.

Reference List

Hoel, T. & Jernes, M. (2023). Quality in children’s digital picture books: Seven key strands for educational reflections for shared dialogue-based reading in early childhood settings. Early Years. https://doi.org/10.1080/09575146.2023.2172552

Ministry of Education & New Zealand Government. (n.d). Oat the goat.

NSW Education Standards Authority. (2018). PDHPE K-10 syllabus (2018).

Yokota, J. (2015). The past, present and future of digital picturebooks for children. In Manresa, M., & Real, N. (Eds). Digital literature for children: Texts, readers and educational practices. (pp.73-86). Peter Lang GmbH, Internationaler Verlag der Wissenschaften.