Story Teller
The idea behind Storyteller is simple, with the emphasis on oracy and imagination. Sets of pictures help you tell a story, with the computer recording all you say. True, the more ICT literate could have done this before, but not with so little effort and so instant a result.
A quick-start guide, manual and on-screen tutorials provide support for both teachers and pupils. To tell a story, choose your theme - anything from Vikings to fairgrounds. An image will appear and children can work individually or as a group, recording everything that is said. Soon another button will appear, enabling you, if you wish, to choose another image to put into the story, which may fit with what you’re already said or take you off at a tangent. The process continues until you’re ready to stop and save your tale for later or hear it back straight away.
With full control over all aspects of the program, children can re-make their tales, honing their use of language and expression or even sound effects as they go, or opt to use the program as a planning tool and write the story up in the “type a story” option.
Storyteller can help improve speaking and listening across the curriculum from history to thinking skills, and from literacy to ICT, regardless of home language - all you need is imagination.
