iTell Digital storytelling in the National Year of Reading Dr Suzana Sukovic Head of Learning Resource Centre, St.Vincent’s College, Potts Point SLA NSW - Capture the Evidence, King’s School, 15 September 2012

iTell Vanilla Conceptualised as collaboration. iTell Vanilla - basic project for all participants AIMS  To promote students’ engagement with a range of oral and written, historical and fictional texts in a variety of genres and media formats  To promote transliteracy  To contribute to students’ individual learning  To promote an investigative and creative learning environment  To critically evaluate any impact of the project iTell Strawberry Participants can add their own ‘flavour’ to the project. At SVC - an opportunity to invigorate discussions about writing for new media, required skills and roles of a high school in students’ preparation for living and working in increasingly digital environments.

Methodology Framework of action research Research aims – to investigate: any development of students’ transliteracy skills during the project students’ engagement with text and learning during the project any effect of the project on students’ literacy skills. Transliteracy is ‘the ability to read, write and interact across a range of platforms, tools and media from signing and orality through handwriting, print, TV, radio and film, to digital social networks’ (Thomas et al, 2007). It is concerned ‘with mapping meaning across different media and not about developing particular literacies about various media’ (T. Ipri, 2010, ‘Introducing transliteracy: what does it mean to academic libraries?’, College & Research Libraries News, November, p.532) Qualitative and quantitative data-gathering methods Surveys of students and parents/caregivers Ethnographic data gathering methods (observation, informal interviews and feedback from students and parents, all recorded in notes) Work samples School reports Feedback from teachers

End 2011 Term (1 hour after school) Presentation: Digital Humanities

Holidays end Term 1 Term 2 (longer workshops) More presentations

SUNDAY WORKSHOP

iTell Reflection – photograph by Hannah Berekoven

Preliminary findings Feedback from two usually disengaged students: surveys and notes at the beginning of iTell and evaluation of the project at end Term 2 Development of transliteracy skills Promising results Requires more research Students’ engagement √ Very promising Importance of collaborative learning support for creativity projects of personal interest Any effect of the project on students’ literacy skills & learning Seems to encourage interest in writing Develops confidence Issues Scheduling Students’ overcomittment Different ability grouping across year groups

iTell Strawberry

Presentations of iTell ALIA Research Committee Workshop Research for Practitioners: in a nutshell, at the State Library NSW, 10 July Kennan, M.A., Howard, K., Haddow, G., Macauley, P., Sukovic, S., Hodge, D ‘Demystifying research: practices and potentials – panel session’, presented at the Discovery, ALIA Biennial 2012 Conference, Hilton Sydney, July Sukovic, S ‘iTell: Digital storytelling in the National Year of Reading’, poster presented at the Annual Poster Presentation Lecture Evening (APPLE) at the Trinity Grammar School, 23 July Sukovic, S ‘Where is the forward button? Digital storytelling in secondary education’, poster presented at the Digital Humanities Australasia 2012: Building, Mapping, Connecting, March at the Australian National University, Canberra, viewed 25 July 2012,