LESSON 2:

STUDENT SAMPLE
PROJECTS USING
OPEN- ENDED
TOOLS
GROUP II
 Lessong Outcomes

At the end of the lesson, the learner should be able to:

• explore existing web-based publishing tools; create student sample
projects as digital authors;

• analyze some articles on the use of digital story telling;

• create a digital story telling output using story telling software;

and

• publish digital stories using some storytelling apps explored in

class guided by publication requirements or laws.
 EXPLORE

Students as Digital Authors As the quality of authoring software increases and

as you are exposed to online learning, it is but proper for you as would-be
facilitators of learning to explore and understand some principles and guidelines
to help your future students author or write digitally.

A. LANGUAGE LEARNING VIA WEB PUBLISHING

Language skills can be fully developed by allowing students to communicate through the
internet. This may take place when the students or the class will be required to post a story or
other products on a bulletin board or web page. There are two ways to contribute any
authored documents to the World Wide Web. First, with the advent of ready-made websites
that are meant to invite and encourage contributors to share their authored stories, research,
commentaries, and the like, students may publish their work by submitting their products to
these websites. Second, the students may create their own web pages because there are a lot of
free apps for web page development or they may place them on their institution's official
website.
 A. The Diary Project https://diaryproject.com
This digital authoring website encourages students to contribute their narrations or daily diaries
with different themes required by the web site. Some of the themes or topics can be on school
activities, relationships, family, managing stress and others.
For the Students: You are encouraged to read diary entries from youth around the world to author
a diary project. Topics include a wide range of issues. For those who want to read more about the
entries provided in the website, or just want to read other diary project entries, visit
www.diaryproject.com.

B. CyberKids https://www.cyberkids.com
The mission of Cyberkids is to provide a voice for young people on the internet. It accomplishes this
by publishing original creative work by kids ages 7-12.
For the Students: Here are some points the CyberKids' editors consider to decide what to publish: a) We
especially like stories, articles and poems that are funny; b) Art and written submissions can be on any
topic that is appropriate for our audience; c) Stories which include an original illustration or photo are
more likely to be published than stories without pictures; d) Originality is very important--make sure the
work you submit is your own and not copied from someone else; and e) In addition to art and writing, we
also like to publish games, puzzles, brain teasers, jokes, and multimedia creations by kids.
C. Global Show-N-Tell https://www.telenaut.com/gst
Wabisabi Learning (n.d.) was able to present some lists of online
publishing tools for avid writer students who are looking for an online
publishing tool to publish their works.

D. Atavist https://atavist.com
Atavist is a beautiful tool. It was founded in 2011 on the heels of what we once called the
"death of longform." As you can imagine, it's highly visual. It's a drag-and-drop editor for
creating beautiful online publications.
For the Students: Students have total creative design power here. They can submit
assignments with visual flair. Get them doingpresentations and online journalling with this
tool. It also supports bigger writing projects. If they're feeling ambitious, they can promote
and sell work if they wish.
E. Calameo https://en.calameo.com
If students are looking to do magazines, Calameo is the tool to use. It's an online e-magazine
publishing tool that lets you add multimedia and personal branding to anything you create. With
one-click publishing, you can share it instantly. Websites, social media, and more all integrate with
Calameo.
For the Students: This is a great tool for learning about design and layout for magazines. It's
perfect for smaller writing projects, like a brochure or flyer design. Students writing for the school
paper can link to custom publications. They can even promote their own series of e-magazine using
Calameo.

F.Tikatok https://tikatok.com
This is a creative publishing studio for young children. K-6 kids will love Tikatok. They can
use it to publish digital and printed books of all kinds. Tikatok was designed specifically for
the K-6 classroom. It's media literacy-oriented and aligned with Common Core. Take a look
at their subscriptions page for plans.
For the Students: Kids can upload their photos and drawings for their creations. They can
also take advantage of preloaded project templates for classroom lessons. Tikatok's digital
library contains lots of ideas to get kids inspired.
G. Storybird https://storybird.com
This online publishing tool brings your words and global artists' work together in amazing
storybooks. Be sure to check out the section for educators. Storybird is at work in hundreds of
thousands of classrooms all over the world. It's free for educators, now and forever. Take a look at
what's possible with this tool.
For the Students: Students can create storybooks, long chapter books, and poetry books with
Storybird. They also have a fundraising program for students to get into. This is a great way to use
creativity for raising money for great causes.

H. Lulu http://www.lulu.com/us/en/create/ebooks

LuLu was one of the first players that offered serious online publishing features. They established
themselves in 2002 and they're still going strong.
For the Students: LuLu is a great information database for self-publishing. They can create all
sorts of projects. These include print books, ebooks, photo books, and calendars. Check out this
article on how graduate students are even using LuLu for publishing a thesis.
 I. Flipsnack https://www.flipsnack.com
Flipsnack is a flip book creator. It's as simple as uploading a PDF file. It also supports PNG and
JPG files. It renders shareable interactive creations that can also include multimedia. Flipsnack
looks great across all online platforms and social media.
For the Students: This is a simple way to create and share a publication that has a unique look and
feel. Flipsnack lets students upload 3 publications of 15 pages each on their free plan. Paid plans
are quite reasonable and offer lots more features.

J. Penzu Penzu https://penzu.com

Online journalling is the focus of Penzu and it works well. Journalling is a great writing and self-
reflective exercise. With a free online tool like Penzu, it becomes more appealing. The interface
replicates an old leather-bound journal with lined paper. The basic formatting features are
everything you need to get started.
For the Students: With Penzu Classroom, you can create class journals that can be graded and
managed. Students can also submit diary entries by email. They can even receive comments from
their teacher right inside the journal. Create and send assignments to students with due data,
grading scheme, and more.
Today, there are a lot of academic institutions whose website serves as their information
dissemination center for their customers and stakeholders. Barron et al. (2002) state that there
are two fundamental stages in creating a website or web pages. First, the page files and all
associated images, sounds, and so forth must be created in the proper format and tested. Second,
the files must all be transferred to a host computer called a web server. Barron et al. further state
that web page files must adhere to a specific format or language, called hypertext markup
language (HTML). HTML uses tags to define how information is formatted on a screen. In
creating a web page using HTML, students may find it intimidating but even elementary students
can do it. For language learners, using HTML may gradually expand their horizons and enrich
their vocabulary and communication skills.

You may search for the steps in developing a web page by using HTML through the following:
B. Enhancing Language Skills through Digital Storytelling

One of the most exciting ICT-based language tasks that can be done to develop all the four macro
skills is to create digital stories. This language task meets the demands of today's learners living in
a rapidly changing world with opportunities and challenges that are different from the ones many
of the previous generations grew up with. Today's learners are more demanding and are willing to
discover new ways to apply, extend, and expand on existing knowledge (Kaminskiene &
Khetsuriani, 2018.)

Responding to these challenges, language classroom facilitators need to migrate to a more flexible
and modernized delivery of the language curriculum. Doing so, leads to changes in the
technological pedagogical role of the teacher and the learner, so the language competencies of
today's learners will be developed beyond the use and aid of traditional writing tools.
In language education, storytelling is a common requirement that aims to share one's stories,
culture, knowledge, values, language, and others. Storytelling is not something new because it has
been one of the oldest activities not only inside the classroom but even in the communities.
The following are some of the existing storytelling tools listed and
described by Knapen (2018).
1. Steller
3. WeVideo
https://www.wevideo.com
https://steller.com
This has the goal of bringing its educational
This is a free storytelling application creative toolbox to a broader global audience of
developed by Mombo Labs, which lets students and educators. WeVideo wants to make
you create photo and videos stories video editing available for everyone. They make it
with an emphasis on design. possible for friends, families, teachers, students and
businesses small and large to create incredible
2. Adobe Spark Page videos that motivate and inspire.
https://spark.adobe.com

Adobe Spark Page is a free online web page builder. No coding or design skills needed.
Create your own beautiful web story using videos, pictures and text. The templates and
layout options available are very modern, and are designed to present your work in an
elegant and engaging way, focusing on visual content.
4. Popplet
http://popplet.com

Popplet, an iPad and web app, is a tool to capture and organize your ideas. Students can for
example use Popplet for learning. Used as a mind-map, it helps students think and learn
visually. Students can capture facts, thoughts, and images to structure their stories

5. Storybird 6. Bookcreator
http://storybird.com
https://bookcreator.com
Storybird not only gives you the
Book Creator is an open-ended book creation app that
simple tools to create books in
unleashes creativity. Create your teaching resources,
minutes, the application lets you
or have your students take the reins. Combine text,
discover an endless library of free
images, audio and video to create interactive stories,
books, picture books and poetry as
digital portfolios, research journals, poetry books,
well. Storybird lets anyone make
science and instruction manual.
visual stories in seconds.
C. Enhancing Language Skills through E-mail Activities

Email activities are very good activities to develop language skills. Through some
e-mail activities that can be facilitated by a teacher, the students are given the
opportunity to practice and demonstrate their reading and writing skills. It may
also enhance further their research and ICT skills. Barron et al. (2002) were able
to present the following email activities that can be fully maximized to develop the
various language skills of students:

1. Pen-Pal Activities

This is the most common form of e-mail projects called electronic pen pals or e-
pals. Students can practice their written communication skills and can become
aware of other cultures and practice foreign language skills. This can be done
through the following:
a. Belouga b. Epals

https://belouga.org https://www.epals.com/#/connections

Founded in 2016, Belouga was started It enriches K-12 learning in the

with the mission to encourage classroom to create real world,
intercultural communication to create culturally- enriching learning
a better tomorrow. Belouga is a global experiences for students. With ePals
ecosystem connecting classes classroom matching, teachers can
throughout the world where students connect their classes with other
and teachers can connect, collaborate classes around the world who are
and learn from one another by interested in collaborating on a special
identifying similarities and embracing project together.
differences through everyday
communication that is fun and
educational.
c. Empatico
https://empatico.org

It empowers teachers and students to explore the world through experiences that
spark curiosity, kindness, and empathy.

2. Peer-to-Peer Tutoring
Another form of electronic communication is peer-to-peer tutoring or mentoring. By using e-
mail communication, students will be provided with opportunities to practice their mentoring
skills apart from enhancing their language skills.

3. Ask an expert
Email is a very powerful tool for students to use to engage the experts in the field especially if
the experts are far from their institution. They can engage the Ask An Expert Website at
http://www. askanexpert.com.
4. Round Robin Stories
In a round-robin approach, a participating class starts a story with one paragraph.
The story starter is sent to a predetermined class (class one sends its story class two,
and so on). Students work in small groups to add a new paragraph to the story.

Publication Requirements in the Light of the Digital Age

While there is a ubiquity of productivity tools for students to maximize, it is your
responsibility as the facilitator of the learning process to ensure that your students will be
fully guided to observe several guidelines in publishing their products. It must be noted that
the development of high-quality digital learning products and materials involves a complex
combination of subject matter expertise, instructional design knowledge, and technical skills-
graphic app.belouga.org

design, photography, audio, video, computer programming, etc. (Wilde, 2004). With the
engagements of all of this, it is very important to be mindful of the following:
A. Copyright Laws
Copyright Law protects works of authorship. Hence, it is very important for teachers and students to
learn more about copyrights laws and copyright acts to ensure that there will be no copyright
infringements that will happen in the process of authoring of publishing materials offline or online.
According to FindLaw (2020), the Copyright Act states that works of authorship include the following
types of works:
•Literary works. Novels, nonfiction prose, poetry, newspaper articles and newspapers, magazine articles
and magazines, computer software, software documentation and manuals, training manuals, manuals,
catalogs, brochures, ads (text), and compilations such as business directories
•Musical works. Songs, advertising jingles, and instrumentals.
•Dramatic works. Plays, operas, and skits.
•Pantomimes and choreographic works. Ballets, modern dance, jazz dance, and mime works.
•Pictorial, graphic, and sculptural works. Photographs, posters, maps, paintings, drawings, graphic art,
display ads, cartoon strips and cartoon characters, stuffed animals, statues, paintings, and works of fine
art.
•Motion pictures and other audiovisual works. Movies, documentaries, travelogues, training films and
videos, television shows, television ads, and interactive multimedia works.
•Sound recordings. Recordings of music, sounds, or words.
•Architectural works. Building designs, whether in the form of architectural plans, drawings, or the
constructed building itself.
FindLaw (2020) further states that Copyright Law is important for
multimedia developers and publishers for two reasons:

a. Original multimedia works are protected by copyright. The

Copyright Act's exclusive rights provision gives developers
and publishers the right to control unauthorized exploitation
of their works.

b. Multimedia works are created by combining "content" music,

text, graphics, illustrations, photographs, software that is
protected under copyright law. Developers and publishers must
avoid infringing copyrights owned by others.
B. Anti-Bullying Act of 2013

Republic Act No. 10627 otherwise known as the Anti-Bullying Act of 2013 of
the Philippines directs all elementary and secondary schools to adopt policies
to address the existence of bullying in their respective institutions. Bullying
refers to any severe or repeated use by one or more students

C. Republic Act 101751

This is known as Cybercrime Prevention Act of 2012 declaring a policy
that states that the State recognizes the vital role of information and
communications industries such as content production,
telecommunications, broadcasting electronic commerce, and data
processing, in the nation's overall social and economic development
THANK
YOU