- Hardcover: 296 pages
- Publisher: Lulu.com (4 Aug 2008)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 140920510X
- ISBN-13: 978-1409205104
- Product Dimensions: 22.9 x 15.2 x 2.1 cm
- Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 4,423,676 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Description
Product Description
Five travellers meet on a train: a teacher, a technologist, an educational researcher and two children. As they travel across the continent towards the Future of Learning conference, they exchange their stories. This book explores the ways in which new technology can support storytelling skills in learners. Written in the form of discussions between teachers, learners and researchers, it is an accessible introduction to issues in educational storytelling and technology. "This is the perfect introduction to the possibilities of narrative learning...I warmly recommend Inside Stories: A Narrative Journey to creative educators of every variety." Dr Donald Smith, Director of the Scottish Storytelling Centre.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
Format:Hardcover
Inside Stories is a fresh and accessible look at how children can learn through storytelling, and how teachers can enhance this process using modern technologies.
The book covers two large and scary topics: modern technologies which can be used to aid storytelling, and current academic theory on narrative learning.
Both are intimidating subjects, but they are successfully demystified and defanged by the authors who discuss them through a wide-ranging conversation between five fictional characters: an academic, a computer scientist, a schoolteacher, a teenage boy and his younger sister.
The academic, Jerome (named for the famed psychologist Jerome Bruner who recently praised the book) is an expert on how children learn through storytelling, but suspicious of trendy new technologies - he feels the world "already [has] too many gadgets". The computer scientist, Ada, is an expert on the latest exciting technologies for aiding storytelling. The two of them engage in a gentle battle of minds, and do their best to convince wary class teacher Chris of the value of their methods for teaching. The kids Jo and Alex pipe in with their open and honest reactions to the ideas discussed.
The conversation is firmly grounded in reality: all ideas are considered in terms of what teachers can achieve in practical terms, and how children of different ages, genders and abilities are likely to react to them. Between the five characters, a rough consensus is hashed out as to how teachers could usefully apply these fancy theories and technologies to their work in real-world classrooms.
I'm fortunate enough to have worked with some of the authors of the book, and to have seen some of the technologies mentioned first-hand. However, many of the ideas and applications featured were new to me - the book provides a great deal of material to think about, and the inviting conversational format helps you to consider how you might relate it to your own work.
The book is an easy read, with each brief chapter covering another new idea, theory, technology or real-world classroom example. This is a novel, not a textbook, and is clearly written towards teachers who may be interested in the topics covered but who find the idea of actually using them daunting or impractical: such teachers will find this a very useful and gentle introduction to what they could achieve in their own classrooms.
The book covers two large and scary topics: modern technologies which can be used to aid storytelling, and current academic theory on narrative learning.
Both are intimidating subjects, but they are successfully demystified and defanged by the authors who discuss them through a wide-ranging conversation between five fictional characters: an academic, a computer scientist, a schoolteacher, a teenage boy and his younger sister.
The academic, Jerome (named for the famed psychologist Jerome Bruner who recently praised the book) is an expert on how children learn through storytelling, but suspicious of trendy new technologies - he feels the world "already [has] too many gadgets". The computer scientist, Ada, is an expert on the latest exciting technologies for aiding storytelling. The two of them engage in a gentle battle of minds, and do their best to convince wary class teacher Chris of the value of their methods for teaching. The kids Jo and Alex pipe in with their open and honest reactions to the ideas discussed.
The conversation is firmly grounded in reality: all ideas are considered in terms of what teachers can achieve in practical terms, and how children of different ages, genders and abilities are likely to react to them. Between the five characters, a rough consensus is hashed out as to how teachers could usefully apply these fancy theories and technologies to their work in real-world classrooms.
I'm fortunate enough to have worked with some of the authors of the book, and to have seen some of the technologies mentioned first-hand. However, many of the ideas and applications featured were new to me - the book provides a great deal of material to think about, and the inviting conversational format helps you to consider how you might relate it to your own work.
The book is an easy read, with each brief chapter covering another new idea, theory, technology or real-world classroom example. This is a novel, not a textbook, and is clearly written towards teachers who may be interested in the topics covered but who find the idea of actually using them daunting or impractical: such teachers will find this a very useful and gentle introduction to what they could achieve in their own classrooms.
Format:Hardcover
Inside Stories is the kind of book you will want to read again and again. Its true-to-life characters, "real" and imagined, easily draw the reader into the magical world of the storyteller. The multilayered conversations of participants on a shared journey: Jerome, the professor; Ada, the technologist; Chris, the primary schoolteacher and her two charges - siblings Jo (a teenage boy) and Alex (8 year old girl) - with supporting cast: Peter, the secondary ICT teacher, Claire, the storytelling waitress, and the unnamed sour Ticket Inspector in his bilious yellow uniform, will make your eyes twinkle and your lips twitch.
The two young learners made the story for me and the interaction between adults and children keeps the tale light, funny and realistic.
As a story, this book is quite simply great fun to read and, through these engaging characters, will have a wide appeal: for teachers, parents and researchers, as well as students and younger learners interested in stories, storytelling and creative writing.
The book also has its serious side and presents (if you'll pardon the pun) a "novel" look, not only at educational research on narrative learning and digital technologies, but also at the processes, practices and patterns of participation in the research process. Inside Stories presents storytelling as an active, dynamic process. Not only is it an aid to imaginative, creative learning, it is also a way of extending the learner's context, imagination, developmental and creative impulses. Myths are chased, challenges are met face on, and celebrations shared
with much humour and aplomb.
As a writer, I particularly enjoyed "Sugar coated sea monsters"; as a new researcher, I loved (and learned a lot from) "Jerome and Chris plan a study"; as a teacher of ICT, I laughed at "Jerome is jumped by zombies"; and as a reader who loves stories and books, I was highly enamoured by the tale of "the old researcher who has always treasured the book".
Perhaps the most successful element of Inside Stories, however, is the way it combines simple language with subtly complex narratives to convey a sophisticated treasury of ideas and connections around people, narratives, technologies and learning.
Inside Stories breaks the mould... with a research narrative that's not stuffy, not 'over your head', and altogether a delightful, easy read.
The two young learners made the story for me and the interaction between adults and children keeps the tale light, funny and realistic.
As a story, this book is quite simply great fun to read and, through these engaging characters, will have a wide appeal: for teachers, parents and researchers, as well as students and younger learners interested in stories, storytelling and creative writing.
The book also has its serious side and presents (if you'll pardon the pun) a "novel" look, not only at educational research on narrative learning and digital technologies, but also at the processes, practices and patterns of participation in the research process. Inside Stories presents storytelling as an active, dynamic process. Not only is it an aid to imaginative, creative learning, it is also a way of extending the learner's context, imagination, developmental and creative impulses. Myths are chased, challenges are met face on, and celebrations shared
with much humour and aplomb.
As a writer, I particularly enjoyed "Sugar coated sea monsters"; as a new researcher, I loved (and learned a lot from) "Jerome and Chris plan a study"; as a teacher of ICT, I laughed at "Jerome is jumped by zombies"; and as a reader who loves stories and books, I was highly enamoured by the tale of "the old researcher who has always treasured the book".
Perhaps the most successful element of Inside Stories, however, is the way it combines simple language with subtly complex narratives to convey a sophisticated treasury of ideas and connections around people, narratives, technologies and learning.
Inside Stories breaks the mould... with a research narrative that's not stuffy, not 'over your head', and altogether a delightful, easy read.
Format:Hardcover
This book is a must for anyone interested in narrative learning and educational technology. The brave and ambitious decision to explore this area in the form of a novel has paid off. The result is an entertaining and informative narrative which sweeps the reader along, and allows the authors to explain some very sophisticated ideas with concrete examples. The well-rounded characters are believable and provide an excellent portrayal of the multitude of different approaches, concerns and interests in the area. Inside Stories will appeal to an audience as broad as its characters; teachers of a variety of subjects and age-groups, researchers in education and technology, and learners will all find it useful.
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