Hypermedia Tools for 21st Century Teaching

Commercial Hypermedia Product: Interactive storybooks

            Interactive storybooks are one of the most fascinating types of hypermedia products used by students today. Roblyer and Doering express, “Various studies have reported positive impact of interactive storybooks on children’s enjoyment of reading and development of reading skills.” (pg. 175)  Through my research of interactive storybooks, I found the website “Clifford The Big Red Dog Interactive Storybooks,” http://teacher.scholastic.com/clifford1/, to be extremely helpful and user friendly. As a child, I LOVED reading “Clifford The Big Red Dog,” and this website allows students to read stories about Clifford, play letter match games, sound match games, and concentration games. While waiting for the stories to load, students even have the option to play a game of “tic- tac-toe!”  Each page of the story has sound icons for the students to click on before the sentences are read to them. The very last sentence on the page gives students the option of choosing and clicking the last word of the sentence from the three different options provided. After the student chooses a word, the sentence is read again to them with their chosen word in the blank.

            The website “Clifford The Big Red Dog Interactive Storybooks” can be very useful in the classroom in a variety of different ways. Students that need extra help with phonics can benefit through playing the letter and sound match games. Also, students that are struggling with fluency can expand their reading skills through listening to the stories and being able to click on each sentence for it to be read to them as many times as needed. Lastly, “early finishers” can play the games and promote their reading abilities by using the variety of items that this website has to offer. J

Multimedia Authoring Tool: Virtual Environments

            Virtual environments or 3-D environments are now being used in many classrooms today. According to Roblyer and Doering, “Through various visual and tactile devices, VR can represent real or imaginary worlds in which the user interacts through multiple senses: a true multimedia environment.” (pg. 193) Students now have the ability to go on “virtual field trips” and look at 3-D models to be able to better learn abstract concepts. One virtual reality application is QTVR panoramas, which I found useful information on from the website, http://www.easypano.com/qtvr-authoring-software.html. QTVR panoramas can allow students to learn like they never have before by venturing to faraway lands, swimming under the ocean with sharks, and even visiting outer space! Virtual Environments can be used in the classroom with teaching any subject, as it allows the learning to come alive for the students!