Reading and writing in the digital age : e-book and digital storytelling

Abstract

The emergence of technologies has operated profound changes in all sectors of society, at school in particular. The Digital Agenda for Europe (2010), published by the European Commission [1] stresses the need to explain "a roadmap which maximizes the social and economic potential of ICT”, emphasizing the role of the Internet. In Portugal, the Technological Plan for Education is intended to strengthen the digital skills of new generations and to improve the processes of teaching and learning. It can therefore be regarded as a contribution to carry out the Agenda. In this context, we believe that reading and writing take on a new significance through the creation and dissemination of e-books. We are particularly interested in the educational uses of digital storytelling due to the multiple literacy skills that this kind of activities can develop in the classroom. In fact, digital storytelling that require complementary media to represent information (text, image, video, sound, animation), enables a more efficient construction and transmission of messages. The first part of the paper shortly refers to the Digital Agenda for Europe and Portugal Technological Plan for Education. The second part examines the impact of Web 2.0 technologies on the creation of e-books and it emphasizes digital media, media and linguistic skills needed to digital storytelling activities at school. The paper concludes by presenting two e-books created with myebook in preschool and primary school underlining its potential in learning environments.