Magazinefactory
magazinefactory.edu.fi
What the resource is: This page makes it possible for a class to make their own magazine. The teacher becomes the editor and the the pupils becomes staff and journalists. Together you can decide who will write about what. You can use the magazine in various ways. It can be for schoolwork, recipes, interviews, read other magazines, communicate with pupils from all around the world and a lot more.
How it works: To start up the magazine the teacher registers as editor-in-chief. The teacher write her/his name, email and phone number and send the registration away. You need to name the magazine and choose which level the pupils are in. In this case 4-6. The teacher then have to choose how the outlooks of the magazine will be. You have to make initials for the pupils so that they can be authors on the magazine. When you visit a magazine you can see in the left column what the class already have written about and what the different topics there are. If you click on one of the topic-link you can see the written text. On the first page of the magazine you also find different topics like interviews or schoolwork. It's is up to the class and teacher to choose what to write about. The page is based on "tidningsfabriken" and has gained a lot of awards. It is easy to "get to know" this page and understand how it works. Everything is written in English but in the magazine the class can choose in which language they want to write. If you need help to understand how the page works you can download guides for both editor and the authors. In the magazine you can embed you-tube videos, Google search-results and Google maps, so there are a lot of possibility's on how to use the magazine. On the link "FAQ" you can find out about how to add pictures and how to get started. You can look at and read other magazines where you can leave feedback and write letters. When you want to find another magazine you can look in the right column to find out which country the authors are from. Every magazine has its own design and content.
What you need to make it work: The only thing you need for this page to work is a computer. You might need more then one so that many pupils can work at the same time. You can use cameras if you want to use your own pictures.
- How the resource can be used by teachers: The teachers can come up with different tasks for this magazine, like: movie and book reviews. Interviews, novels, feedback on lessons, discussions on different topics. The teacher can use it to inform both parents and pupils about events. The teacher can also read the pupils texts and evaluate them. It is a possibility to have a good communication towards the pupils. The teacher can help the pupils to connect to another class in a different country. The magazine can be useful in many subjects. You can cooperate with other teachers. You can use other sources like you-tube, Photoshop for pictures so the magazine is a opportunity to work with different ICT - sources.
- How the resource can be used by pupils: The pupils gets to show their parents and teacher their schoolwork. They can communicate with each other, pupils from other countries and gets the chance to write to English-speaking pupils. They work with topics they are interested in which makes it more motivational and fun. They are authors, work in a team and can affect the content. They use English language in many ways when they, read, write and get instructions. They get to work in various ways and show their capabilities.
- Other considerations when using this resource: I think this is a fantastic page with many possibility's. I think that you need to work with it all over the year and not just for a few weeks. The pupils can look back on their work and see their progress.Nadja Andersson 1EN30L
What I like about this idea is that it is actually based on real life; the children get to pretend they work for a magazine. The pupils can easily get in the role as a journalist with an important job ahead. This will make the work a lot of fun, but the children will also feel important, their work has a purpose.
ReplyDeleteMagazine Factory can be used as a vessel for different texts. Writing just for the sake of it might seem irrelevant for some children. It is important to have an actual receiver when writing and this tool gives the teacher the opportunity to teach how to adapt the text depending on the receiver. Being able to read other magazines sounds really interesting, there is suddenly access to other cultures through children.
Creating a magazine will create many topics to discuss; anything from how to write a text to how a front page is best created. The teacher can ask the children to read real newspapers to learn how the design works. Reading magazines and newspapers will give the children knowledge of how to write, but they will also become aware of what is happening in their society. If possible, the children could actually visit a proper editorial staff!
/ Johanna Gustavsson.
This ITC-project sounds like a fantastic opportunity especially with the writing part and all the practice the pupils gets. Something I miss a little bit in this project is more oral and listening exercises. If you not careful the oral education can be left behind. Perhaps you could let the pupils present their articles for each other to include that in the teaching.
ReplyDeleteI like that this project is reality based and I believe there are good chances that you could involve all pupils' in the class.
I think its fun for the pupils to design their own magazine by themselves as they wish. A good thing is that they practice and learn to write in different genres. The pupils have a great learning opportunity that involves different writing techniques and technology such as camera, which they appreciate.
I guess you will need Internet to make this work and I believe it is a good idea to communicate with the parents and show off the work the pupils have done. The teacher can use this as motivation and documentation. But to do this, the parents need access to a computer at home with Internet connection, which could be a problem if everyone doesn’t have resource.
The project also sounds like it’s a lot of work for the teacher and that its takes pretty much time, but I would definitely try this in my class as a theme! / Annelie Ax
This type of ICT resource sounds very fun to use. I have done class magazines when I went to school, but it sounds interesting and modern to post it online. The thing I like with it is, as Johanna mentioned earlier, that the pupils act as real editorial staff members and that, by posting it online, the class magazine gets a big audience when the pupils' parents, grand parents and friends can go online and see what they have created. All of this probably gives the pupils motivation and meaning in working with the magazine.
ReplyDeleteAs Annelie mentioned earlier, maybe the resource does lack of oral tasks, but not if the pupils posts videoclips and podcasts in the magazine. That is the advantage of making a web magazine; you can use many different ICT resources in it.
I also like that every child can be included in this work and that they can collaborate with each other along the way and that it is a fun ICT resource to use when working on big projects because of the fact that many different school subjects can be included. The website also has a layout that I think speaks to younger children. I can not wait for trying it out myself with my future students!