Producing Multimedia Stories with ESL Children: A Partnership Approach
National Chiao Tung University
GAIL FITZGERALD AND MEEAENG KO PARK
University of Missouri-Columbia
This article describes the development of multimedia stories produced by ESL children using a children-as-designers approach. The rationale for the project was based on the use of technology to help second-language learning children express their culturally-diverse backgrounds and perspectives. Stories were produced by ten foreign-born international children from six countries working with nine educational technology graduate students from the USA and three other countries. Qualitative methods were used throughout the semester-long project to observe children, take field notes to document the process, capture design artifacts, conduct formative evaluation and final interviews, and write process reflections. The multimedia stories that emerged were rich expressions of children's culturally-diverse perspectives related to their folklore, family beliefs, and adjustments to a new country. The children successfully participated as design partners by writing and illustrating their stories and by sharing decisions about multimedia features in the stories. Although challenged by the one-semester timeline to learn high-level multimedia software and complete the stories, graduate students were positive about their experience working with children in an authentic design project. The results support the effectiveness of technology as an intercultural, collaborative bridge to support multicultural education and student-centered learning for children as well as developers.
One of the challenges facing educators is to weave multicultural education throughout the curriculum in meaningful ways. Multicultural education focuses on building understanding and equity across students from diverse racial, ethnic, social-class, and cultural groups. An important part of this goal is to help children interact and communicate with people from diverse groups (Banks & Banks, 1995; Moore-Hart, 1995). Technology is a medium that may provide a bridge to bring students together across age and cultural differences. This multimedia-writing project was an intercultural collaborative venture between graduate students in a university educational technology course and elementary children in an English as a second language (ESL) public school class. The rationale for the project was based on the use of technology to help second-language learning children express their culturally-diverse backgrounds and perspectives through multimedia story writing.
In order to produce the stories, a university/school partnership was implemented based on a new approach in software design that focuses on working with children as design partners (Druin, 1999, 2002). Nonnative (to USA) ESL children from the countries of Bosnia, Turkey, Nicaragua, Mexico, and Rwanda wrote and illustrated stories to retell folktales from their native countries or write creative stories based on their experiences. University students, themselves representing four different countries, were enrolled in a software design and development class and partnered with the children to turn their stories into interactive, multimedia stories with cultural images, trilingual text and narration, animation, and sound effects. When completed, the stories were placed onto CDs for dissemination to families, the school, and university classes.
STORY WRITING AS COMMUNICATION WITH SECOND-LANGUAGE LEARNERS
Literacy is the core for children learning to communicate in a new language. Communication requires meaning, and it encompasses reading, writing, and speaking. Social communication and meaningful tasks within cooperative groups are motivating approaches for stimulating language learning and fluency in literacy skills (Egbert, 2002; Johns & Torrez, 2001; Krashen& Terrell, 1983). Multicultural literacy experiences help second-language learners from different cultures improve performance as well as appreciate their own culture and the cultures of others. For example, in the Multicultural Links project, culturally-diverse backgrounds of children were used to provide multicultural literature-based activities as the means for children to improve reading and writing performance and positive attitudes toward reading and writing (Irwin, Moore, & Stevenson, 1994). A variety of methods were used to support these goals, including interactive reading and writing, creative arts, cooperative learning activities, and theater. Although books and web sites are now available with international children's stories (Hourcade et al., 2003; see the International Children's Digital Library available at http://www.icdlbooks.org/index.shtml), there may be value in having children write their own narratives, thereby sharing their culture through their own voices. According to Irwin et al. (1994), such literacy activities based "on our students' life experiences and background knowledge in the context of an emotionally supportive environment-an environment that is risk-free---encourages students to explore and experiment with language" (p. 259).
Storytelling is one form of communication found in all cultures throughout time. The interactive storybook is one popular form of storytelling that promotes literacy and exploration of written language by children (Fredickson, 1997). One example of an interactive book is Grandma and Me with a story about Little Critter (a hedgehog) who spends a day at the beach with his Grandma (Mayer, 1998). The story is shown on the screen with text, and it can be listened to and read using four languages. Beyond that, children interact with the story by clicking on objects on the screen to animate the story; hear music, sound effects, and dialog; and play theme-related games. Research suggests that these multimedia books provide a multi-sensory approach to reading that supports multiple ways of language learning (Labbo & Kuhn, 2000). Proponents of interactive storybooks believe they have the potential to increase comprehension because children bring their own prior knowledge to the story, allow children to explore and build their knowledge, and are highly motivating (Matthew, 1996).
Interactive storytelling has recently been explored for cross-cultural learning and to support children in telling their cultural stories (Bers & Cassell, 1998). With the use of new technologies, such stories can be written with cross-cultural partners, story features can be added to enable multi-lingual speech and text, and children's stories can be posted on web sites and discussion boards to facilitate intercultural communication. For example, The EuroTales Project (http://www.eurotales.eril.net/teacher.htm) offers a web site of folktales written by children in eight European schools. Children in each school write, illustrate, and post folktales from their own countries. The site supports cultural understanding among children through storytelling. As explained on the site, "We wrote these stories because we are proud of our culture, traditions, and language. We wish our children to grow up valuing the friendship of children from other countries. We wish them to become citizens not just of Europe, but of the World." Similar projects now exist to share stories on a global scale.
SOFTWARE DESIGN PARTNERSHIPS WITH CHILDREN
Too often, adults develop software from adult perspectives with evaluation only by adults; input from children is not sought and the voices of children are not heard. In designing new technologies for children, researchers of human-computer interfaces have discovered that children have unique likes, dislikes, and needs that are often different from those of adults. Developers of children's software cannot expect children to describe their needs, but must actively observe their use of software, involve them in talking about their ideas, and engage them as codesigners. As stated by Druin (1999) "We need to establish new developmental methodologies that enable us to stop, listen, and learn to collaborate with children of all ages" (p. 53).
Interestingly, when children are observed using software, researchers find that children use technology in different ways from adults. "Many times they do not have a defined task and their activities are open-ended and exploratory" (Druin, p. 53).
Druin (1999; 2002) has studied differing roles children may have in the technology design process. Druin describes the role of design partners as one where children are equal stakeholders in a project throughout the entire process. She noted "while children cannot do everything that an adult can do, they should have equal opportunity to contribute in any way they can to the design process" (Druin, 2002, p. 18). There are a lot of unknowns when working with children as design partners. One challenge is that children are used to receiving direction from adults in what to learn and how to perform;
the role of being an equal partner with an adult is new to them. Similarly, technologists are not trained in working with children as clients or partners, and come to the process wondering how to do this with children. There are logistical concerns for working with children over long periods of time and how to have sufficient and frequent time to work with the children. It appears that many factors can impact successful collaboration on the partnership teams that warrant evaluation (Fitzgerald & Peng, 2001).
This design research project used qualitative research methods to gather information to understand and document the partnership process as well as the story-writing outcomes for both children and developers. Qualitative methods were implemented throughout the process and included observations of children, note-taking, shared design artifacts, interviews with the children during and following completion of the stories, and reflections of the graduate students. Five related themes were identified for analysis in this project.
1. What themes and story features are important to second-language learners when producing multimedia stories from culturally-diverse perspectives?
2. How do second-language learners perform as design partners when creating multimedia stories?
3. How do second-language learners evaluate their experiences with shared literacy and multimedia story writing?
4. What factors are identified by graduate student developers as important when considering the feasibility of working with children as design partners?
5. How do graduate students reflect on their experiences working with children as design partners, particularly assessing multicultural understanding through the project?
The graduate students consisted of nine international students from Korea, Taiwan, and Turkey and three students from the United States. These students were enrolled in a hypermedia-authoring course at a large Midwestern university. The purpose of the course was for students to develop skills in designing hypermedia-learning environments using the professional authoring program Authorware 5 Attain. There were two simultaneous instructional strands in the course-learning Authorware and producing the stories. Each class period was divided into two parts-content discussion and lab. Content included skill development in using theory and research for hypermedia learning environments, child-centered hypermedia design, and formative evaluation procedures. Lab time was used for instruction in Authorware and other multimedia programs needed to produce audio and video.
Ten elementary-age youngsters in an ESL class in a local public school wrote the stories and participated as design partners (see stories at http://www.coe.missouri.edu/-ICN).
The project took place over a five-month period of time. The children wrote and illustrated their stories with their classroom teacher prior to the beginning of the spring semester when the graduate students began working as partners with the children. Four face-to-face meetings were held with the partners. The course instructors had additional meetings with the children and their teacher to start up, do language translations, shoot the video bios, and interview the children following the project; graduate students participated in some of the media sessions.
The project provided an opportunity for the children to write folktales or creative stories based on their experiences, and thus, to express their culturally-diverse backgrounds and perspectives. The stories were produced with trilingual text and narration to facilitate an appreciation of language differences yet common meanings. The child/developer teams decided on desirable multimedia features for the stories, such as color schemes, graphics, animation, and sound effects. Additional multimedia features in the electronic stories included a bio of the child author and an electronic notepad to encourage readers to prepare messages they would like to send to the authors or to write new endings for the stories.
A variety of software was used to produce the interactive multimedia stories for the PC platform. Graduate student developers learned Macromedia Authorware for the programming and animation. The teaching intern for the course created teaching modules and step-by-step handouts that facilitated skill acquisition with the software tools. Adobe PhotoShop was used to produce and enhance children's illustrations. Cool Edit software was employed for audio production. Lastly, both Adobe Premier and QuickTime Pro were used to capture and edit the video bios. A brief description of the production steps of the project follows.
Writing the Story Narratives
The course instructor and intern demonstrated a variety of interactive storybooks to the children and allowed them to try out the interactive features of the stories. Children commented on the interactive features they liked in the stories that added interest. Prior to this session, the children had not been exposed to hypermedia or interactive stories. They had only minimal computer literacy skills and most had not used word processing programs.
The ESL teacher worked with the children on writing stories when they came to her for their resource instruction. The teacher read folktales to the children from other countries and talked about folktales they knew from their countries. Information was sent home asking parents to talk to their children about folktales from their native countries. The children engaged in writing their stories and drawing illustrations for approximately six weeks, twice a week, for 45 minutes at a time. The stories were written in English.
The teacher helped them edit their work and match the text to the illustrations. Because the children had little experience in story writing prior to this activity, they needed a great deal of help in breaking their narratives into pages and matching illustrations to specific pages.
Transforming the Stories into Hypermedia
At the first partnership meeting, each child was matched to one or two graduate students to partner with for story development. The partners discussed the stories and illustrations. The graduate student developers (hereafter referred to as "developers") asked the children what was hard and easy in writing and illustrating the story. They also asked the children about the colors they had picked and asked whether the colors had any associations with their home countries. For example, a student from Bosnia mentioned the color of the roof of the house in the illustration. The child said, "Red is the most common color for roofs of houses in Bosnia." An example illustration is shown in the story of Mirza and a Baby Wolf (http://www.coe.missouri.edu/-ICN/story4.htm). The partners then discussed the child's expectations for the story, likes and dislikes. They talked about initial ideas for multimedia features. The developers asked the children if they had seen interactive storybooks before and had ideas about what could move and what could make sounds in their story. The children had insufficient experience with interactive storybooks to make very many suggestions. Some of their suggestions were not feasible within the project time frame of the project. For example, some desired sophisticated animations, talking speech bubbles, or bouncing pointers over the text as it was narrated. The following section describes components in the media production process.
Story template. A story template was created in Authorware for the developers to use to produce the interactive stories with a common structure. Each story included interactive features of paging, changing languages, listening to audio, writing notes, and viewing a video. The template consisted of a user login, record keeping, note-taking capabilities, and an overall navigation structure for each story. Following the title screen in each story, a login screen appeared and required readers to enter his or her name. The user login set up record keeping to collect information on choices made by users-the time they spend on each page, selected features, and any notes they write about the story. The story records were designed for teachers or researchers to study and track children's choices as they use the interactive stories. Table 1 shows a partial example of a story record.
Following the login screen, the next screen displayed the main menu. Although each story differed in graphics, aesthetics, and illustrations, the structure of the main menu was identical for all stories. As shown in Figure1, an example screen from the story, Rabbit and Wolf (http://www.coe.missouri.edu/-ICN/story9.htm), three buttons are for navigation: the main menu button in the middle and the two hand-shaped buttons on the sides to read the story.
By clicking on the main menu, readers can choose the language for the story, navigate the stories using the Start Over or Quit buttons, or use the Take Notes feature to record their thoughts about the stories. Another function provided by the notepad allows readers to write new endings for the stories (Figure 2). These entries can be saved on the reader's computer and can be used in class activities to share electronically with classmates or teachers. Another button, Meet the Author, can be selected to view a video bio about the story author. The text and audio for each story changes for the different languages and the text is displayed below the illustration on each page of the story.
Interface design. At the second partnership meeting, the developers showed the children screen graphics they had created from the child's illustrations and ideas for content. Alternative color schemes were shown and other choices were demonstrated for the child to make interface design decisions. Ideas for animation and story enhancements were discussed. Children and developers decided collaboratively on the objects that could be animated. Some children were more interested in sound effects than animation. The children were encouraged to use their imagination and select ideas based on their stories and feasibility. Getting input from the children was critical in translating their text and illustrations into interactive stories.
A structured process was used to guide the design decision-making process. The guide that was used for this process is shown in Table 2. The story was first shown one screen at a time to solicit the child's reactions. Second, the text to accompany each graphic was read and options to add graphic details or interactivity were discussed to enhance content. Third, options were shown in regards to aesthetics, graphics, and colors to allow the child to make decisions. Finally, the partners agreed on the language translations.
Developers took notes on the guide to capture the child's responses. In Table2, the "Screen 4" row presents a sample of the child's comments. The developers converted the children's stories into interactive stories and developed all the multimedia features to accompany the story. This phase took approximately three months, as the developers were also learning Authorware in their university class.
Text, graphics, and animation. The text in each story was translated from English into both Chinese and the child's preferred language that was, in most cases, the child's native language. In some cases, parents did not have sufficient knowledge of English to assist with the translation process, and professional translators were used to produce the needed text of the story. Children's illustrations were scanned and manipulated using Adobe PhotoShop. In many cases, the illustrations were incomplete or insufficient to support the story, and the developers needed to enhance the illustrations as well as work with children to get additional drawings. Based on decisions made in partnership meetings, developers created some simple animation examples to show the children. Together they decided what animations to add to the story.
Audio and music. Each story was narrated in three languages. In many cases, children provided the narration in their native language. Most of the children no longer spoke their own languages fluently and could not do their own narrations without extensive help. In some cases, parents assisted with the translations and audiotaping. The children selected opening and closing music clips, and sometimes, sound effects from copyright-free resources provided by the developers. Original music was performed, digitized, and included by one of the developers.
Author video bios. The children made video bios to include with their interactive stories. In the bios, they told about their stories and new life in the United States. Most began by greeting their family and friends in both English and their native language. The videos were converted into the QuickTime movie format with some special transition effects.
Formative Evaluation: Evaluating the Interface with Multiple Audiences When the stories were completed in the interactive multimedia format, the developers showed their products in their graduate class to get feedback from each other. Following that, the third partnership meeting was held with the children to conduct a formative evaluation. The purpose of this session was to detect strengths and weaknesses in the stories or media components in order to revise the product and to improve its communication and appeal.
Each child was observed while interacting with his or her story. The formative questions guiding the evaluation were "Can the child navigate the interface?" and "How does the child respond to the story?" The developer guided the child through the story, observed, and discussed features; a second graduate student or instructor served as a note-taker to write field notes on the child's responses and reactions. In this session, developers could ask additional formative evaluation questions as desired. Some of the additional questions asked were "What do you like best and least about your story on the computer?" and "What new ideas do you have after interacting with your story?" The partners then made final decisions to complete the stories.
The final design meeting was held to show the completed stories to the authors and classmates. Each story author demonstrated his or her program and answered questions. The notepad was also demonstrated. Classmates enjoyed the stories and made positive comments about the stories. The developers held final discussions with their partners.
Revising, Finalizing, and Producing the CDs
The developers revised the stories based on the observations and discussion during the formative evaluation session. In most cases, music and sound effects were added and graphics were enhanced. To finalize the stories, the project staff helped developers create and insert the children's bio video clips into the story. Some children wanted to add more to their stories and did some additional writing and illustrating. Additional one-on-one meetings were scheduled as needed between the partners to finalize the stories.
The stories were combined into one program that featured opening and closing credit screens, opening and closing music, and a main menu for story selection. A globe and flags were added to represent the countries of the children and the developers. The main menu displayed hot-button thumbnails of all the title pages for the ten interactive stories. The program was pressed onto CDs and copies were provided to the children, their families, school media centers, the teacher, school administrators, developers, and other interested faculty members.
Summative Interviews with the Children
The course instructors conducted group interviews one week after the final session. These were held without the developers present to solicit the children's feedback on the design partner process. Interviews were held with children in two groups-the older and the younger children- to give each other peer support. A structured interview process was followed with these questions:
"* Did your story turn out in the way you wanted?
"* How do you feel about sharing your stories?
"* Did your partner listen to your ideas and act on them?
"* Do these kinds of stories help kids understand each other?
"* What would you tell other kids about the computer story-writing project?
Responses to the interview questions were limited and quite concrete. The children mentioned how difficult it was to write the stories and that they disliked their drawings. They thought that it was "cool" working with partners and that these partners made their stories look "neat" by adding music and animation to them. The children liked everything about the way their stories turned out except for the quality of their drawings. They were excited to share their stories with their families but not their peers in regular classes.
They agreed that the partners did what "you told them to do." They would recommend the multimedia-writing project to other kids, saying, "it's hard, but it's fun." In retrospect, the project staff realized that there had been insufficient time for children to share their stories with families, teachers, and peers, so they were unable to experience reactions to their work.
Analysis of Inquiry Themes
Findings from the qualitative measures were summarized to respond to the five identified themes for inquiry.
1. What themes and story features are important to second-language learners when producing multimedia stories from culturally-diverse perspectives?
There were three themes evident in the children's stories and all of these projected culturally-diverse perspectives. Although the original task given to the children was to share a folktale from his/her country, some of the children created original stories with their own ideas. Most the children said they got their story ideas from their country or from reminders of home.
Theme 1: Folktales. Folktales are stories passed down within cultures and are common lore in children's literature. Among the different kinds of folktales are trickster tales. Two stories written by the children were trickster folktales. Although the writers were from different countries, both stories included the protagonists of a rabbit and a wolf. In the German tale about Wolf and Rabbit (http://www.coe.missouri.edu/-ICN/story8.htm), a rabbit out-smarts a wolf using a variety of tricks and escapes from being eaten by climbing up a ladder to the moon. In the Rwandan tale, Rabbit and Wolf (http://www.coe.missouri.edu/-ICN/story9.htm), a smart rabbit hides a cow from a wolf that they planned to eat. The rabbit tricks the wolf into thinking its strength caused the cow to sink into a river, and the rabbit and its friends ate the cow.
Although "Pepito" is a folk character that appears in Hispanic children's stories, one of the Pepito stories was based on folklore of a different type-myth or legend. Folklore is based on oral tradition and casts meaning within stories. Pepito's Story http://www.coe.missouri.edu/-ICN/story7.htm) would be considered folklore to the extent it is a re-telling of a story with meaning. It has a religious theme about an orphaned baby and the love he receives when taken in by people at a church, and later his forgiveness for burning a cross when playing with matches.
Theme 2: Strength of the Family, Dangers, and Separation. Four stories centered on children within families and the struggles they had within their environments. In these stories parental figures have a central role in rescuing children and creating "happy-ever-after-endings." The strength and bond of the family unit is the message within each story.
The Story of Juana & Pepito (http://www.coe.missouri.edu/-ICN/story3.htm) includes "Pepito" as a character, yet the story theme tells about family and separation. Written by a girl from Nicaragua, this story tells about two children whose mother disappears, their life with grandmother, and a tragic accident with their grandmother. They receive help from a stranger who turns out to be their mother and they all go home together.
The Smith Family (http://www.coe.missouri.edu/-ICN/story6.htm) is a story about a wealthy family that worries about being harmed by mean neighbors when they go on a trip, only to discover they have not been harmed when they return home. In fact, everyone missed them and the children did well in school and got prizes for good grades.
Happy Girl (http://www.coe.missouri.edu/-ICN/storyl.htm) describes a fearful family, afraid of town people who were physically larger than they are. They face dangers of losing a daughter overnight and a cat that wants to eat them. All ends well with a surprise birthday party attended by all the village people. Nothing else bad ever happens to them.
A wolf once again appears in a story in Mirza and a Baby Wolf (http://www.coe.missouri.edu/-ICN/story4.htm) but this story turns out to be about a boy who goes into the woods by himself, gets frightened by a baby wolf, and runs home to his mother. He is scolded for not telling his mother he went into the woods. He does not tell his mother what happened, but always obeys her after that.
Theme 3: Being New, Making Friends, Acceptance. Two stories were different from the others in that they seemed to deal with experiences these children were having in adapting to life in a new culture. The stories seemed "here-and-now" and demonstrated children's perspectives on acculturation. Both dealt with children's personal relationships and the impact other children have on easing their transition into a new school.
In The Vampire (http://www.coe.missouri.edu/-ICN/story5.htm) written by a Turkish girl, the story tells about a girl who has powers to retaliate when experiencing personal rejection. The main character in the story, a girl, is called ugly on the first day of school and becomes mad. Because the girl is actually a vampire, she plots to harm others. When a new friend comes over to her house to play, she bites her on the neck, and the friend is never seen again. It is interesting in this story that retaliation is more important than acceptance by a new friend.
The story of Jamie and Dajana (http://www.coe.missouri.edu/-ICN/story2.htm) written by a girl from Bosnia deals with these same fears of going to a new school, but the girl in the story is accepted by others who help her with the transition. First, the new girl makes a friend on the bus, is welcomed into her new class by a nice teacher, and then plays with her new friend at recess. She tells her parents she had fun and likes her new friend.
No experiences of rejection or retaliation are described. In different ways, all the stories demonstrate culturally-diverse perspectives. Some re-tell old trickster tales or build on folklore; some share the importance of family and the ability to persevere when faced with dangers; others give insight into the experiences of children entering new schools
and friendship groups. For the most part, people in the stories have names consistent with their backgrounds and their illustrations include villages, houses, and other environmental details from their recollections of their native countries. At one level, these are just children's stories to be enjoyed by other children; but at another level, the stories provide deep meaning and insights into the culturally-diverse memories, desires, and values of these children.
2. How do second-language learners perform as design partners when creating multimedia stories?
The second-language learners were dedicated to writing and illustrating stories; however, they had few ideas to contribute in the product development process. This could be due to their limited experience with interactive multimedia stories or not understanding their roles in the design process. The graduate student developers frequently needed to prompt or encourage their child partners to be creative and informative. The second-language learners also showed unique thoughts and preferences that were very different from those of adults.
As the partnership meetings progressed, the developers and children got better in communicating and collaborating on project design. One interesting consequence resulting from such interactions was the steady transformation of developers' attitudes toward children as design partners. Graduate student developers learned to see the story through the eyes of children and were able to immerse themselves into the child's world.
What Irma has drawn was the story about a baby wolf and a child named Mirza. Frankly speaking, the story doesn't seem like it makes sense .... The picture is not that clean, so we started to edit the drawings to look nicer (in my opinion). But things were not going well, because as an adult, something what makes sense to me does not always make sense to kids. When I viewed the pictures through Irma's eyes, I could see the way I should make it. - Sun-
Hong, graduate student
3. How do second-language learners evaluate their experiences with shared literacy and multimedia story writing?
Three themes emerged from the author video bios and final interviews with the children. First, the children enjoyed the authoring process. For example, several children pointed out in the interview that they preferred making up stories or re-writing stories based on folktales. They also talked about how difficult it was to write their stories and that they disliked their drawings.
The children suggested alternative approaches to story writing, such as using a word processor to complete the story first, then working on the drawings to match the story. Second, children thought it was "cool" working with partners. Their partners made the stories look "neat" by adding music and animation to the stories. Throughout the project, the children felt they were treated like a "manager" because their partners would do "whatever you told them to do."
Third, the children held positive attitudes toward this partnership project. They enjoyed reading the stories in English, in their native language, and used the Chinese option to check pictorial Chinese characters on the screen. They looked forward to sharing their multimedia stories with families, and in their bios, said "hello" in their native language to family members in home countries. They felt intimidated about sharing the stories with their peers in regular classes or in the school media center. On the other hand, some children anticipated putting the stories on the Internet and being "famous around the world." They all expressed the belief that the stories could "help others to learn about different countries and languages."
4. What factors are identified by graduate student developers as important when considering the feasibility of working with children as design partners?
Several factors were identified in the reflective logs of the developers. First, the mixture of design theories and practical experiences of working with children was seen as one of the strengths of this course. Readings on children's roles in the design process provided the stimulus for design and class discussions. Several developers described the influence of readings and how they learned to value children's perspectives.
This course... enabled me to transcend the stereotype that I had in my mind. I used to think of children as passive users in education technology. Now I respect children more as partners who have a more equal and responsible role in the design process. - MeeAeng, graduate student
Second, face-to-face interaction with the children was the essential component of this project. Prior to this course, none of the developers had worked with children as design partners. Concerns and frustrations were expressed in early stages of this project. One student described how he encouraged his child author during the four school visits. Sabina, his child author, seemed to grow more comfortable working with him the more they worked together.
Sabina was very quiet the first time I met her, but she read her story, discussed her drawings, and told me a bit about herself .... For the next meeting Sabina was quiet and
shy as usual, so I encouraged her to play around with the graphics on the computer .... By the last meeting Sabina was very talkative and curious about the project. She likes her narration and asked to include "ciao" at the end of her story. Overall I got the feeling that she was getting more comfortable working with me. - John, graduate student
Third, developers learned how to work with child partners through the entire process of product development and realized the differences between designing for adults and designing with children. They learned to interact with their child partner at every phase of a project, and also acquired experiences on how to share ideas, ask questions, and negotiate for solutions. They came to respect children more as partners who have a more equal and responsible role in the design process. Such experiences helped developers gain confidence as multimedia developers.
5. How do graduate students reflect on their experiences working with
children as design partners, particularly assessing multicultural
understanding through the project?
This course was intended to be a meeting place for developing knowledge and cultural understanding for both children and developers as partners. It was found that the fostering of multicultural understanding was interwoven within the context of working, with children as authors. For example, in Pepito's Story (http://www.coe.missouri.edu/-ICN/story7.htm), Jimena shared a Mexican folktale on a life story of Pepito. Her partners were aware of her cultural traditions expressed in her story and illustrations; therefore they made efforts to retain Jimena's original drawings to accurately represent her culture.
For our understanding, there are many Mexican cultures presented in Jimena's story. For example, the flag color, the cross in the church, and the 13-year old birthday celebration for Pepito. Pepito and the angel are the important actors in her story. Therefore, we decided to put these features on the title page to give the readers a cultural orientation to her story. Also, we retained her original work to respect her ideas. - I-Hua and Mei, graduate students
Another shared growth in cultural understanding was described by a U.S. student about his experiences of working with Bertrand, a boy from Rwanda:
My goal was to represent Bertrand's work in the best light possible and include his cultural background. I searched the Internet for information about Rwanda... was quite frankly shocked. Rwanda is not the sum of its wars. I think Bertrand tried to make this point when I asked him about his country. He gets.. .not defensive.. .but guarded. He makes it a point to let me know he likes his country and that it is a normal place. I collected images from Rwanda that allowed me to see the good things Bertrand saw of his country. The images and color scheme are representational of Bertrand's culture. - David, graduate student
An interesting result was the increased level of caring and understanding that developers felt for their child partners. The relationship between the child partners and the graduate developers was more than just a child client and an adult multimedia developer. As described by one graduate developer:
... We were friends and we had a deeper level of understanding of each other, which certainly had a very positive influence on the process of developing our interactive story. What made it possible was the fact that I was an international student myself. My child partner and I were touching each other's hearts and working together to feel good about ourselves. - MeeAeng, graduate student.
Implications for Curriculum
The multimedia story-writing project was implemented to help second language learning children express their culturally-diverse backgrounds and perspectives through multimedia story writing. Technology facilitated attainment of these goals for the children through a creative process of working with production partners, most of whom were themselves international students. Many design features of multimedia story writing have important curricular implications.
The Multimedia Writing Genre
Multimedia, with its hypermedia structure, is a new writing environment that involves narration with multiple media capabilities and nonlinear affordances that allow readers to determine the path through a story and select special effects. Design partners in this project helped children bring alive their stories through media. Stories gave control to the reader to animate or re-hear sounds or narration as desired. Program options allowed readers to select different languages, read any page in any order within stories, and jump to a notepad to create new story endings. Alternative endings could be shared back with the story author or with other readers to build on or change the core narrative. The hypermedia organization and multimedia capabilities enriched the stories and allowed readers to explore and experience the stories more willfully. Multimedia images, sounds embedded in the story pages, and multiple language options all enhanced understandings of the cultural content and images. Ideas that would have been impossible for these young children to convey simply through descriptive writing were actualized in the stories through graphics, animations, sounds, and multiple narrations.
Facilitating Multicultural Education
Multicultural curriculum should promote an understanding and appreciation of cultural diversity (Sleeter & Grant, 2003). The multimedia story-writing project enabled second-language learners to celebrate their cultures and be proud of themselves by integrating their cultural backgrounds into their stories. Stories that include personal, cultural content are meaningful to children, build on prior experiences, and enable children to be more spontaneous in their language. The sharing of stories with partners and peers provided a social context for communication, thus supporting language learning and literacy skills. The multicultural education approach values diversity in language (Grant & Sleeter, 2003). Each story was produced in three different languages: English, Chinese, and the child's native language. The trilingual approach provided an excellent example of practicing cultural pluralism, which is a core concept of multiculturalism. Having three language options in the stories implied that students are not limited to English, and their native language and other languages are also valued.
If education is truly to be student-centered, then the experiences, perspectives, and ideas of the students themselves must be brought to the fore (Gorski, 2001). The multimedia story-writing project facilitated this kind of inclusivity by encouraging students to reflect on their own cultural experiences in writing and illustrating their stories and to provide their perspectives and ideas through multimedia.
The innovative approach to match university students with children to work collaboratively on multimedia story writing was well suited for the goal of "hearing children's voices" in software design. Researchers have noted that children use technology different from adults and often value different software features (Druin, 1999; 2002). Children are typically consumers of software and rarely participate in designing, or even evaluating, the products they use. For university students who are learning how to create software for clients, the experience was unique. Most had little experience working with clients of any age, and in particular, with children. The entire project created an authentic learning lab for the university students. Partnerships require equality of contributions and decision-making.
The second-language learners had very little prior experience with interactive stories or features of multimedia. Their contributions were primarily dependent upon examples and choices presented to them by the developers. Because university students had little experience working with clients to design from scratch, the instructors provided structure and models to guide their product and design process. Further, the university students were learning a new complex authoring tool, Authorware, as well as other multimedia tool programs. Because they did not have adequate independent production skills, the story template created by the instructors became an important support to create a common logic, look, and feel to the stories. Ongoing assistance was needed throughout the project for technical programming and media production.
Children had minimal literacy and writing skills; story writing was difficult and time-consuming-greater than had been anticipated. Children's attendance at school was erratic and many parents had very limited English literacy skills. There were many scheduling constraints with the school. The one-semester time frame for the project was problematic given the amount of new learning and skills necessary for story production. Even though the children wrote their stories the month prior to the beginning of the project, they had insufficient time to experience hypermedia and explore other multimedia stories to learn about their features. Whenever feasible, having a longer time frame to carry out these types of collaborative projects would enhance all components. It was apparent that the use of multimedia writing helped these children bring alive their personal stories and feel pride in sharing their cultural differences, but it is recognized more could have been accomplished with hypermedia features without the course time restraints.
Regardless of the challenges, the intercultural collaborative story-writing project was judged to be very successful. Accommodations were made to insure the viability of the steps of the production process. University students not only learned the authoring and multimedia software tools, they also learned an authentic design process working with children. The experiences enabled the university students to be better prepared to work with children and with clients from diverse cultures. The children produced wonderful stories filled with culturally-diverse images and perspectives. Interactivity allowed the stories to be shared in multimedia formats with graphics, animation, music, sound effects, and video bios. Throughout this process, the children expressed pride in their own cultures and appreciated others' cultures. In summary, the multimedia technology used in this project served as a valuable tool in the accomplishment of multicultural education and professional development.
Banks, J.A., & Banks, C.A.M. (Eds.). (1995). Handbook of research on multicultural education. New York: Macmillan.
Bers, M., & Cassell, J. (1998). Interactive storytelling systems for children: Using technology to explore language and identity. Journal of Interactive Learning Research, 9, 183-215.
Druin, A. (1999). The design of children's technology. San Francisco, CA: Morgan Kaufmann.
Druin, A. (2002). The role of children in the design of new technology. Retrieved March 8, 2006, from ftp://ftp.cs.umd.edu/pub/hcil/Reports-Abstracts-Bibliography/99-23html/99-23.pdf
Egbert, J. (2002). A project for everyone: English language learners and technology in content area classroom. Learning & Leading with Technology, 29(8), 36-54.
EuroTales. Retrieved March 8, 2006, from http://www.eurotales.eril.net
Fitzgerald, G., & Peng, H. (2001). Children as design partners: A qualitative study of process and products. Proceedings of Ed-Media 2001 World Conference on Educational Multimedia and Hypermedia, (pp. 496-497). Norfolk, VA: Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education.
Fredickson, S. (1997). Interactive multimedia storybooks. Learning and Leading with Technology, 25(1), 6- 10.
Gorski, P. (2001). Multicultural education and the Internet: Intersections and integrations. Boston: McGraw-Hill.
Grant, C., & Sleeter, C. (2003). Turning on learning: Five approaches for multicultural teaching plans for race, class, gender, and disability. New York: John Wiley & Sons.
Hourcade, J., Bederson, B., Druin, A., Rose, A., Farber, A., & Takayama, Y. (2003). The international children's digital library: Viewing digital books online. Retrieved March 8, 2006, from http://hcil.cs.umd.edu/trs/2003-17/2003-17.pdf
International Children's Digital Library. Retrieved March 8, 2006, from http://www.icdlbooks.org/index.shtml
Irwin, M., Moore, M., & Stevenson, J. (1994). Enhancing a multicultural program through hypertext links. Computers in the Schools, 10, 255-280.
Johns, K., & Torrez, N. (2001). Helping ESL learners succeed. Bloomington, IN: Phi Delta Kappa Educational Foundation.
Krashen, S., & Terrell, T. (1983). The natural approach: Language acquisition in the classroom. San Francisco: Alemany.
Labbo, L., & Kuhn, M., (2000). Weaving chains of affect and cognition: A young child's understanding of CD-ROM talking books. Journal of Literacy Research, 32, 187-210.
Matthew, K. (1996). The impact of CD-ROM storybooks on children's reading comprehension and reading attitude. Journal of Educational Multimedia and Hypermedia, 5, 379-394.
Mayer, M. (1998). Just grandma and me [CD-ROM]. Cambridge, MA: The Learning Company.
Moore-Hart, M. (1995). The effects of multicultural links on reading and writing performance and cultural awareness of fourth and fifth graders. Computers in Human Behavior 11, 391-410.
Sleeter, C., & Grant, C. (2003). Making choices for multicultural education: Five approaches to face, class, and gender. New York: John Wiley & Sons.
TITLE: Producing Multimedia Stories with ESL Children: A Partnership Approach SOURCE: Journal of Educational Multimedia and Hypermedia 15 no3 2006
The magazine publisher is the copyright holder of this article and it is reproduced with permission. Further reproduction of this article in violation of the copyright is prohibited. Copyright 1982-2006 The H.W. Wilson Company. All rights reserved.


Girl Rising Films
Girl Rising began with the award-winning documentary, Girl Rising
Nine unforgettable girls, striving beyond circumstance and overcoming nearly insurmountable odds to achieve their dreams. Directed by Academy Award Nominee, Richard E. Robbins, produced by Martha Adams, written by acclaimed female writers, and voiced by celebrated actresses including Meryl Streep, Kerry Washington, Anne Hathaway and more, Girl Rising helped fuel a global movement for girls’ education.
Register to access the film, free of charge, below.
Host a Screening Using our Discussion Guide and Resources
Brave Girl Rising:
The Crisis of Displacement
Brave Girl Rising tells the story of Nasro, a 17-year-old Somali girl living in Dadaab, one of the world’s largest refugee camps. Nasro faces daily threats to her well-being. Food is scarce, water is scarcer, and danger is abundant. School is inconsistent—sometimes available, sometimes not—and for many, the perils of even getting to school are enough to stop going. Nasro is surviving by sheer will and determination. School is her lifeline and, she believes, the only hope for a better future. The odds are nearly impossible, but she is fierce, and she is brave.
Learn about the challenges of education for young people affected by displacement


There is a an insidious lie that western culture has propagated.
It has been around for centuries and it has removed the joy of life for many. It has been woven into our mindset and told to us by many parents and friends.
It’s time to rethink this myth and tell a better story.
Work and life are separate and work is a necessary evil.
That showing up to the office, work or the factory is a necessary drudgery and then you go home to do what you enjoy, discover some entertaining distraction and maybe even find some happiness if your lucky.
In this 21st century we need to learn how to make life meaningful and happy. We need to integrate and combine the 2 categories of life and work into one creative symphony called “life”.
And this can be done despite the challenges and often painful reality that show up.
We now have the platforms, tools and flexibility to do this if you choose. We also have access to technology to help you design that life of freedom.
The first 2 books on this list are insights into how to make life a joyous adventure by applying some attention and focus to the small things.
These include being in the “now” and from that place reach the optimal experience of flow as your creation emerges seemingly without effort.
The other 3 books are a bit like a box of chocolates that surprised me with their insights and wisdom.
All these books compelled me to read to the end and I had trouble putting them down.
Ken Mogi is a neuroscientist, writer and broadcaster based in Tokyo and in this book introduces five pillars of ikigai that are part of Japanese culture to help you make the most of each day and become your most authentic self.
5 pillars include:
1. Start small and focus on the details.
2. Release yourself and accept who you are.
3. Harmony and sustainability – Learn to work with and rely on others.
4. Embrace the joy of little things and saviour the sensory pleasure of your everyday experiences.
5. Be in the here and now and find your flow.
Weaving together insights from Japanese history, philosophy, and modern culture he provides a book that will make you think and help you learn to embrace the simple and small things in life.
I first read this book 25 years ago and it has now been updated and I decided to re-read it. It was delight to re-visit the insights and discover again what a remarkable book it is.
It promises the the keys to unlocking meaning, creativity, peak performance and true happiness. That is a big call but its truth is as relevant today as it was back then.
Legendary psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi’s famous investigations of “optimal experience” reveal that what makes an experience genuinely satisfying is a state of consciousness called flow.
During flow, people typically experience deep enjoyment, creativity, and a total involvement with life.
I think that most people want to achieve an optimal experience and the lessons and insights revealed within the covers will assist you in making your life more successful and also happier and content.
I have read all Yuval Noah Harari’s books and his initial best seller that caught my eye was “Sapien” followed by the equally intriguing book titled “Home Deus”
They challenged my thinking and provided a perspective on what being human means in more context in the grand scheme of history and our potential future.
The book attempts to touch on the the broad scope and challenges of the 21st Century within just 356 pages.
The lessons include the technological and political challenges and the lessons for this new century and also a current favourite area of mine on the topic “resilience”. In that category he covers the 3 lessons including education, meaning and meditation.
Want some perspective on this century that will help you flourish?
Then read the book.
A couple of years ago I attended a Mastermind event in St Louis, USA and sat next to a vibrant and effervescent Kim Philips. She was bursting to share some Facebook growth hacking tips with me and the rest of the group.
She showed me and the other attendees in a few simple steps how to grow a loyal Facebook page following rapidly and for low cost. Around one cent a “like” (follower). Within a few days applying Kim’s tactics I hit over 100,000 followers on my Facebook pages
In this book Brendan Kane takes this to a whole new level and shows how he acquired over one million in just 30 days. And this is without having to be a Taylor Swift or Rihanna.
In essence the tactics are one of testing different media and then using analytics to reduce costs and increase your Facebook and social network reach.
But it will require some financial investment and commitment.
So…..do these tactics work?
In one word “Yes” because I have tested them myself and the results spoke for themselves.
The title for this book is almost mis-leading and it maybe should have been given the headline “The Geometry of Happiness”.
This is more about creating a life of meaning, happiness and purpose while not being distracted by just chasing having more stuff.
The core insight for me was that having enough money allows you to reduce pain and gives you the headspace to create a life of happiness, purpose and meaning.
It is the best book I have read on the true meaning of wealth and the journey to potential happiness and a meaningful life and how money is woven into that mix.
Want more inspiring books?
Here are a few more books that got onto my reading list.
Check them out.
- 5 Inspiring Books That Are Transforming My Life and Business
- 10 Books That Inspired Me
- 7 Inspiring Books You Must Read
- 5 Books That Will Change Your Life (and Business)
- 5 Inspiring Books You Must Read on a Plane
- What I Learned From Reading These 5 Books
- 5 Inspiring Books That May Change Your Thinking About Life


What it says on the back cover
Carla Coulson had it all, or so everyone told her- a glamorous inner-city apartment, a successful business and a designer wardrobe. One lonely Christmas Eve, however, she realised what was missing: excitement, work she was passionate about, and most of all, love.
So, Carla packed up her life and boarded a plane. Italy was her first port of call and became her true destination. With a camera and nothing to lose, she found herself immersed in Florence, tasting the food, learning the language, meeting the people. discovering a new career and country – and photographing her new life.
Carla’s evocative text and rich photographs bring alive the laughter, warmth and passion of Italy. We meet the people who have embraced her: we see the streets, bars, churches, and markets that have enchanted her; and we feel her gioia (joy).
Italian Joy will make you yearn to follow in Carla’s footsteps and discover the true beauty of life in a magical place.
What made me pick up this book
With an inscription like that on the back cover what else? I mean seriously who has not had a dream of heading off to some wonderful place in which they yearn to go to and touch, experience and fall in love with? I am sure that plenty of you have somewhere that has captured your heart? For me Italy is one of those places because it is rich in history, it has a culture that loves food as much as I do, and a place which has long summers that yearn me to jump on a Vespa and head for the hills waiting for me to discover them. Italy became famous for a number of reasons and more recently when we start to see books such as Italian Joy come off the shelves or ones such as Elizabeth Gilbert’s wonderful memoir Eat Pray Love or even Marlena De Blasi’s (see previous review) A Thousand Days in Venice. Italy captures something within many of us and almost lead my own grandfather to wanting to marry a pretty signora back in World War Two!! Carla’s book teaches that we can often have everything we ever wanted but it does not always brings us pleasure to our lives and sometimes taking stock of our lives and taking ownership of what we truly want really helps us to realise what life is all about. It may not necessarily mean taking a trip to Italy but it certainly helps.
Travel without a doubt has educated my mind. It brings on so many things for me. My senses are highlighted and I know that I can see, smell, taste and hear wonderful things when I go travelling. By reading this book, one can appreciate how you can also enjoy the more simple things in life and how to appreciate things for their natural beauty as well. By mixing in with the locals and by living side by side with them, Carla was able to experience a culture that was a far cry from her busy lifestyle back home in Australia.
Is this book worth buying the
A book like this is worth reading if you are looking towards Italy as your next big adventure. Although she is a photographer, do not expect that the photographs in this book are going to be glossy, they are not. This book is a collection of black and white and colour photographs against a matt finish. Some photographs are highlighted with Carla’s writing across them giving them a modern twist and a postcard like feel for the readers as if they are sharing her journey and picking up one of her letters from her wonderful travels. I like how this book captures the people, the real people of Italy and the photographs that Carla took that demonstrate this. There is one photograph where a pair of slippers are sprawled across two pages and are hung by simple wooden clothes pegs flapping against the Italian sun. In another three men are gathered around where one is selling cigarettes and lighters in a street. It is scenes like this that make you are in Italy and that you are not back home. Of course my beloved Vespa scooter and scooters were not missed in this book. Read it with a glass of vino and some crusty bread with olives.. I dare you!


From Ireland to Kintyre, through Argyll to Iona. Then follow the Great Glen to Tain and Portmahomack, or island-hop to the Atlantic fringe. Columba’s epic journeys by sea and land form the cultural and sacred geography of Scotland. Dramatic scenery unveils a story of exile, penitence and peace. Key sites on this route can also be explored in Scottish Gaelic and Irish here.
The range of these journeys is enormous from Donegal through Kintyre and Argyll, to Iona, and then through the Great Glen to Inverness and on to Tain and Portmahomack. The Argyll side of the journey also contains many island hopping options in the Inner Hebrides.
Though the reasons remain unclear, Columba took the path of exile in 563, arriving eventually at Iona, where he founded his main religious community in Scotland. From there he and his followers radiated out across the Highlands and the Islands leaving few places untouched by his influence. Though many other missionary Saints from Ireland were involved in this movement, such as Moluag, Maelrubha, Cainnech, and Donnan, it is Columba’s story that has become identified more than any other with the marriage between Celtic culture and early Christianity, and between Scotland and Ireland.


Imilce “The Russian” Barca, a self-proclaimed descendant of General Hannibal Barca, finds herself on the brink of death, bleeding profusely in the back of Black's car. Black Love, renowned detective, rushes her to Deborah Kiss, a skilled medical examiner and Black's former lover, for emergency surgery. As Deborah saves Imilce's life by extracting the bullets, questions swirl about who she is and why someone wants her dead.
Despite her critical condition, Imilce remains tight-lipped, speaking only a curt "no police" in a thick Russian accent. Dubbed "The Russian" by Black, she becomes the center of a dangerous mystery. Determined to uncover the truth, Black tends to her recovery while grappling with his own suspicions and conflicting emotions.
Before Black can unravel Imilce's identity, their sanctuary is breached by relentless assailants, revealing the severity of her predicament. It emerges that Imilce is a foreign diplomat, her political asylum revoked, and a lethal kill order issued against her. With assassins closing in, Black realizes he's entangled in a deadly game where survival seems improbable.
As Black races against time to decipher Imilce's past and untangle the web of intrigue surrounding her, they face relentless threats from all sides. With each revelation, the danger intensifies, and the line between ally and adversary blurs. In a high-stakes battle for survival, Black and Imilce must navigate treacherous alliances and unearth long-buried secrets to outwit their pursuers.
As the tension mounts and the danger escalates, Black and Imilce confront their own demons and forge an unlikely bond in the crucible of adversity. With the odds stacked against them, they must summon every ounce of courage and cunning to evade capture and emerge from the shadows alive.
In "Black Russian," the twentieth installment of the electrifying Black Love Detective series, author Antwan Floyd Sr. delivers a riveting tale of intrigue, betrayal, and redemption that will keep readers on the edge of their seats until the final, heart-pounding climax.
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Alliance News is an archive compiled by Allan LEONARD.
I first learned about this cross-community party in a book published in 1983 by academic Eddie Moxon-Browne: Nation, Class and Creed in Northern Ireland.
My postgraduate research concentrated on the Alliance and power-sharing theories applied to divided societies. I received my MA degree from University College Dublin in 2000.
In the process of my research, I collected many copies of historical material, as well as creating my own through recorded interviews and taking photographs.
I wish to share as much of this as possible as an online resource archive, and with the cooperation of the party.
If you have material that you would like to contribute in this way, feel free to forward it to me at misterulster – at – gmail.com


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With the overwhelming semester and some interesting developments in my personal life, I can’t keep up with blogging at the moment. I’ll still be around and reading, and can be reached anytime on Goodreads. :)
Title: The Berenstain Bears Count Their Blessings (The Berenstain Bears)
Author: Stan Berenstain, Jan Berenstain
Publisher: Random House
Publication Date: October 24, 1995
Number of Pages: 32
Mama Bear is tired of hearing how many Bearbie dolls Lizzy Bruin has and how many Game Bear video games Cousin Freddy just got. During a thunderstorm, Mama gets her cubs to realize that love and a good home are much more valuable than material possessions.
While I like the underlying message about appreciating the things that you have, it felt like the moral was presented a little too harshly. While the complaints are undoubtedly aggravating and I can sympathize, Mama’s mean attitude kind of turned me off to the whole thing. The addition of the thunder and lightning lesson during the storm I also felt was really distracting and took away from the story.
The book was not bad per say, but it also just wasn’t that great. I would have liked for the situation to be handled in a more positive light, without the children cowering in fear from the storm while being told what they should appreciate. It came off a little too much like a stern lecture.
Weaknesses: Story is not focused
Title: Just Go To Bed (Little Critter)
Author: Mercer Mayer
Publisher: Turtleback, Random House
Publication Date: June 1, 1983
Number of Pages: 24
One of the classic Little Critter picture book titles by Mercer Mayer, this simple story shows our preschool hero resisting his father’s efforts to get him ready for bed. By the end of the book Little Critter’s understanding father has finally succeeded in moving his energetic, imaginative son through bathtime and pyjamatime into sleeptime.
The way that Little Critter acts, while somewhat true to how my daughter used to act at bed time, is definitely not behavior I would encourage. I’d rather read a book that encourages her to sleep instead of showing a character who avoids it and gets away with it. Thank goodness my daughter has calmed down and generally goes straight to sleep when I tuck her in. The book overall is very cute, though I really can’t say that it is anything special, especially for a bed time story.
Weaknesses: Nothing special, little critter behaves pretty badly


Below, you will find archived presentation materials from the Annual Alliance Meeting and ALS/MND Connect Session, held on 1-2 December 2019, and the Annual Allied Professionals Forum, held on 3 December 2019.
We have shared materials from all presenters who gave us their permission, and the information is organised by event below.
Feel free to browse, and if you have questions, get in touch with Catherine Cummings, Executive Director, for more information.
Thank you to our gracious hosts, MND Australia and MND Western Australia, whose warm hospitality, support and assistance made the 2019 Meetings possible.
Thank you to all of our wonderful presenters and to our Principle Sponsor of the event Cytokinetics
Thank you to our Gold Sponsor of the Alliance Meeting Orphazyme
Thank you to our PALS & CALS Lunch Supporter, FUNDELA
Thank you to our Allied Professionals Forum Supporter, ALS Hope Foundation


For fans of Daniel Woodrell and David Joy comes Ian Pisarcik's haunting debut novel exploring the fraught nature of families and the inescapable secrets that are out to cripple them.
On the outskirts of a town too tired for its own happenings, the boys were found dead inside a tent.
Three years later, their fathers have disappeared.
Ruth Fenn's son was the boy they blamed. For three years, Ruth has accepted her lot as pariah, focusing on her ailing mother and the children left in her care by the struggling single parents of North Falls, Vermont. But now the additional loss of her husband is too much to bear, and she has no choice but to overcome the darkness or be consumed by it. But as she edges closer to the truth, she begins to uncover some secrets that are better left buried.
That's when she meets Milk Raymond, a war vet who comes home to find his nine-year-old son abandoned by his mother. Unable to find work, with no idea how to be a father, Milk turns to Ruth for help. But as the mystery of Ruth's missing husband deepens, the fragile stability Milk has created for Daniel is shattered by the ill-fated return of Daniel's mother, who will stop at nothing to get her boy back.
As these unsettled and interconnected lives hurtle towards a devastating conclusion, both Ruth and Milk are about to learn that their dying Vermont town has more secrets than they ever thought possible—and there are those who will do anything to protect them.
Praise for Before Familiar Woods
Top 10 debut novels of 2020, Apple Books
“Dripping with heart and grit and tears . . . an electrifying debut from Ian Pisarcik. Rarely are thrillers this elegantly told and seldom full of such beauty. Like all the best tales, this compelling story feels like it has been sitting in the dark for centuries waiting patiently to be told by someone with Pisarcik’s immense talent and empathy. I will be first in line for anything he writes after this.”
-Christopher J. Yates, author of Grist Mill Road
“Poignant and searingly authentic, Pisarcik’s mesmerizing, heartfelt debut pulls you in and doesn’t let go—a haunting testament to survival of family and community in a poor and desperate landscape.”
-Kim Michele Richardson, author of The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek
“Delivers its people and its landscape in the same striking ways - taking us through peaks and valleys, shadows and sunlight, beauty and brutality, in a well wrought delivery of emotion and place.”
-Michael Farris Smith, author of The Fighter
"Pisarcik wields a poet's eye, stacking images for a novel that turns like the pages of a photo album. Before Familiar Woods is ripe with unforgettable characters. This is a debut to savor."
-David Joy, author of The Line That Held Us
“Ian Pisarcik has written the best kind of thriller: gritty, dark, and tragically human. Intriguing mysteries keep the pages turning, but it is this novel’s people—roughhewn, fractured, grasping for family—who linger long after the covers close.”
-John Larison, author of Whiskey When We’re Dry
"Outstanding . . . Pisarcik is a writer to watch."
Hemingway-haunted . . . Beautifully done and will certainly strike a chord with readers who appreciate the similar styles of Daniel Woodrell and David Joy."
"Searing…This carefully crafted novel reminded us of Dennis Lehane’s gritty Boston mysteries, but with a small-town intimacy that delivers even more of an emotional punch."
"A richly detailed, atmospheric story . . . Before Familiar Woods will elicit sympathy for lives misunderstood and opportunities wasted. It will appeal to those who relish books by Ron Rash, Tom Franklin, and Wiley Cash."


Sunday, March 05, 2017
The Five Mighty Acts of God
I. The Creation
Folks keep telling me they wish we had a Bible Study, or that they knew more about the Bible, or that they knew more of the Church’s basic teachings. As our Lenten journey begins this year, let’s do exactly that. Come let us learn together. Please turn in the Book of Common Prayer to page 845. There you have before you “The Outline of Faith” or what is also called “The Catechism”. The word Catechism means “teaching”, the words, catechist means “teacher”, catecheumenate means “those who are learning” and catechesis is the process of teaching and learning together.
As we think about the Biblical narrative, let me suggest that we organize our thoughts around God’s great plan of salvation under five headings. They are easy to remember as; “The Five Mighty Acts of God”. What are they, class?
Act I. Creation
Act II. The Exodus
Act III. Jesus Christ
Act IV. The Church
Act V. The Christian Hope
Our lives, our pilgrimage toward heaven is woven through and through in this ongoing narrative. The Catechism begins with a section on Human Nature. In other words; “Who are we; In the Beginning?”
But first, let me ask you this; How did the Bible come to be? The Bible did not come to us as we now have it, signed sealed and delivered as a fait accompli. What was the process by which the Bible was transmitted and assembled over thousands of years? How did people of faith bring these stories together? Think about it! Where did it all begin?
The truth is that it all began in an oral tradition that endured over hundred’s of years. But even before that, there were the experiences of God. Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Rebecca, Jacob, Rachael and Leah and their experiences. Moses and his. Then they told their stories of their experiences of God. The people entrusted the transmission and the preservation of these stories to folks who could read and write; the scribes and the rabbis. These people became the teachers and storytellers of a very special kind. These stories were so precious to the people of God that eventually they were written down. These experiences and the stories they shared became the primary vehicle through which we became The People of God.
Then the stories were woven together by folks who treasured various traditions of understandings. They preserved their traditions and stories in scrolls beginning with the Pentateuch or the Law; the first five books of Moses; Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy.
As time went on there was the period of the Judges, the Kings, the Wisdom Literature and the Psalms. They were all were written down by the scribes and eventually there was a whole collection of scrolls carefully preserved for the transmission and the preservation of the stories and traditions of God’s people. This collection of Scrolls began to be called a sacred library. And as you know, the word for library in Greek and Latin is “Biblia” from which we get our modern day word “Bible”, God’s Holy Library.
Still, few people could read, the scrolls were kept in the synagogues and then the churches. They were heavy and cumbersome and very expensive. Eventually the monks of the church became the publishing society of what historians call “The Dark Ages”. For these monks, especially those in Ireland, they regarded every single word ever written as holy. Thankfully, they preserved the literature of Greeces and Rome and antiquity. As for the Bible they began to assemble these scrolls into books. Their exquisite illuminations, such as the Book of Kells, are a magnificent tribute to western art and spirituality.
When Christianity arrived in Britain and Ireland between the third and sixth centuries most of the monks and clergy could only carry two books with them; typically John’s Gospel and the Psalms. They were big heavy books. John’s Gospel was regarded then as the most faithful, beautiful, and exquisite presentation of the person of Jesus Christ. The Psalms of course were carried because they were the Prayer Book of Jesus. After all, as an observant Jew, Jesus would have read the Psalms from beginning to end every month as we still do, those of us who follow the church’s 30 day lectionary for the reading of the Psalms.
With the invention of the printing press by Johannes Gutenberg around 1440, the Holy Library of Books, became available in a more manageable format as a single book. Literacy spread like wildfire. Everybody wanted a Bible.
But don’t forget how it all began. When you read these sacred pages, they are an invitation for you to remember that God invites you into a living encounter with the Trinity of Persons we see in the Creation itself; God, Jesus and Holy Spirit.
Act I The Creation
There are actually three Creation stories if you include the Prologue to John’s Gospel. Listen to how John’s Gospel begins;
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being…And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth.”
Jesus was there right in the very beginning. According to the Johannine account of the Creation, Jesus is the Word of God!
In Genesis we read two accounts of how things were in the beginning. By the way, the method of storytelling favored by the rabbis was to give two answers for each question asked. This method of teaching was a way of cultivating dialogue and encouraging critical thought so that we might enter into deeper relationship with the living God. Thus when the people gathered by the campfire and the children asked where we all come from, the rabbis would tell more than one story.
For instance, in the first chapter of Genesis, we read;
“In the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth, the earth was a formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep, while a wind from God swept over the face of the waters. Then God said, ‘Let there be light’; and there was light. And God saw that the light was good;”
Notice the magnificent Hebrew poetry, and the cadences that speak of God bringing order out of chaos, as if all of time and space came into being out of nothing through the power of God.
And it was good!
“Then came the canopy of space, the waters above and below the earth,” This was now the second day and what God did was good.
“Then God gathered the land into one place, there was vegetation and fruit trees and so on and this too was good.”
On and one this creation story goes as you know, and all went well.
“Then on the sixth day, God created humankind in God’s image,
in the image of God he created them;
male and female he created them.
God blessed them. Then, God saw everything that he had made, and indeed, it was very good.
Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all their multitude. So God blessed the seventh day and hallowed it, because on it God rested from all the work that he had done in creation.”
There it is; the first creation story. God made everything that is and it was good. It was very good.
As you know, things did not go so well in the second Creation story.
There is a very different tone in this story. This is not the same kind of Hebrew poetry. In fact if you know your Hebrew you’ll notice right away that this is a whole linguistic style as if written by a different author. Read it for yourself. It begins with the 4th verse in the second chapter of Genesis
Listen to what it says;
“In the day that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens, when no plant of the field was yet in the earth and no herb of the field had yet sprung up…then the Lord God formed man from the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and the man became a living being. And the Lord God planted a garden in Eden, in the east; and there he put the man whom he had formed.”
You don’t even have to know Hebrew to notice that we’re talking about a different story here. Also this word “Adam” literally means “mud man” because he was made out of the mud that God created from the ground. Then “God said, ‘It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper as his partner.’”
God caused a deep sleep to come upon Adam and created Eve. Soon enough there was the business of the snake, the apple, the disobedience, the shame, the hiding, the blame and the coverup.
I often think that the nakedness of Adam and Eve is not is not so much about a physical nakedness but a metaphorical one. It was impossible for either one to accept responsibility for what they had done because of their disobedience. They chose rather to “cover up” their responsibility and accountability. Rather Adam blamed Eve, Eve blamed the snake.
What had been that state of satisfaction and goodness in the first creation story now becomes a state of alienation between the man, the woman, the created order, and worst of all God. Then enmity breaks out between the children, Cain murders Abel and the and the social alienation among all humankind enters human history. God asks this fundamental question “Where is your brother Abel?’ Cain replied, ‘I do not know; am I my brother’s keeper?’” That still statement haunts all of history.
Notice that there are two narratives for us to consider in our life with God, one in which we walk with God and one another as the redeemed and the forgiven of Christ; and the other in which our alienation takes us far from the goodness of God.
Paul puts it this way in today’s Epistle “As sin came into the world through one man, and death came through sin, so death spread to all because all have sinned…For if the many died through the one man's trespass, much more surely have the grace of God and the free gift in the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, abounded for the many.”
In the wilderness we are confronted with the reality of sin and evil within ourselves.
In today’s Gospel we read of how Jesus faced down the evil one in the greatest temptations of his life. Of course Jesus was tempted to turn stones into bread. God knows he could have. But we do not live by bread alone. Besides, as Jesus told Peter, if you love me you will feed my sheep. All of us will feed the hungry. I’m sure Jesus was tempted to do some kind of fancy trick like jumping off the pinnacle of the Temple to prove once and for all that he is God. But Jesus tells the devil; “Don’t tempt me!” Perhaps the greatest temptation of all would be to take all the nations of the earth, claim their power, and impose Christ’s will on everyone. But that would not change the human heart. God’s power is not found in armies or weaponry. God’s power is shown rather in his dying love through which we are finally reconciled to him and to one another. Finally Jesus dispatches the Evil One; “Get away from me Satan.”
In the Creation story from John the Word becomes flesh. Then there are the two creation stories from Genesis, one in which we walk with God and one another in peace. The other in which guilt, blame, coverup and rage rules the human heart. Those two story lines continue through scripture was we waver between sin and redemption, self will and obedience, blame and forgiveness. These two story lines weave their way through all of human history.
Imagine that we gather together this day in the rabbinical tradition to reflect on our Creation. Imagine asking how did things came to be the way they are. I might reply let me tell you two stories of how they were in the beginning. On the one hand all was well between us and God. On the other hand, things went very badly in blame coverup and violence. The question is not how it came to be that way. The question is who we will choose to be today!
In the Name of God, the Most Holy, Undivided and Everlasting Trinity. Amen.


Running Away To The Circus
November 25, 2013 § 4 Comments
Appearing in the October 1931 issue of National Geographic, “The Land of Sawdust and Spangles—A World in Miniature” explores the whimsical world of the traveling circus. The circus, Francis Beverly Kelley writes, is “a complete world in miniature, exhibiting its geographical wonders within the confines of a vacant lot, loading itself upon its own railroad caravan, and building a new home in a new town every day.” Chronicling this “nomadic melting pot,” Kelley gives readers a vivid look into the life of circus performers, both human and animal.
- National Geographic
These amazing images just make me want to run away to the circus to dance with horses and wear show girl costumes all day long…


Parents may request and CPE will provide information regarding the professional qualifications of the students’ classroom teachers.
CPE uses best practices and several curriculum resources, both online and printed materials, to teach the Minnesota Standards and Benchmarks. These standards for each subject can be found at: http://education.state.mn.us/mde/index.html
Listed below are some of the materials and resources used at CPE to meet these standards and benchmarks:
Superkids Curriculum Reading A to Z/Writing A to Z Scholastic Guided Reading Leveled ProgramTrade Books/Children’s LiteratureMath:Saxon MathScience:Macmillan/McGraw-Hill 2011 and Foss KitsSocial Studies:National Geographic ResourceGrades 3-6:Reading/Writing:Benchmark LiteracyReading A to Z/Writing A to ZScholastic Guided Reading Leveled ProgramTrade Books /Children’sMathHoughton Mifflin Math (Grades 3-6)Science:Macmillan/McGraw-Hill 2011 and Foss KitsSocial StudiesNational Geographic Resources and Scott Foresman Social StudiesLeveled ReadersNorthern Lights text (6th grade)Descriptions of Materials/Resources:The Superkids Reading Program:Superkids is a comprehensive core literacy curriculum just for K-2. It provides a deliberate text approach built on systematic phonics, balances all five essential elements of reading, integrates reading, writing, spelling, and grammar, combines rigor with fun, and completely aligned to our MN state Standards. http://www.superkidsreading.com/Benchmark Literacy:Benchmark Literacy is a comprehensive literacy program that enables students to access complex text. It is a research-proven solution aligned to new State Standards and empowers teachers with:
30 weeks of explicit comprehension-focused lessons for the whole class, small groups, and interventionAssessment-driven instruction that is differentiated and includes responding to textGradual release and built-in choice that support student progress and teacher creativityPrecisely leveled texts for your full range of students, including ELs and striving readersLeveled Reader’s Theater and diverse genres that engage students and extend learningResearch-based resources and professional development that have been proven effectiveInteractive technology that motivates student learning, involvement, and excellence
http://www.benchmarkeducation.com/literacy/Scholastic Guided Reading Leveled Program:The Scholastic Guided Reading Program is a varied collection of books that are categorized by the kind and level of challenge they offer children as they are learning to read.http://www.scholastic.comReading A to Z/Writing A to Z:Reading A to Z provides professionally developed leveled readers, poetry, read-alouds, decodables, and more, with accompanying lessons, worksheets, assessments, and other teaching and learning materials. The curriculum materials cover all the key reading skills. In addition to widespread use in mainstream classrooms, Reading A to Z materials benefit educators and students in special education, Title I , ESL, and dual and bilingual language programs.Writing A to Z contains a comprehensive collection of leveled writing lessons and materials in five main writing genres: expository, narrative, persuasive, procedural, and transactional.http://www.learninga-z.com/Tradebooks/Children’s Literature:Literature for children is being recognized as increasingly important in children’s literacy development. Trade books used at CPE are children’s literature written by published and well known authors. One of the benefits of using trade books/children’s literature in the classroom is to increase student reading. High quality trade books spark interest and keep the children involved in their reading.Saxon Math (grades K-2):The Saxon Math curriculum has an incremental structure that distributes content throughout the year. This integrated and connected approach provides deep, long-term mastery of the content and skills called for in the Common Core State Standards.http://www.hmhco.com/shop/education-curriculum/math/saxon-mathHoughton Mifflin Math (2007) (grades 3-6):Houghton Mifflin Math contains research-based lessons that focus on best practices and differentiated instruction to meet the needs of all learners.http://www.hmco.com/products/products_elementary.html; eduplace.comSTEM:CPE promotes the incorporation of science, technology, engineering and math throughout curriculum, celebration, and other school activities.Macmillan/McGraw-Hill 2011This program is designed to empower students to develop a foundational understanding of science at an early age through conceptual learning and hands-on activities.http://www.mheducation.com/prek-12/category.30710.htmlFoss Science Kits:Foss (Full Option Science System) is a research-based science curriculum for grades K–8 developed at the University of California at Berkeley. FOSS is also an ongoing research project dedicated to improving the learning and teaching of science. The FOSS project began over 20 years ago during a time of growing concern that our nation was not providing young students with an adequate science education. The FOSS program materials are designed to meet the challenge of providing meaningful science education for all students in diverse American classrooms and to prepare them for life in the 21st century. Development of the FOSS program was, and continues to be guided by advances in the understanding of how youngsters think and learn.http://www.delta-education.com/science/foss/index.shtmlNational Geographic Resources:National Geographic School Publishing provides quality PreK-12 instructional materials, including resources for emergent and early literacy, reading/language arts, ESL, and content (science and social studies) literacy development.


A One-Stop Chromebook Shop: Resource Guide for Educators
I am excited to share a comprehensive, user friendly resource guide for teachers who are new to using Chromebooks in the classroom. The sharing of this resource has been a long time coming. I started building the guide back in August. What initially began as a simple Google Doc morphed into a full blown Google Site.
While conducting research for the site, I quickly realized the volume of information on the web about Chromebooks and Chrome Apps & Extensions could easily overwhelm a teacher new to a Chromebook and GAFE. Knowing this, and placing myself in the shoes of a Chromebook newbie, I curated what I believe are the best resources on Chromebooks into a concise, yet information-rich Google site. This one-stop Chromebook shop has been designed to assist my colleagues in Burlington as well as members of my PLN across the globe. I know you’ll find it useful!
The site includes:
1. Chromebooks 101- the most helpful (and short) how-to videos from the Chrome Help Center’s YouTube Channel. Each one is a must watch for anyone using a Chromebook for the first time.
2. The Chromebook Desktop- the shelf, status area, apps launcher, etc.
3. The Chromebook Keyboard- lots of tips, tricks, and useful shortcuts (getting acclimated to a Chromebook keyboard can be a challenge for some)
4. Chrome OS- a brief and simple to understand history and power of the OS
5. Chrome Apps & Extensions – a huge list for educators to explore (this is the level up part)
6. Google and Digital Citizenship – digital literacy and YouTube curriculum resources as well as links for parents. If your students use the web, it’s time to integrate lessons in digital citizenship.
7. More Support – links to Google Gooru’s (literally), Google+ communities focused on GAFE and all things Chrome. Not on Google+? It’s time to stop ignoring it!
The link to the site can be found here:
Feel free to share the link to the site with your PLN as well as the members of your school community. You’ll find it to be a helpful resource, whether you have one cart of Chromebooks or your entire district is transitioning to 1:1 Chromebook.


The purpose of this Quick Reference Guide, is to help users understand the proper steps for Correcting Common Chart Errors. This material is only meant to serve as a guide and DOES NOT include all the scenarios that may occur when correcting errors in patient charts.
Items that are attached to an encounter CANNOT be copied from one encounter to another. It is also important to note that Templates, Documents, and Images CANNOT be removed from an encounter.
Clearing Data From Wrong Encounter
The following steps are needed when clearing data from the wrong encounter:
- Select item from incorrect Encounter (i.e. Intake, SOAP, etc.)
- Clear all fields where data was entered.
Note: be sure to save any pop-ups as well as the main template(s) after clearing fields.
Clearing Data From Document
Perform the following steps if a document was generated on the encounter:
- Clear all data from Body of document.
- Using the formatting toolbar strike through the patient's name and information located at the top of the document.
- Using Arial Font, 36 Font size, Bold, and Red Font color, free text the words GENERATED IN ERROR just below the header.
- Click Save
Remarks can be added to help other users see that the encounter was documented on in error. To add Remarks:
- Right-click on the encounter.
- Select Encounter Description/Remark... from the drop down menu.
Free text Documented in Error, then click OK.
Remarks may differ based on department work flow.
When appropriate, the Encounter should be locked. To lock the Encounter:
- Select the Encounter.
- Click the Lock icon on the Patient History toolbar.
- Enter assigned Password.
- Click Lock


For young Spanish speaking children it is very difficult to learn the English language – reading helps! In past years, JC Family Resources held a literacy fair with more than five thousand free books for the children. The fair is at St. Margaret’s Parish Hall in Morristown, NJ.
The children have the opportunity to have their eyes examined. More than a dozen children go home with vouchers for eye glasses, and several times a child was diagnosed with glaucoma and is being treated!
The Morristown Library issues cards to the children. They were delighted to have their own card. The League of Women Voters helped the adults register to vote. And the clothes and diapers donated by Nautica and other benefactors were greatly appreciated. The children made bookmarks, had a great day and left with a love of books!


Rowan County Public Library has an extensive "History Room". If you have never been, it is worth the trip if you are researching early North Carolina history and families.
I spent from 10 a.m. until 2 p.m. there and could spend days there. They had a specific sections for family research, NC counties, Salisbury newspapers, Virginia research and more!
I confirmed several things that were only theories for Conner research and look forward to going again really soon.
My wonderful mother-in-law was related to the McCanless family and I found a wonderful book that I would love to own. If anyone knows of a copy of The History of the McCanless Family in the United States for sale at a reasonable price, please let me know. It includes the documentation of her relative - D. C. McCanless murder trial when Hickock and two others were charged with the murder!
Many theories as to where the Conner family came from exist and that they were O'Conner/O'Connor before becoming Conner/Connor.
The puzzling thing is that in 1840 there is only one (1) O'Conner/O'Connor shown in the United States by Ancestry.com. That O'Conner/O'Connor lived in Maryland.
By the US Census, the Conner/Connor families were already established in the Carolinas with Conner families in the 1790 Census.
I would love to hear you thoughts on this idea and suggestions for further research.