Susanne Lohemann

Speaking Time and Room No.: 2006-9-22 16:00-18:00 Room I

Speaker: Susanne Loheman (Sweden)

Theme of Seminar: Children’s Books and Multimedia Era

Living books –Library and Computer in cooperation

Susanne Loheman, speech therapist, Uppsala, Sweden

I am a speech therapist and I work at a school in Uppsala, Sweden where the students have severe language problems.

I am here with my two colleague-teachers, Kersti Vikström and Kicki Olsson. The profile of the school is language. Language in every aspect; spoken, listened, read, written and acted!

All teachers are always aware of in what way the work, whatever it is, can develop language skills. I think this is a main goal for every teacher in the world. One difference might be that we “loose” our students if we use language in a too complicated or a too boring manner. We also try to use alternative ways of communication. Sign language and the manual alphabet and of course the computer with sound, picture and video and all nice possibilities you have there.

These last years we have developed a project where we make “Living books” on the computer with the students.

The book is made on the computer in Power Point. We have a template so that the technical part of the job is ready-made. But when the student starts to fill in the template the personal books becomes very different. Each student tries to express his or her own style.

In this example you will see Christoffer 8 years old and his digital book made by himself. He is very proud of it and he is happy that it will be shown in China!

By his side has been his teacher, Kersti. They have had a discussion about the questions in the template, before the writing has started. The boy has decided what to write about the work he has done in each subject, what has been fun, what he thinks about the future and always he adds a picture, a scanning or a sound example from the work.

As we work a lot with reading books and writing own stories and the library is the central room in our school, the content refers a lot to books.

Everything the student has produced and created can be documented in this portfolio-book. It’s only time and fantasy that limits the content.

As a final result he will be rewarded with an interactive book on a CD made by himself.

When the student moves to a new teacher or a new school this book is put on a CD. As his problem is to express himself in a full language and give a correct picture of who he is and what he thinks and can do. This CD will help him to give a fuller image of the person he is. It’s also a living document for the future; especially the voice will be precious for him as an adult.

I will show examples from the Living book made by Christoffer 8 years old during the spring 2006. The template is made in Power Point and can be received in an e-mail if you mail me on Susanne.loheman@sit.se.