Collen -Part 3
The Research Project -continued
The comic book reader format on ICDL has a zoomable interface, and as I "turned the pages" at the end of each comic strip, the pages did, momentarily, zoom in and out. The "whooshing" sound of the zoomable interface was not activated for the digital storytimes.
Every page of each picture book appears within a "picture" frame that is part of the ICDL interface. These frames, whose predominant color is green, contain the navigation icons that advance the pages, change page spreads from double to single, change the background color, and enlarge or close the page. For the digital storytimes conducted as a part of this study, both Axle and Hunterman appeared within the ICDL navigation frames (see Figure 2).
Figure 2: Double–page spread with ICDL navigation icons or “Picture Frame.”
Before the digital storytimes began, I briefly introduced myself, asked the children whether they were ready to hear a story, and explained the computer technology in the following way:
Today, I’m going to read you a book but it's inside my computer. It's a real book, but I have it inside the computer, and we're going to look at it on the screen. You’re going to start to see the book, and I'm going to use this [showed handheld wireless mouse]. It's a special clicker I can use to make the pages change.
When the digital storytimes began, I sat on the floor with the children, facing the screen and used the handheld wireless digital mouse to advance each frame of the digital file to turn the pages of the digital books. During the digital storytimes, I did not face the children or have eye contact with them while reading the story. Because I used the wireless digital mouse, I could sit with the children - and be a part of the audience for the story along with them - and I read the text of the story off the screen while advancing the pages.
For each of the digital storytimes, I read expressively and did not stop the reading to talk about the story. I did not use the hard-copy of the book during the digital storytime nor did I refer to any other written supplemental text. After the storytimes finished, the children and I discussed the story in detail.
What Happened
After I conducted the storytimes, I reviewed the videotapes and made transcripts that corresponded to the dialogue and behavior of the children during the storytimes. I evaluated and coded the transcripts, looking for movement by the children during the storytimes; talk by the children before, during, and after the storytimes; external noise that occurred during the storytimes; teacher comments, if any, during the storytimes; my questions and comments before, during, and after the storytimes; and, the children’s questions before, during, and after the storytimes. Table 1 contains the codes used for analyzing the movement and talk during these storytimes.