Volume 6, #4
December 2001

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A Multimedia Sandbox

By Rebecca Nero, Educational Technology Consultant

I don't know. I've found that sand and my camera do mix, but not well. That's what I pictured when I read the article, "Lower Stress and Launch Literacy with a Multimedia Sandbox" (D'Ignazio and Reissman in NCTE's November 2001 The Council Chronicle). "Stress" and "literacy" do tend to stir my attention, though.

So I read the article, and I now have my own sandbox. You might like to build one too!

Here's how the building starts:

• Figure out what media you have now tape recorder/player (and tapes), "boom box" (and CDs), filmstrip projector (and filmstrips), overhead projector (and transparencies), record player (and records), television, VCR, cameras, computers, Internet access ...
• Figure out what parents, guardians, relatives or community members might contribute.
• Figure what you'll use as a sandbox. You don't have to use a box and sand to make your roads. Your students "will be creating new routes for communicating with each other" (Reissman).

Here's how to use your sandbox:

• When you or your class are in a bad mood, go to your sandbox for a CD or cassette tape and play a silly song for your class to sing or listen to. Reissman says that your class will probably choose "cue songs" to match moods and signal a needed change.
• When you want to work on literacy skills, have students use the sandbox contents to create media that teaches or demonstrates those skills.
• Better yet, choose a sound tape or videotape of a story or ITV show that you have not yet shared with your class. Start in the middle of the tape and have students describe what comes before or after that section. When you use the whole story or show, compare what the authors did with what your students did.
• Show a video clip without sound and have your kids add the dialogue, voices and sound effects.
• Have students take photos and write captions to illustrate math concepts (geometry, shapes, etc.) or story lines.

So, go play in your sandbox. You and your students even those who usually distance themselves from engaged learning will have fun AND learn.