MixBook

Mixbook is another online tool that creates a photo book/album. When I first looked at this tool a year ago I dismissed it as I was wanting a tool that incorporated audio too and this did not fit the criteria.

Looking at a tool with tunnel vision limits the true potential and capabilities that can be offered. When viewing any source, one should look at how it can fit into different aspects of the curriculum rather than just one.

Mixbook is an excellent visual representation of images and text in a book format. The example below does not do it justice as a visual representation of a book. To view the extended version then click HERE where the user has to turn the pages. This interactive aspect, rather than slideshow aspect, brings the book alive.

The example I created below will hopefully develop as members of VOTW add their personal page. That's the beauty of Mixbook, it allows collaboration. You can invite others in and they can add to your book. Collaboration can not happen at the same time as the second person will be alerted that a user is already editing the book. This eliminates children working collaboratively at the same time on different machines but it does not eliminate collaboration. Children can still work together on the same book taking different roles. One can be researcher of information that they save to a shared area, one can be retriever or creator of images that is saved to a shared area, another could be writer who writes up the researcher's information in own words whereas another could be designer of the MixBook.

This would result in a collaborative project that meets the needs of individuals within a group as each child takes on a role they can develop a sense of achievement. Although each member has a individual role to take the group still need to collaborate to ensure their final product gells together.

What I like about collaborative projects, using technology, that enable children to work together but at their own machine, is that everyone is participating. When you place two or more children around one machine not all are actively engaged in the learning process. There is only one mouse which is normally controlled by the most able child. Yes, it is true, children can learn for this able child but active participation by all needs to be questioned. Also, children learn by doing not just observing.

MixBook is not limited to collaboration within a class it could be collaboration within a school or with another school. A school could create an account and use MixBook as an electronic newsletter of events, display of work etc that have occurred at the school for each year group. A class can work together to create a book with each child contributing to a page pertaining to class project, environment, collaborative story, instruction etc. Children can use MixBook to create a collaborative project with an exchange school where time and location will no longer be a barrier to the collaboration.

Although the collaborative aspect is an excellent feature, MixBook is also an individual tool where children can create their own books and personalise. These books are another way to represent their learning, knowledge and understanding which can be shared with the world or a selected audience.

Digital tools are what children use at home to represent their meanings. They create, edit, remash and produce but at school traditional tools are the main method with technology being an add-on for some. I am not advocating that the traditional tools should be thrown aside, what I am saying is technology has a place in the classroom if we can look at the tools available and remove the walls of the tunnel so that we can see the opportunities of embedding digital learning in the classroom.

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