Storyboarding shakespeare: learners' interactions with storyboard software in the process of understanding difficult literary texts

Abstract

In the spring term of 2000, a small-scale research project was undertaken by the authors to investigate the ways in which secondary schoolaged children and their teachers might use an example of state-of-the-art educational software within their ongoing study of William Shakespeare's Macbeth, and the nature of the impact such use might have on teaching and learning. The piece of software in question was a prototype of Kar2ouche®– a storyboard tool which provides the user with the capability to create, capture, store, retrieve and interact with a range of images and texts. The development of the software and the classroom-based research into the implications for teaching and learning of advanced uses of information and communications technology in the classroom are funded by Intel. This article describes three trial lessons using Kar2ouche® and reports on two distinct ways in which this technology made a valuable contribution to pupils' learning by encouraging them to explore beneath the surface of the text of the play in order to gain a deeper understanding of plot, mood, atmosphere and character motivation. The article also addresses the notion of interactivity in educational software and the central importance of the teacher in light of these findings