Media release: LEGO® Education innovates children’s learning with new language arts learning tool combining storytelling and digital publishing

MEDIA RELEASE

24 March 2014

LEGO® Education innovates children’s learning with new language arts learning tool combining storytelling and digital publishing

On Monday 24 March LEGO Education will launch StoryStarter, its first language arts tool that teaches storytelling through LEGO bricks and digital publishing. It’s the first LEGO Education product to be fully integrated with the Australian Curriculum as well as use mobile technology.

Specifically designed for grades 2 – 6, LEGO Education StoryStarter provides a fun and innovative way of teaching literacy, communication and collaboration skills to students.

It teaches students the basic mechanics of a well-composed story using specially-selected LEGO bricks, a mobile tablet as well as interactive software for digitally storytelling.

Senior Educational Concept Developer and Trainer for LEGO Education, Lisbeth Hattens, said, “This is a great new development for LEGO Education.”

“We’re using technology and tactile learning to teach communication and collaboration skills to students in a way that’s never been done before, while at the same time ensuring it is completely aligned with the Australian Curriculum.”

The StoryStarter product and software engages students through thinking, creating, and writing by providing visual images to give meaning to a story or topic. It also encourages students with little interest in writing and provides a perfect vehicle for successful verbal and written storytelling.

“The feedback we’ve received from teachers in Australia and around the world is StoryStarter stimulates high levels of engaged learning and student interaction. It also has a significant impact on helping students to express and translate oral stories into written stories.”

“We’ve structured StoryStarter to make it easy for teachers to choose the appropriate activity that will correspond to specific Australian Curriculum strands and units. Each StoryStarter activity gives teachers exact guidance into which Australian Curriculum units will be addressed in the exercise,” said Ms Hattens. 

StoryStarter is the first learning tool for LEGO Education that also incorporates mobile technology. Students can use the StoryVisualizer software on a tablet to record, visualize and publish the stories they create using the LEGO bricks.

“Mobile technology is increasingly becoming part of the classroom and can be a powerful tool for learning. We’ve taken advantage of students’ familiarity and ease with tablet technology and made the StoryVisualizer software another hands-on learning tool for teaching language arts in a creative and collaborative way,” said Ms Hattens.

Product Features:

The core set includes LEGO bricks specifically chosen to support writing activities; five building plates and all of the LEGO elements are duplicated with five to facilitate teamwork and provide scene structure creation; a cardboard spinner built with LEGO elements, which can be used as a kick-starter to the creative process; the LEGO Education StoryVisualizer software, which integrates digital learning and can be used by students to record and visualise the stories they have created; and the StoryStarter Curriculum Pack.

Students will be able to:

• Speak with confidence in a range of contexts.
• Create, sequence and (re)tell stories.
• Improve listening and comprehension skills.
• Improve reading and writing skills.
• Analyse stories and plots.
• Identify and understand genres.
• Use digital technology in meaningful ways.

For additional information and images for LEGO Education StoryStarter see the online media kit, http://bit.ly/StoryStarter

-ENDS-

About LEGO Education

LEGO Education has been part of the Australian Education landscape since 1982. Countless childcare centres, primary, secondary schools and universities across the country, use its quality teaching resources daily for engaging students in meaningful learning activities.

LEGO Education delivers teacher and student success through a unique system for playful learning consisting of a combination of relevant curriculum, the LEGO system of bricks, and a 4C approach to teaching.

Editor’s note:

This is a release from LEGO Education, not The LEGO Group. When referring to the StoryStarter product, the correct name is LEGO Education StoryStarter.

For further information or interviews please contact:

Jo Gitsham

CP Communications
Phone: 02 9460 9200
Email: joanna@cpcommunications.com.au