Digital Information: eBooks, eReaders, eLibrarians?

Digital Storytelling

Digital storytelling is a powerful medium for teaching, learning, and sharing. The inherent creative work makes it interesting to students. Digital storytelling can tap into so many levels of learning.

The planning that is involved requires intense integration of so many thought processes. Teachers and SLMSs can get students to do some tough thinking just by offering students the opportunity to create a short two to three minute video. And students will think this is an opportunity rather than an assignment.

Creating a file of audio, images, and videos for students to use, significantly increases productivity in a project such as this. The problem that encountered was that my students wanted better or different images than I had in the package. I was constantly fielding questions about why they could only use the images that I provided. After a detailed discussion of copyright issues, students were a bit more understanding; however, I did have several students who went home to find more images. After further research on my part, I did allow students to use these additional images as long as they were used legally, and then I added those to my files. Teachers are always going to encounter students who have a desperate need to have a project that is different from or "better" than other students' projects.

Digital storytelling is a winner in the classroom because it differentiates itself. Creative students are going to push harder and create elaborate stories, while other students will work just as hard, but create something completely different.

Another bonus that I found when I used this project with my students this fall is that since I provided the images to the students, I knew which images would appear again and again. As we watched the completed videos in class, these images appeared and reappeared. This information about Georgia's history was getting ground into their brains due to the repetition. Repetition works in advertising; think of digital storytelling as advertising that creates permanent learning.

eReaders

This is an exciting time to be a reader, but the SLMS's job gets more and more complicated as new devices and gadgets are released. The librarian must be constantly on his or her toes to keep up with the changing technology of books and reading.

These trendy devices for reading books in digital formats allow readers a new and convenient way to read. The idea of textbooks presented on eReaders is intriguing to students, especially college students like me. Currently, I have a textbook that has a plethora of supplemental multimedia materials, but I have to go online to access these, yet the book itself is a traditional, hardbound textbook. I can imagine how amazing it would be to have some type of eReader with the textbook downloaded to it, and then having instant access to all the multimedia materials as well. I would love to be able to write in the margins of my textbook with a stylus. There is so much that can be done to improve the experience of reading and learning.

We are on the cusp of a tremendous change in the way that we read, learn, and take in information. The new iPad looks amazing. I think I want one.

Even my parents' generation is embracing this newest technology. For Christmas this year, my mother requested a Kindle. She carries it with her anywhere and everywhere. The ease of purchasing new books startled her at first. She said that purchasing books is so easy that it could be dangerous for an avid reader such as she. So far, every book that she has wanted to read has been available.

For the naysayers out there, have a bit of a laugh as you watch this video about the massive technological change from the "scroll" to the "book."

Le Book

eBooks

Sadly, our school does not yet have eBooks or eReaders, but I remain hopeful that this is a technology that is just on the horizon for Cartersville Middle School.

I stumbled upon Project Gutenberg several years ago when I needed additional copies of The Legend of Sleepy Hollow for a literature unit. At this point, I embarked on an insane mission to find a book from the public domain and have my gifted language arts students annotate it with links to images, definitions, maps, and anything else they could think of that would make reading this book enjoyable and accessible.

I decided to have the students annotate Washington Irving's The Legend of Sleepy Hollow because it has such a rich vocabulary base. As with most projects that I take on, I probably bit off more than I could chew, but the result was "cool" if nothing else. And I cannot express to you how much I learned in this process.

We read the book in class over the period of one week, and then I assigned groups of students a section of the novel to reread, research, consider, and annotate. After a week of work on this, all the groups came together to join their sections to create a new "book." The result was good. For a time it was available on the Web because I had begged a tech friend to host it on his website. Since he has moved on to other endeavors, the book is no longer available on the web, but I have all of their work saved. The other problem with the project now is that several of the links are broken due to the ever changing nature of the Internet.

My students' annotation of a work of classic literature allowed them to understand the story on a new and deeper level. The words that they hyper linked to an online dictionary had to be linked to the most appropriate definition for that word. They had to search for maps of the Hudson River, Sleepy Hollow, and the Tappan Zee. They were able to find some great images of these places as well. All this research helped the students to make real world connections to a book which was written almost 200 years ago. The technology and research skills that they employed and refined gave them a sense of satisfaction and accomplishment.

Project Gutenberg provides an invaluable resource for teachers. If you have never investigated it, you really must do so to understand the enormity of what this means to our schools and students.

eLibrarians

It is imperative that a school library media specialist keeps up with technology and with the world itself. The notion that librarians are staid and old-fashioned people is bunk. The reality is that librarians must be lively, curious, and TRENDY to stay in step with technology, society, and all the people who make up our schools. In essence, the librarian is really the coolest person in the school!