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eBOOKs in the classroom (ASA e-Conference 2011)

It is now possible to have a library in every classroom or even in your pocket. Terence Cavanaugh, 2006
For those of us who like the feel of turning crisp new pages, physically browsing for a hidden gem in a familiar bookstore and have taught students literacy with a Big Book balanced on the literacy stand and struggled to eke out budgets to buy a new sets of interest based readers, the e-book challenges the our personal notion of what is a reading experience. Yet in the time since I began my PhD (3 years ago) Ernst's books have been digitised and downloadable. http://catalogue.nla.gov.au/Record/2486700.
By January of this year, e-book sales at Amazon.com had overtaken its paperback sales. 
The idea that we can all carry our own miniaturised and personalised library via e-device challenges the old world print access to books. For educators, who are faced with rapid changes in technology, there are new questions to be answered. Will e-books will engage tech-savvy students? Will literacy outcomes be improved by its use or is it another techno-gimmick? Is it quality literature?
Access to quality ebooks
Currently there are about two million free e-books available for download mainly because they are out of copyright or promotional items (Meyers, 2011).   However teachers need access to more than digitised books that are out of copyright. Teachers want and students need, quality texts that appeal in any format: print, video, audio, e-book. (McLean, 2010)
Teacher Expertise
It is true that our teachers are less digital natives and more digital immigrants but it would also be fair to say that as a group they have embraced new technologies.  We don’t just email and create word documents: we check out our own children’s facebook pages; blog; use Flickr to post holidays photos; create online books; share collegiate resources via the Ultranet; send ecards and of course, shop online! What is most difficult for those who manage curriculum budgets is the pace of change and its cost. Our digital video camera, purchased 3 years ago at a cost of $1000, has been superseded by $99 flip cameras that I believe are about to be discontinued. It is not surprising that teachers actively seek what is free and wait to see what is most useful before purchasing.
Challenges
·      The cost of technology may leave many schools disadvantaged.
·      Not all books will be suitable as eBooks: pop-up books, coffee table books, many picture books with their beautiful cross-page artwork or cutout shapes will still be print directed.
·      Online books saved to school networks or are web-based and APS that use visual features such as animations and interactivity in a more film-like way will challenge traditional teaching of literacy from a print base. Will you read Mr. Wolf and Ginger cupcakes to your class via the Interactive Whiteboard connected to your iMac as an alternative to a traditional big book, allow students to interact with the story via a downloaded  AP to school iPads or  will your students have already read it on aunty's  iPhone AP?  (My nieces have!)
·      Physically reading an eBook is different and needs new skills for example: page turning is different and requires different sets of motor abilities (hold-point-click) than in a real book (grasp-lift-place) (Hassett, 2006)
One school experience
On a daily basis technology at GIPS just happens. However five years ago the school had one data projector, a couple of digital cameras, no interactive whiteboards and the desktop computers were nearing the end of their lease and effectiveness. Flip cameras and eBooks were unheard of. Over three years of using the Digital Excellence Program , attending professional development provided for my school after I was awarded the National ICTEV Teacher of the Year in 2008, teachers became familiar with new technologies by incorporating one skill (badge) into their inquiry learning topics. When I visited classrooms this week, I listed some of the ways e-book and similar technologies were used:
1. In Prep, students used Storyphone MP3 players to record their stories and play them back. This enabled students to remember their story while writing it down. They used the stop/ start/rewind facility to listen at their story at a suitable rate and create their own sentences.  Other free resources such as The Terrible Plop and downloadable books from the Storyphone site were used. More Australian content is expected on this site in the future.
2. In Year 1 Big e-Books were read on the Interactive Whiteboard (IWB) enabling every-one to see the pictures and words very clearly. Sometimes interesting vocabulary or rhymes were highlighted using the IWB software. Purchased content from the online stores of print publishers was used. To be honest although we have a couple of iPads being trialled in Year 1 we have only downloaded game APS. 
3. Year 2, the picture storybook Harry the Dirty Dog was read to a class and while other students completed activities based on their learning needs one student re-read an online version of the book on a laptop.  The student could have heard the story re-read on storylineonline.
4. Other Year 2 classes were using StopMotionPro to create animated stories with voice-overs.
5.Year 3s teachers were planning to trial the use of newer e-books designed for the medium such as Hazel Edwards' e-Mysteries with activity sheets and the intriguing digital novel inanimate Alice.  
6.Year 4 students were creating their own e-books using PowerPoint or Moviemaker.   Use of 4 eBook Kobo readers has been encouraged during silent reading time. Unfortunately most of the books on the readers came free but were of low interest. We purchased Kobo readers because of the high Australian content but are still deciding how to manage downloading.
7. Planning for a Year 5 and 6 students technology enhanced literature circle approach using a class set of e-Books had begun.  The Technology Literature Circle resources developed by the Drs. Cavanagh were invaluable to support teacher use of e-books. 
8.We haven’t trialed EMagazines but these sites look useful for silent reading times: Time for Kids, National Geographic Kids  and Science News for Kids
From my perspective wearing the hats of teacher, digital adventurer and an author I see the impact of the eBook as part of the storytelling journey reflective of today’s world. The history of storytelling seems to encompass, modify and maintain.  The oral forms continued as print evolved, just as the play form continued after films appeared. The e-format will be simply a new platform that will enhance and encompass traditional forms.  By broadening our idea of what is a literacy text, educators will ensure that students have the traditional literacy skills: reading, writing, speaking as well as those needed for a global world: collaboration, intuitive problem-solving, critical thinking, mindful attention and radical creativity.
________________
Amazon.com, Inc.(2011) News Release http://phx.corporateir.net/phoenix.zhtml?c=176060&p=irol-newsArticle&ID=1521090&highlight&ref=tsm_1_tw_kin_prearn_20110127
Cavanaugh Terry (2008) Drs Cavanaugh, Educational Technology, USA Retrieved from http://drscavanaugh.org/
Hassett, D. D. (2006). Technological difficulties: A theoretical frame for understanding the nonrelativistic permanence of traditional print literacy in elementary education. Journal of Curriculum Studies, 38(2), 135159. doi:10.1080/00220270500363703
Holum, A., & Gahala, J. (Date posted: October 2001). Using Technology to Enhance Literacy Instruction. Retrieved from http://www.ncrel.org/sdrs/areas/issues/content/cntareas/reading/li300.htm\
Labbo, L. I. A. B. S. N. E., Multimedia and literacy development, (pp.   196-210). New York: Routledge, T. F. (Eds.). (2009). Let’s do the computer story again, Nana.”: A case study of how a 2-year-old and his grandmother shared thinking spaces during multiple shared readings of an electronic story.
McLean, K. (April 26, 2010). The Kids Are Alright! Why Digitization and E-books are Good for Literacy. Publishing Perspectives. Retrieved from http://publishingperspectives.com/2010/04/the-kids-are-alright-why-digitization-and-e-books-are-good-for-literacy/
Meyers, J. (2011). How To Download Tons Of Free eBooks Online For Any eReader Device. Business Insider, from http://www.businessinsider.com/how-to-download-tons-of-free-ebooks-online-for-any-ereader-device-2011-4

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