Janelle’s Blog

PROBLEM…

SOLUTION…
An electronic book (e-book) is a paperback-sized gadget that lets users download books, newspapers and blogs onto a high-resolution screen (MX News, 10 February 2009, pg.9).

The variety of ‘traditional’ paper books that are now being published and marketed in digital form, along with well known authors (such as Stephen King) who are choosing to publish their new books online helps to display how e-books are taking off. McKenzie (2009) explains that the potential of e-books in schools can be forecast by the sheer popularity of e-books in society in general, with increases in sales of over 55% in the last year.
This popularity is beginning to make headlines in education around the world. Only a few weeks ago the Greek opposition leader, George Papandreou, demonstrated an e-book to his parliament and asked that free e-books, full of many thousands of educational books, be distributed to every student in Greece. This is an application that is a currently being discussed by teachers in Australia.
Already schools are adopting this new technology in their libraries with a wide range of electronic books becoming available for students to browse and borrow online. Childrensbooks is one example of a site that is targeting parents to buy e-books for their children. This is a reflection of the way computer technologies are being used to enhance children’s learning.
A test program using Sony eBooks was recently conducted at the Bi-Cultural Day School (in America). Headmaster Gerald Kirshenbaum stated that “this is an exciting, imaginative and enticing piece of equipment that will get to our goal of increasing their love of literature”.
Although some situations where the need for e-books are illustrated above, Bill Hill comments that the biggest problem with average [paper] textbooks is that they are a year out of date as they roll off the press. E-books become economical because the content can be continuously updated, paper is saved (as I suggested to a teacher blogger Damien Riley, who is passionate about saving paper), the material is always current and the cost of technology is so low.
I believe the biggest barrier at this point in time is the range of books that are available as e-books. Although books are being added at a rapid pace there are still many titles that are not yet available. In contrast, I believe the best function of e-books is the way they will aid children as they learn to read. Simple tools such as read-a-loud options, zoom, dictionary and key-word searches could effectively allow children to read and understand difficult books all by themselves.
I personally plan to incorporate the use of electronic books in my classrooms. I will teach children how to find appropriate e-books so that all children are reading material that is stimulating and challenging, and I will encourage them to look up the meaning of unfamiliar words (and listen to them pronounced). I will ensure I teach children about plagiarism because I believe that good habits are formed at an early age. I myself will build my own collection of e-books, and will use the resources available online in libraries to enhance my professional development. There is a possibility of extending the use of technology to gain information to the point of visiting an online museum such as the Tech Museum of Innovation, as described by Felix (2009). I will continue to keep up with the ever changing digital age as it impacts education enormously. I will advocate the use of e-books in any school that I will teach in so that this great resource can become widely available and used.

Bold References
Felix, Kathie. “Tech Museum online.(Net LEARNING).” Multimedia & Internet@Schools 15.6 (Nov-Dec 2008): 8(1). Expanded Academic ASAP. Gale. University of Technology Sydney. 2 Feb. 2009
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McKenzie, Deborah. “Ebooks and 21st-century learning.” Multimedia & Internet@Schools 16.1 (Jan-Feb 2009): 27(2). Expanded Academic ASAP. Gale. University of Technology Sydney. 2 Feb. 2009 .

The Cartoon Images were designed and created by Janelle Rigby using ToonDoo.