Some thoughts on e-books are that it would be awesome if a company could create a version that would allow it to be affordable to all students (of course this will probably never occur). Then students could have their own e-book and have access to the e-book collection that the media center could purchase or the media center could have access to the 33,000 free e-books through Project Gutenberg (http://www.gutenberg.org/wiki/Main_Page ) and then students could check out their own books and it would be automatically returned to the media center at the due date. There would be no concern for losing the books and never getting them back. The e-book would be the property of the student so it would be their responsibility to care for it. There is also a possibility that a grant could be written to acquire the money to purchase some e-books.
Some concern with the e-book seems to be that because of its creation there is a possibility of it replacing physical copies of books and then the media center will have nothing to shelve. I honestly do not see that this would happen. There is always going to be a need for having an actual book that you can hold on to and put in your bookshelf. I personally prefer to read from an actual book but e-books could be a great addition to a media center, especially in today’s generation. Children today have been raised on technology so it is natural for them to gravitate to an e-book. My daughter has her own Kindle that she reads often but yet she still enjoys reading actual books also.
The benefit of an e-book is that it can hold a lot of books (up to 3,500 for the new Kindle) in a small compact system and it is easily portable. With e-books you can access over 725,000 books including audio books, periodicals, and blogs (information retrieved from http://www.amazon.com/dp/B002Y27P3M/?tag=googhydr-20&hvadid=6533262216&ref=pd_sl_1aem4eussc_e ). Some e-books have a read-to-me feature that converts text to speech; this could be extremely helpful to ESOL students. These are all great features that make e-books attractive; I still do not think that they will ever replace hard copy books, especially picture books. Who doesn’t love to sit down with children and share with them a wonderful story with beautiful pictures out of a picture book? There is something special about this and I do not think that holding an electronic device and reading it to children would have the same feeling.
I spent a day at a middle school media center this week and the media specialist stated that she currently does not have any physical e-books, she would love to get some but the budget does not allow it right now. They do however use the Encyclopedia Britannica, the Digital Library of Georgia, the Encyclopedia Universal en Espanol, Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary, of which all of these resources can be accessed through their school webpage.
Just as e-books could be a great addition to a media center, digital storytelling could be a great resource that teachers and students could create. Teachers could create a digital story that is 5-10 minutes long that would introduce students to the topic that is going to be taught, this could be a great way to grab the students attention and get them interested in the lesson. Students could also use digital stories to present the information that they have learned on a topic. This would be a great way to display this information. The media center could assist by having a tutorial posted on their webpage going through the steps of how to create a digital story. They could also post digital stories on their website that others could see and comment on.
There is so much technology that is available to media centers today and the key is to be able to figure out which technology will be able to enhance instruction without taking a lot of time away from the educational process. Anything that can grab a students’ attention and make them want to read and learn new things we should be incorporating into our media programs.
I too prefer books and am used to looking at pages rather than an electronic device. With the advancement in technology, I think that Ebooks have a very strong future in libraries as they become more popular, enhanced features, and more affordable. You pointed out the audio speech component for ESL students. I think this feature will help learning disabled students and struggling readers as well. As a special education teacher, my students will have access to many titles on their grade level and enjoy the same books that regular education students read. Students will become engaged and their reading skills will improve by seeing the text on the screen and hearing the text read aloud. My school library does not have ebooks or online reference books due to budget cuts. We only have access to Galileo. Project Gutenberg’s free access to books is a means for libraries to move forward in the digital world. Some other links for libraries to download free ebooks are Free-ebooks.net, ManyBooks.net. and GetFreeBooks.com.
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ReplyDeleteOur school has been utilizing a Biology text, making use of a relative few print copies, reserved mostly for students who have one or another technology challenge, while the majority use the text, online. This seems to have become widely accepted as a working solution to the alternative - spending much more money on many, many more print textbooks. The occasional complaint usually comes from someone (parent) who wants their child to have a print copy. Faculty try to persuade that parent to embrace the etext, but will provide a print copy, as needed. On the other hand, some students and parents have commented on liking having one fewer heavy book to tote around in the already too heavy backpacks.
Having enjoyed some non-fiction texts through apple's ibooks collection (mostly free stuff through Gutenberg)I have found I enjoy having the ability to highlight passages for future reference. I think this would be a great way to take notes on academic readings. Print texts don't allow students to mark in them, and it sure can be nice to make notes this way. It's easy to copy and paste these into an outline, for more organized notes, too.
I do think that one thing we neglect to mention concerning ebooks is the cost that the school would have to deal with if an ebook is lost, stolen, or damaged. That is something that, as media specialists, we will have to deal with concerning any resources, but an ebook (be it a Kindle or just a one book electronic version)is more expensive than many of the other resources we allow for student check out. While I do believe that this is where we are headed, I think that one thing that is holding some media specialists back when considering ebooks is the fact that our students may not be responsible with these resources!
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