As I began a short story project this week with Ms. Frost, 9th grade English teacher, some students gravitated to the print books available for finding their short stories, and others preferred e-copies on the web or through Google Books.
Some, though, turned to their iPods to access and read their texts. Some students read e-copies through their Safari browser while others downloaded free or inexpensive apps from iTunes to get their stories.
A quick search for Poe and short stories in the iTunes store reveals a wonderful menu of inexpensive or free apps for iPods and iPhones as well as podcasts that can be played on a computer or any number of devices.
Some librarians and educators are in real denial about the reality of eBooks and Reading 2.0 as it exists now and what may be to come. Others, understandably, are still making sense of this new reading landscape: what counts as literacy and how that definition is rapidly evolving. Some feel it is an “either/or” proposition and see the issue in black and white terms rather than realizing that different forms of reading, in whatever containers they may exist, CAN happily co-exist as depicted in the photo above.
The kids know this—what part of this don’t the adults get? At the end of the day, our focus needs to be about meeting their needs, not ours.
The Unquiet Librarian 
Hi, Buffy,
I caught the very end of your Classroom 2.0 broadcast today. I so enjoyed your piece on Research Roadmaps. As a result, I’ve been checking out the Cherokee H.S. roadmaps and reading your blog this evening.
I just had to stop to post a short comment when I read this post. You said, “At the end of the day, our focus needs to be about meeting their (student’s) needs, not ours.” You’ve hit upon a critically important point. I’m afraid our profession needs to entertain this question and seriously reexamine the altruistic nature of our profession. It seems that too many educators are far more concerned with what education can do for THEM – and too few are focusing on the mission of teaching – building the next generation through service to students.
Serving students today requires attention to the online world – the student’s world – and the skills students will need to optimize success in their future. You are doing good very work in this area, Buffy.
I remember leading Writing-to-Write workshops in Cherokee County when Jackie Hopkins was the Technology Director. Seems long ago. So glad to “reconnect” with Cherokee County again – through you.
Beth
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Beth, thank you for your comments and thoughts! I sincerely appreciate your feedback and words of encouragement.
Jackie is still our technology leader! I actually worked under her for two years in Technology Services (1999–2001)—what a wonderful learning experience! Small world, eh? 🙂
Wonderful to connect with you, and if interested, you can see all of my research pathfinders at http://theunquietlibrary.libguides.com.
Best,
Buffy
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I’ve been a fan of ebooks for a few years now, and the development of ipods and smart phones has really had a big effect on their prevalence. The development of ebooks optimized with internet and multimedia links is very exciting, too. As a teacher, I’ve found the ebooks at http://www.dedicatedteacher.com easy to use and very helpful. Great blog!
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