Just the other day we posted about how a Calgary, AB school was allowing its students to use iPods (and other digital devices). The students in the article were at the high school level.
Today, an article from the St. Petersburg Times about one Florida school who have really embraced iPod technology currently having 80 iPods available.
The way that Shady Hills puts them into play has garnered attention across Florida. Media specialist Tracy Bonnett and technology specialist Jerry Marsh recently presented their program at the Florida Association for Media in Education annual conference, getting several inquiries about how to duplicate their model.
[Snip]
“We are pitching digital literacy,” Bonnett said. “This is a new high-tech, motivational and fun way to get different books into the hand of kids. … It’s working to get kids excited about reading.”
The effort involves more than just letting kids use iPods, though. To be successful, Marsh noted, the initiative needs to be implemented in a way that includes accountability measures in the school improvement plan, training for teachers to properly use the technology, and an organized way to collect and catalog meaningful materials.
The media specialist and technology specialist also must work to support classroom teachers, amassing these digital libraries and showing teachers the best way to use them. The days of simply checking books out of the library, or chasing down computer glitches, are long gone, said Deb Svec, president of the Florida Association of Media in Education.
Source: St. Petersburg Times
This entry was posted
on Wednesday, October 14th, 2009 and is filed under Libraries and Librarianship, Technology and Internet.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.