E-Books and Digital Storytelling by Sharon H

Digital storytelling is wonderful and challenging at the same time. That is why it would be such a great tool to use with students. It is something that they would create themselves yet it would make them think also. I didn't know anything about digital storytelling until I had to create my own project this week. Though at times I became frustrated and tired, overall, I really enjoyed the experience. If I used this in an elementary classroom or with a group of students in the media center, however, I think it would be best to break the project down into easy steps and to provide most the of pictures for them. Older students in middle or high school would probably be able to complete the projects themselves with guidance from the teacher of course. The most important thing I learned from this project was that the student, not the teacher, is doing the work. The students are actively involved in their own learning, and I think that is great. I wouldn't be able to do more than 1 to 2 projects a year because of the time involved in planning, assembling, and proofreading. However, this experience is something that I believe students will remember for years to come.
E-Books are on-line books that can be read directly from the computer using Abode or MP3 readers. Also, a special device called e-book readers can be used. Some cell phones can even be used to read e-books. I think this would be wonderful for students to use. They could listen to the stories and look at the text and pictures at the same time. It might help low readers to read books that are slightly above their reading level. Also, it would be great for students who are vision impaired. If the e-books could not be read from the computers, however, it would costs the media center extra to purchase the hand held devices. Also, if not strictly supervised, these devices may suddenly become "misplaced" causing additional cost to the library.
However, in my research, I easily came across two web sites that offer free e-books. One was for adults, Free E Books.net, and the other for children, kids.nypl.org/readingchildren'sbooks.cfm. It seems that there is a lot of reading materials out there which can be readily accessed at little or no cost to the reader. All I can say is, "How can that be a bad thing?"