Tonight's #engchat affected my thoughts about books and the direction we're headed in that regard. I was sold on the vision of each child having a tech platform to access his/her personal cloud library. For young children the platform would have to be easily mobile, big enough so that the images are vibrant, and connected to the Internet for access to other tools such as videos, dictionaries, informational sites, image searches, and more to deepen understanding.
While I have trouble imagining a world without the hand-held book, I was convinced tonight that for the most part paper books will be replaced by digital books since what's important is the content, not the paper, and just think how much space that will save, and dust we won't have to worry about. These digital books will likely become multimedia, virtual tools crafted with cognitive understanding to make information and literature available in ways that best enliven our senses, awaken our imaginations and teach us well.
With this in mind, what's the best way for schools to embrace these new medias. How can schools combine their purchasing efforts so that they move in this direction in ways that are cost effective, utilize public library and other resources, and collaborate home-school tech products? Also, systems must keep in mind that the knowledge of information and literature that librarians bring to apt selection of text and other resources is integral to this process.
The change won't happen overnight, but moving in this direction with care and eye on what will best support student learning is essential.
