ELECTRONIC MATERIALS ENERGIZE THE CLASSROOM AND THE LIBRARY
BY DOUG PEACHEY
June 19, 2003
Today’s students are different than when you and I were in the classroom. It is extremely difficult to get a student to pick up a book and read. Imagine the struggle to get them involved in self-motivated, in-depth research. Luckily, today’s teachers and media specialists are up to the challenge. These experts have created tools to help today’s students achieve and succeed in today’s technological world. Electronic materials are the key to this success.
Let’s start by looking at today’s students. They want to be entertained. They have short attention spans. The typical student today spends hours on the Internet, playing video games, or watching television. Learning has to be fun or most won’t even try in the classroom. Fortunately, electronic media is packaged and presented in a format that kids love and one that can help educators and parents.
Now, let’s look at some electronic sources and why they are vital to today’s classrooms and media centers. Cost is one of the major factors in choosing electronic materials over books, magazines, encyclopedias, etc. Many of these sources are free on the Internet. Others require an annual subscription fee, but they are still a bargain. Accessibility makes them a bargain. If I use my budget money to buy one book on whales or a new set of encyclopedias, only a few students can use these materials. If one student checks out the new whale book and uses the W volume of the encyclopedia the entire class period, this one student has monopolized these new resources. But if the same money had been used to buy an online database or online encyclopedia, the entire class can access this material and use it at the same time in the classroom or at home. Software can be previewed online or CD-ROMs can be sent to schools to be previewed before a purchase is made. This way you can know what you are buying is good. You have previewed it and tested it yourself. Durability is also a factor. A book can be damaged or lost, but an online encyclopedia will always be intact. Online electronic materials are more up-to-date because they are continually updated. Many books are obsolete by the time they make it to the shelf.
There is so much information on the Internet that students, parents, and teachers can’t possibly access it all or even tell what is good, accurate information and what is not. Portals and Pathfinders can are ways to organize and access these resources. There are many good existing portals out there where teachers and students can find the information they need. If a teacher goes to Teacher.net or a student goes to Disney.com, they are going to access resources that have been compiled, evaluated, tested, and proven. Educators can create their own Pathfinder by compiling electronic and non-electronic sources, gear it toward a specific topic or subject area, and make it available to their students.
Non-fiction is an area where electronic materials are vital in bringing students and educators the information they need. A school could not afford to purchase in hard copy what is available from online databases and Internet sources. Take for example, science. If I wanted to access Biological Science and Animals, I could go to Discovery School’s Kathy Schrock’s Guide to Education which would give you access to thousands of science resources. Another example is what electronic sources have to offer. If I would purchase National Geographic online or a CD-ROM, it offers the user more. If I was trying to find a specific topic in the magazine, I might have to skim through hundreds of issues. The online and CD-ROM versions allow the user to search for specific topics in a matter of seconds.
Fiction is another area where electronic materials have many positive features. Accessibility again is better than a typical book. I can access an online from home on my PC for free from a public library’s virtual library or even access it in the car using a hand-held ebooks. There are even interactive books that allow the reader to link to definitions of words and read sections or words aloud. Other books online allow the user to take notes online, bookmark important sections, skim a table of contents and go to specific sections, and provide dictionaries.
Webquests and interactive websites give students what they need to make them learn. Many appeal to different learning styles and multiple-intelligences of students. A student who is bored by the written word can often listen to the written word on a web page, see videos and graphics, listen to music or spoken words, play educational games, and take online quizzes and tests to evaluate what they have learned and give immediate feedback.
Electronic materials give students hands-on tools that allows students to create projects to show what they have learned. Students can make web pages, power point presentations, timelines, online puzzles, digital movies. This type of product motivates a student to show what they have learned the way a written report or test can’t. Even younger students can use online resources to show what they have learned. In teaching 2nd and 3rd graders Idioms, a teacher could have the students use a site like KidPix where a student can illustrate that they understand the idiom “barking up the wrong tree” by creating to pictures that show the figurative and literal meaning. Another example could be a teacher creating “backpack on explorers” for students to investigate a topic. Web pages, online books, an online magazine, online video clips, an online game could all be located and linked to from a teacher created web page so student can go on a virtual journey and explore the same regions as Lewis and Clark.
In designing my own webquest, I learned many things that can help students succeed. You can group students so that each can take part in the webquest by contributing to or completing a task that. Learning collaboratively allows students to help each other, share ideas, and succeed in and as a group. Student products can be self-chosen so that they appeal and motivate a student. You can focus and direct students’ learning to a specific topic or activity. All this helps students succeed.
Electronic materials are here to stay. Their variety, accessibility, affordability, motivational qualities make them a great tool to use in the classroom and media center. They improve student performance and success. I believe our next big challenge is to get 100% of teachers, administrators, parents, and legislatures on board so that we can continue and expand electronic materials use.