Digital vs. Print... Don't throw the baby out with the bathwaterHe'll need books
Teacher-Librarians are wild about digital resources for quite a number of great reasons and digital resources are revolutionizing the reach and content provided by libraries. Both with budgets and with our teaching efforts, we are seeing a strategic shift toward electronic resources for learning, and this is good because as they mature, students do gravitate from print to the web, and web resources often offer multi-modal learning opportunities (with video, sound recordings, and interactivity.) Digital resources offer "anywhere" access to multiple users at once --which in most cases increases a resource's accessibility. Digital resources don't wear out or get lost (requiring costly replacement) either. But they are not as easy to use and teachers must connect with librarians to help students learn how to access, navigate, select and use them.
We are in the midst of a revolution for sure, and yet what schools such as Cushing Academy have boldly done, removing the books from the library and relying almost solely on the Internet for research materials, is a catastrophic idea for schools and learners in the 21st century. A school making the shift needs a period of redundant resources to serve both the early adapters and the folks learning the required skills. Indeed, there will be a need for abundant print sources for a good time to come for a great many reasons outlined below and in the discussions taking place in the blogosphere. For starters, let's appreciate that the “linear” quality and physical arrangement of print resources make books easier than most e-texts to grasp and comprehend and locate for most users of a library. Until they reach a certain age, we cannot expect learners in our community to have the skills to meet all of their learning needs through a computer. (And furthermore, there is some debate and great research going that is helping us to understand that students may not comprehend or retain digital text as well as printed text, and there is ample evidence that the distractions they encounter on the Internet make the process of reading much less efficient. For more discussion on this topic, read ASCD's Educational Leadership, March 2009 (with a focus on new literacies) and September, 2009 (where the theme is Teaching for the 21st Century). Educators discuss it further at the New York Times Room for Debate. Humans are increasingly visual, and something essential is lost if we toss out books. The library's stacks serve not only as a museum of culture, historical points of view, and reinforcement of respect for past achievements, but they also invite young minds to their futures by being the path through which kids can wander and taste potential areas of inquiry and self-development. Essential curricular areas have not yet been digitized or made available on the web (see below)-- we're just not there yet, and the salespeople from publishing companies will admit that we are in a very interesting time where there are demands for information but the companies are uncertain about how to meet these needs of information users while still cutting a profit. Believe me, I've asked them. Because I respect the past and the increasingly visual nature of learners, I see the stacks as a physically manifested forest of interests and accomplishments that engenders respect for scholarship. They promote a culture for learning (not just networking) and challenge students to achieve. Kids won't find Tolstoy or Darwin at Facebook. But the “museum” function of a library conveys respect for the past, for scholarship and for the learners who walk in the doors-- who are not all alike but who have myriad interests and possible futures. Brilliantly colored and engaging picture books and a great chapter book that you can tuck under your arm to read wherever and whenever are the best materials to help kids become reflective readers. They put them on the road to becoming successful computer users, too. An attractive, well researched and balanced set of materials in many genres and representing diverse cultures can help addict kids to reading. If we pair an abundance of such sources with a well articulated information literacy program for resource awareness and skills development, our students will achieve the abilities they need to become independent and savvy users of digital resources. What's best on the web, and what's still best in print? The Internet provides free access to resources on many topics such as current events, science, technology and even (increasingly) math instruction (see Khan Academy's video resources and read the buzz that PBS captured about these novel videos for math instruction. See also the HKIS Math Puzzler site that I helped get established.) |
The Internet provides currency as well as learning tools strong on visuals and interactivity that are revolutionizing instruction, and I do spend tremendous effort on skilling students to use the Internet well. (Dig into my work to see the mini-lessons embedded there.) But the Internet still lacks what print books provide for the study of history, culture, language, literature, a good number of science topics, and government. Young learners need to be taught skills to select and navigate sources and locate authoritative works vs. simply what's popular or pushed. They need experiences that help them learn how to differentiate fact from opinion.
The efforts of Google to scan every book in the universe notwithstanding (and the legality of their posting those books still not resolved), many valuable works of scholarship are not in the public domain. The Internet can provide digitized books from over 50 years ago (if they were produced in America) as well as commentary by anyone who wants to set up a web site (not always authoritative, informed or balanced.) But learners require print books to address so many of their learning needs, including works made in Europe that are protected by intellectual property laws that guarantee property rights in perpetuity to their European creators. Librarians know the limits of the Internet and fight each year to ensure that they receive adequate funds to grow their digital resources without starving their print collections. A librarian's skills and sense of priorities for spending assists her to spend funds wisely to support real learning. Scaffolding Success with Digital Resources: Subscription Databases
We've come a long way with digital sound recordings and it's exciting to see how they are serving students as they move from elementary into secondary school. Follett makes it easy to purchase a listening library of Play-Aways that are helpful to young readers of chapter books. Complete with batteries, earbuds and the entire book recorded into a tamper-proof case, Play-Aways give young people the chance to listen to recorded books on a mobile device much the size and look of an I-pod. They just sign the set out from the library, plug the earbuds in and go. (Teachers of ELLs love these for their students who can access the book in print and read along. Thus they reinforce pronunciation and scaffold reading with chapter books that interest older learners.) As children get older and more skillful with their computers they will be able to navigate e-books and e-texts and download them, too, but to get there, they need a strong program to learn technology skills step-by-step.
Through a well articulated information literacy skills program that is integrated with classroom projects, students should begin their exposure to subscription reference sources such as World Book Online as early as grade 3. That way, they learn the difference between quality resources and what might just be free junk on the Internet, hyper-linked by Google based on popularity of the site, not credibility. As students move into middle school, online subscription databases such as Grolier, Ebsco, and Gale's Opposing Viewpoints provide them cyber-safe and high quality, professionally produced and organized magazine and journal articles. Included in the database are web links, reference sources, images, and in the case of Grolier, links to newspapers from around the world and posted in a variety of languages that can be tapped by Modern Language teachers. Another excellent digital source for middle schoolers is found easily at iTunes or on the Web. Teachers might help middle schoolers to access and view CNN Student News to enjoy a light-hearted and age-appropriate presentation of current events and the topics that make them more information savvy global citizens. High school students can enjoy even more complex databases and resources. J-Stor is a valuable database for students needing access to high level journal articles and primary sources as they study history and prepare for college level work. Students in high school also begin accessing sound and video recordings called podcasts through iTunes. That way, they can listen to American and World History lectures by Gretchen Ann Reilly of Temple University to review for finals during their workouts. They are, at this stage, learning how to use RSS Feeds to keep up-to-date with their favorite bloggers and receive Google Alerts when new postings about their research project appear on the Internet. Online subscription databases provide students resources that are arranged for easy navigation, and the databases include features for organizing, storing and citing the information. Students build their skills with online databases as they move through the middle and upper school as long as the Teacher-Librarian is actively involved in research project design. To leverage electronic resources for developing in students the all important 21st century skills and ethics, it is essential that Teacher-Librarians develop a well articulated information literacy skills program and collaborate with classroom teachers on curriculum. |