Straight off the bat, ETL533 has drawn me into the complicated web of digital resources and expanded my horizons. Throughout this course I have felt like I was thrown in the deep end; starting and using a blog, creating a website and research guide, using new apps and technologies and while it has been challenging, it has been the most enjoyable part of becoming a teacher librarian. Starting in my first role as a teacher librarian at a K-12 school, the greatest need was to implement these technological innovations as there was a huge gap and need for them.

I was surprised that there weren’t any ebooks or databases. The previous teacher librarian was of the belief that if these were introduced, jobs would be taken away from librarians and library staff. After much research and consultation, online databases were introduced and enthusiastically consumed by students and staff. Recently a small collection of ebooks was implemented to support a student with low vision, enabling the student to use the function of enlarging the text and providing access to a wide range of books not possible with the use of enlarged text print books.

When considering the introduction of digital resources to a school library, there are many factors to consider such as accessibility, budget and support for implementation. There are obvious benefits such as the ability for seamless integration with other applications such as google classroom, possibilities for inquiry and learning. Transmedia environments allows students to be active participants in their search for information in different contexts, evaluating ideas across formats, and interacting with other readers (Lamb, 2011). However, the world of ebooks and digital products are complex. It did take me awhile to understand the various costs and benefits from each provider. The use of ebooks in itself requires another literacy; as there isn’t one uniform application to use ebooks (Sadokierski, 2013).

Lamb’s five electronic reading environments (pictured below) intrigued me, as I hadn’t linked these in such a way. Further,I hadn’t thought of the difference between an ebook and a digital book having multimedia elements. Digital books provide the opportunity for students to interact with the book (Dobler, 2013). This is an exciting prospect that can really bring inquiry alive. We currently provide Britannia Online and it does have features such as reading the text to students, images and videos. However, due to the large volume of information in there, the majority is large chunks of text. The hyperlinked environment does allow students to explore their interests and for information to flow organically and in a non-linear way.

I didn’t resonate with Larson’s statement that readers expect to be immersed in multimodal resources (Larson, 2009). From my experience, there is a place for both multimodal resources and print books. The joy of poring over a picture book or comic book, in my observations of students is different to using ebooks and digital books, as is the learning objective and the resource selected to fulfill that requirement.

As discussed in Dobler, E. (2013), the ability to carry various forms in one device allows us to bring together information to form new knowledge. A major shift has occurred from consumption to creation of knowledge.

However, pedagogy needs to drive the technology. Teachers role is in the middle of the classroom, rather than the front of the classroom. To prevent teachers avoiding embracing technology, professional development and support is essential.

This is an area that teacher librarians can exert their expertise and become true collaborators with their peers to lead, support and elevate others to arm them with the confidence to use these new technologies in their classrooms.

While a digital text may be entertaining, it might not be effective for learning. Based on the initial categories and criteria outlined by Yokota & Teale (2014), McGeehan et al (2018) suggested a rubric (pictured below) to assess digital picture books are aligned with research-based instructional practices that support the comprehension development of young readers:

Based on the initial categories and criteria outlined by Yokota & Teale (2014), McGeehan et al (2018) 

I am not entirely sold on the terms ‘digital immigrants’ and their students ‘digital natives’ as discussed by James (2013), as I do believe that this is a simplistic and outdated view of students and teachers. It is more likely that these users will be formed and moulded by their economic/social advantage or disadvantage, parental influence, pedagogy and BYOD policy within the school, professional development for staff and digital literacy of students. It will be interesting to see how these ideas and thoughts will shift, change or solidify throughout this subject.

References

Dobler, E. (2013). Looking beyond the screen: Evaluating the quality of digital books. Reading Today, 30(5), 20-21. https://web-p-ebscohost-com.ezproxy.csu.edu.au/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=1&sid=1b2a8f5e-8ca0-46aa-b202-52209b34b771%40redis

James, R. & De Kock, L. (2013). The digital David and the Gutenberg Goliath: the rise of the ‘enhanced’e-book. English Academy Review, 30(1), 107-123. https://doi.org/10.1080/10131752.2013.783394

Lamb, A. (2011). Reading redefined for a transmedia universe. Learning and Leading with Technology, 39(3), 12-17.

Larson, L. C. (2009). Digital Literacies. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy. 53(3), 255-258.

Learning 2030: From Books to Screen (YouTube | 52:55 mins) | http://youtu.be/215NPpHsQPk

Leu, D. J, Forzani, E., Timbrell, N., & Maykel, C. (2015). Seeing the forest, not the trees: Essential technologies for literacy in the primary-grade and upper elementary-grade classroom. Reading Teacher, 69(2), 139-145

McGeehan, C., Chambers, S., & Nowakowski, J. (2018). Just because it’s digital, doesn’t mean it’s good: Evaluating digital picture books. Journal of Digital Learning in Teacher Education, 34(2), 58-70. https://doi.org/10.1080/21532974.2017.1399488

Sadokierski, Z. (2013, November 12). What is a book in the digital age? The Conversation. http://theconversation.com/what-is-a-book-in-the-digital-age-19071

Yokota, J., & Teale, W. (2014). Picture books and the digital world: Educators making informed choices. Reading Teacher, 67(8), 577–588. doi:10.1002/trtr.1262