Call to Action for Ebooks, Etexts, and the Common Core

[Sharon Grimes]

 

Like Joyce, my head is still spinning from the three days at the SLJ Summit in Arlington (and thanks again Joyce for defending and explaining my curator comment).  I came away from the Summit, more determined than ever to initiate a national conversation around the following four key points:

• We, and by that I mean the entire library community: school; public; and academic, should not purchase print or digital copies of any title now in the public domain[1].   We, collectively, can create enriched[2] and enhanced[3] ebooks with the resources we have already gathered to guide our students and staffs.  The ebooks we create from works in the public domain should be: platform independent, non-proprietorial, have the capacity to be further enriched with content from districts’ subscriptions, and available 24/7 for simultaneous downloads from a single site.  It takes less time to create an ebook of Beowulf, O’ Pioneers, Romeo and Juliet or Macbeth[4] – just a few  of the titles studied in almost every school district across the nation – than it does to create a LiveBinder, wiki page, Glog, PowerPoint presentation, etc.,[5].   The difference is ROI (return on investment).  If I am creating supplemental guides to the book, the district still has to buy the book; if I am creating the book by downloading the text from Project Gutenberg (or from any of the many other sites making works in the public domain available digitally) and supplementing the book, then, the district saves the considerable monies associated with annual replacement costs and even more if they are adopting a new text that is in the public domain.  Just as important as saving money (yes, I am a taxpayer too), the district sees the correlation between librarians, budget savings, and its ability to be postured for the digital transformation of education and the event of the Common Core Standards. 
• The digital content and databases we subscribe to can not be on the chopping block as districts struggle to survive in this time of severe budget cuts because the content contained within these resources is the answer to Common Core State Standards’ call for students to read texts of increasing complexity and more expository texts, including literary nonfiction.  See SlideShare, “What Digital Resources are available to support STEM and the Commo...” for some initial thoughts about how the databases our district subscribes to will allow us to prepare students for STEM careers and the challenges of the Common Core.
• Librarians are critical not only because they teach information literacy, digital citizenship, the love of reading, and research, critical thinking, and problem-solving skills, but also because their ability to find, evaluate, and make accessible information in all formats is essential to successful implementation of the Common Core Standards and the transition to digital etexts and ebooks.  As the Project Tomorrow 2010 Speak-up Report makes clear,

The role of the school librarian is increasingly focused around the use of digital content in the classroom.  Librarians or media specialists in many schools have the responsibility for identifying, evaluating and recommending digital resources to teachers. On one level, the school librarian is the “go-to” person to identify websites for classroom use (78 percent), create collections of resources for curriculum support (56 percent) and to find specific digital content, podcasts and videos to support classroom lessons (47 percent). However, librarians are also enabling and empowering teachers’ skills with digital content – answering questions about technology tools (85 percent), participating with teachers in professional learning communities (66 percent) and training teachers how to locate and evaluate digital content (33 percent). With the increased variety and depth of the digital resources available for classroom use, the librarian is emerging as a critical player in enabling the use of these tools in the classroom ….

  The New 3 E’s of Education: Enabled, Engaged, Empowered, 2011

• Finally, we must become more than familiar with the vocabulary and implications of the Common Core Standards.  The adoption of the Common Core provides a unique and time-critical opportunity to demonstrate to governors, state departments of education, district administrators, and school boards the value of school librarians.  As you probably already know, the “common core state standards will enable participating states to work together to …. Encourage the development of textbooks, digital media, and other teaching materials aligned to the standards.” (Common Core State Standards Initiative, 2011)  Instead of each state starting ex nihilo, every school librarian I have the pleasure of working with in Baltimore County Public Schools could provide lists of evaluated, rich, engaging, interactive digital and print resources of varying levels of text complexity to meet the needs of diverse learners.  After the free, readily-available resources were aligned to the Common Core Standards, then, a gap analysis could be completed and many of the same school librarians could combine their expertise with that of a content area expert to create resources to fill the gaps.  How can we make this happen?  Let’s talk about it through the Ning for the 15th National Conference and Exhibition of the American Association....

 

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[1] See Copyright Law for more information.

[2] Enriched ebooks and etexts have websites, videos, mash-ups, pictures, graphics, etc., hyperlinked within the text.

[3] Enhanced ebooks and etexts have been enhanced through the addition of content, like author interviews, primary source documents, interactive quizzes, embedded videos or simulations, social-networking tools that allow students to discuss or continue the story, etc.,.

[4] I have just finished the enriched ebook for Macbeth and am starting next on Beowulf.

[5] I am in the process of creating a Jing to show just how easy this process is and will post it as soon as it is available.

[Alyssa Smith]

The roles of the media specialist have expanded beyond the traditional demands of print resources and collaboration. These traditional roles are now integrated with the descriptions in the 3E’s of Education – identifying websites, creating classroom collections, locating curricular materials, offering tips on effectively integrating technology tools, participating in PLCs. Our roles in the schools are all-encompassing and stretch beyond the walls of the media center.

Our students rely on and desire digital content and it is often up to the library media specialist to direct them to reliable, authoritative resources. Ebooks, online databases and other digital content are critical resources for these students. It makes information accessible 24/7 to a wide base of information consumers.

Our staffs are looking toward integrating technology tools. It is up to the technology leaders – library media specialists – to forge the way and to assist educators in the effective integrations and use of these tools. It is up to us to continue to make meaningful connections and collaboratively plan the best practices to engage our students.

As the Common Core State Standards are adopted and teachers strive to address the demands, the librarian will, again, be a critical resource and collaborator.