E-reader grant application

I am in the process of writing a grant for e-readers for my library to check out to teachers, and eventually students to take home.  The first step is to get enough for a small novel study group, see how often they are used, then decide if they can be checked out next fall.

E-readers are appealing for the same reason as buying iPods and MP3 players for downloadable audiobooks was exciting two years ago: instant access to books for students.  I like being able to hand a student just the right book when they want it or desperately need it for their class.  It is satisfying and helps build that idea that you can find things successfully in a library, whether it is a book or an audiobook or information.

The discussions I am having with staff lately is centered around the question of which e-readers to choose.  We have a very supportive public schools foundation that invites grants from classrooms (including the library) for projects and materials, including artists-in-residence, dance education, books, technology, and many other ideas.  I am in the process of writing my grant application, and have found several good resources for supporting information to help complete the form.  Many questions have come up both on the application and in my conversations with teachers:

• Why would e-readers be a helpful tool in the library and classroom environment?
• How would students be limited and protected in their use of e-readers?
• Who would benefit from having e-readers in our library?
• Which grade levels would use them?
• How would we protect our investment?
• How will students be trained?
• How will we purchase new e-books?
• How will the decisions be made as to which titles to purchase?
• Where will the money to sustain this program come from?
• What additional money/items are necessary to complete this project?
• What connections can be made with the curriculum?
• How will we measure the success/failure/usage of the e-readers program?
• Are teachers supportive of e-readers and have shown interest in using e-readers?

I am just beginning my research, and have found several interesting articles online with bits and pieces of information that I am using to inform my own grant writing.  I thought I would collect them all here and then follow up after I have made decisions and written my grant application.

Articles of interest:

• Travis's Excellent Ereader Adventure - an explanation of a year-long e-readers rollout in a fifth and sixth grade elementary
• Kindle Fire vs Nook Tablet - comparison of the features of both e-readers
• The Truth About Tablets - difficulties in getting tablets and e-readers to students
• Middle school boys who are reluctant readers value reading more after using e-readers - a study from SMU
• E-reader Madness - a blog article about deciding between a Nook and a Kindle for an elementary school library
• Gilbert School embracing e-reader technology with Nook Club - a school loaning Nooks to sixth graders, who then train another group to use them when they are done reading their books

Storybird stories

Last spring I worked with a group of 1st graders who didn't need extra phonics or comprehension work during our Reading RtI time, so we did projects, research, read books, studied authors, and wrote stories.  I found Storybird to be a great tool for writing stories, particularly for this age group.

Storybird has sets of illustrations available for students to choose from, then they write text for each page.  Students can change the layout of the page and put the images in whatever order they choose to illustrate their story.  This allows them to focus on their writing and not illustrating a book.  I encouraged them to think beyond what was in the pictures and tell more of the story, not just describe what the picture showed.

Another fun aspect to Storybird is that students can invite each other to collaborate on a story together.  The teacher creates logins for all the students, and then they can choose one of their classmates to work with them on a story they have started.  They had a lot of fun working together, taking turns writing text and choosing pictures for their collaborative story.

Examples:

The Seasons by Teja on Storybird

Friend Ninjas by Newton on Storybird

I love Spring! by Reza on Storybird

Animoto

I had a lot of fun playing around this summer with Animoto, a website where you import photos, then choose a theme and music and it creates a video for you.  Often flashy, always well designed and professional looking, I think there are a lot of uses in schools for this tool.

I plan to work with 5th and 6th graders to create 30-second book trailers later this year.

Forgive the repetitive loud music, but I wanted to start up the year in an upbeat way.  Here is my 4th-6th grade introduction to the Ridgecrest library video, highlighting some important ideas I wanted them to remember.  I used Keynote to create some slides with some text then exported them as jpgs and imported those right along with the photographs.  I thought they would enjoy hearing and seeing it in a way that didn't involve me standing up in front of them and talking.  We had short discussions after the video, but it definitely worked as an attention getter, even if some of them were dancing while watching.

I did another one that is about me, but I haven't had time to show it to classes yet.  I may save it as an example later on when we talk about other uses.  Book trailers, autobiographies, biographies, there are a lot of potential uses for Animoto.