Is a phonebook a book?

The Japanese push the boundaries of digital appliances, particularly in cell phone based reading. In fact, cell phone books are the biggest growth area for publishing in Japan. It is estimated that 86% of Japanese teens read cell phone novels.

From the Mobile Art Lab in Japan comes a new twist on digital reading. The youngest children get this concept and turn the "page" with the same muscle memory used with paper. What an engaging way to read! Is it less valuable because it is digital? I don't think so.

We need to be studying the literacies associated with digital reading and preparing our libraries and faculties. Our collections need ebooks and digital readers to understand and gain experience working with and understanding what it means to truly read digitally. And we need to do it with an open mind.

I'd like to put in a plug for Libraries and Transliteracy, a blog I find very useful in clarifying my views and learning more about the topic of evolving literacies. 

"This blog is a group effort to share information about the all literacies (digital literacy, media literacy, information literacy, visual literacy, 21st century literacies, transliteracies and more) with special focus on all libraries."
 
An example is a recent post by Bobbi Newman, Information Literacy for the 21st Century.

This is the future of reading.



Source:
Ewan MacIntosh's edublogs:

iPhone + Book = Book: beautiful transmedia book

Laugh it up, New Yorker

I know you have to power down your Kindle along with other electronic devices during take off and landing. You know what? I don't care! 

During a recent trip to Japan (chaperone for the Concert Band - more on that later) I packed as lightly as possible for the 10 day trip, but had a massive suitcase stuffed with technology to record, blog, video, and digitally capture the whole shebang.

Perhaps the most crucial bit of tech I brought along was the Kindle in my carry on. I had it loaded, and in the course of the flights, bus trips, jet lag induced insomnia and down time in rehearsal halls, I made my way through old classics by Edith Wharton, Henry James, and even Shogun by James Clavell.  It would have been physically impossible to lug that many books. So make fun of us Kindle readers all you want, New Yorker. Me? I'm just looking for a place to plug in my charger.

From the New Yorker:
"In preparation for landing, please turn off your books."

Blog Love - CCHS Students in Japan or Why Blogs are AWESOME!

David Nurenberg is an inspirational English teacher at CCHS. He has spent his April vacation leading a group of students (along with chaperones Superintendent of Schools Diana Rigby and fellow-English teacher Vicky Moskowitz) on a trip to Concord's Sister-City, Nanae, Japan. 17 students are forging personal connections in Japan, deepening their knowledge and interest in manga, and learning about global peace. His blog is AWESOME!
2009JapanTripBlog
Not only is David coordinating, leading and teaching, but he is also taking the time to write up the experiences of the delegation and posting them to a blog. It is a privilege to follow the adventures of our students as they discover Japan.
This is what preparing students for the 21st century entails. David goes the extra 10,000 miles (approximately:) in guiding students towards cultural understanding.
So, give a little blog love. Add a comment. Post that you read, that you connected.

Photo credit:
Flickr Creative Commons
五稜郭 (Pentagram Fort) by 14-2-1
Manhole cover - Hakodate, squid [squared circle] by Mr Wabu

A Novel Use for Cell Phones (get it?)

86 percent of Japanese high school students read Mobile Phone Novels. Think about it. Cell phone are the leading outlet for new novel publications (Cell Phones Put to Novel Use). New novels are being written especially with this format in mind. Are people reading less, or more? Or are they just reading differently?

My experience with Kindle profoundly changed how I define "reading". Truly, I couldn't get the concept of digital paper and electronic reading devices. Then I read The Tale of Edgar Sawtelle on my new Kindle, and found myself disappearing into the text. Shockingly, I found I preferred reading on the Kindle. It was lighter, easier to angle, and more intimate than the bulky hardcover. So, yeah, I am totally open to the idea of reading a novel on a cell phone.

Here's a shout out to Daniel Pink's blog for getting me thinking about this.

10 Days, 8 Teachers: An Educational Journey to Japan

The town of Concord has a Japanese sister, and her name is Nanae. I had the extraordinary opportunity to visit Nanae with a delegation of Concord Public K-5 and CCHS teachers last June, and join the ranks of previous delegations and student trips to Japan. This relationship is known as the Concord - Nanae Network.
Thanks to the generosity of the Ruettgers Family endowement, I was able to share this experience with colleagues and students in a lecture of my trip. The challenge lay in that I wasn't just telling my story, but that of the rich sister-city relationship, and the journey I shared with my colleagues.
As an educator this was a transformational experience. I was totally dependent, unable to read, write, speak or navigate on my own on this new culture. The gift of travelling with colleagues and talk about learning, while I was learning new things every minute of every day, was amazing. Our conversationsons during the bus rides were challenging and deeply instructional.
The bigger issue was the importance of our trip. What does global education look like, and what is global citizenship? How can technology help us bridge the hurdles?
The following 5 minute video starts with Mr. David Nurenberg talking about the value of these exchanges, with his wonderful eloquent vision. Bobby Kargulla, Concord's most recent appointee to Nanae, is formally hired as Coordinator of International Relations (CIR) and accepts his new position. Seeing the Nanae delegation teach 200+ people how to do the Ika (Squid) Dance is an opportunity not to be missed. The video concludes with the unique Concord - Nanae parting ceremony.
Arigato gozaimas!

What I did during my summer vacation

My summer has been a-m-a-z-i-n-g.
Right after school ended a delegation headed to Nanae, Japan. Nanae is the sister-city to Concord, located in Hokkaido, the northern island of the archipelago chain. Accompanied by CCHS staff and "old hands" Al Dentino, David Nurenberg, Tom Curtin, as well as Concord Public School staff Karen Pettyjohn (Thoreau School Librarian) and Susan Erickson (Thoreau School Grade 4), and Dr. Sue Curtin and translator/guide Junko Kargulla, we had an amazing journey. A video will be playing on CCTV documenting our transformative experience.

I am still trying to process BLC 08. "Building Learning Communities" is an annual conference hosted by Alan November. November is based in Massachusetts, which means the conference is always local. How nice for us! What can you say about a conference that cracks your head open and pours in best-practice from around the world? I listened and interacted with educators from Kenya, who are transforming their educational infra-stucture using CELL PHONES because Kenya doesn't have national Internet yet! How about a school in NYC where 20% of the student population is homeless and the other 80% lives in housing projects, and they are hitting their testing goals as well as sending a team to the national science fair. How about THAT for education! Teachers from Canada, Scotland, and Concord, MA, presented and spread the word about the highest standards of education. At the end of this conference I felt like the top of my head was going to explode. It was incredible!

So, what did I do over my summer vacation? I saw the world, and the potential for students. You can't ask for much more than that.