District Administration - May 2012 - (Page 40)

Empowering Students with Digital ReaDing list. Teachers and administrators can see how often a child reads and track the student’s growth through automatic benchmark assessments. According to Dopierala, students in Charleston County devoured 26,000 books through myON reader within the first month of the school year. A large and diverse school district, Charleston County has roughly 45,000 students in 80 schools. Dopierala says that the district is still assessing overall improvements on standardized tests, but she has already seen gains in students’ reading and writing abilities. Todd Brekhus, president of Capstone Digital, says that myON is “an excellent form of personalized learning because students have their own choice of content and access to a library of thousands of books anytime, anywhere.” Brekhus says that myON is now in more than 1,100 schools nationwide. The cost for school districts averages to around $15 per student, which provides students with unlimited access to a library of more than 2,000 books. MyON plans soon to expand its library, and this year it will launch mobile applications for the iPhone and Android. Jennifer Thrift, a librarian at Charles Pinckney Elementary School in Charleston County, says that digital reading programs can offer an interactive experience—with animated characters, colorful puzzles, and other engaging activities— that speaks to a generation of computer users. She believes that myON is especially beneficial for struggling students because they can read books below their grade level without the embarrassment of other students seeing what they’re reading. In turn, advanced students can read above their grade level. In another benefit, Thrift says, boys are reading more than ever since the school launched myON last year. From the science of baseball to the workings of the human body, young boys have been choosing nonfiction books that spark their interest. While students eat up the digital books, Thrift doesn’t believe that regular books District Administration At St. Mary Parish Public School District in Louisiana, a second-grader at W.P. Foster Elementary School uses Reading Assistant, the digital reading and audio program, which is especially beneficial to special ed students. Each student works at his or her own pace and ability. Research Center shows that the number of adults who own tablet computers rose from 10 percent to 19 percent between mid-December 2011 and early January. The same surge in growth occurred with e-book readers as well, which also jumped from 10 percent to 19 percent over the same time period. The Cooney Center, an independent research organization focused on how digital media technology impacts children’s learning, is currently conducting a study with 24 families to determine whether young children prefer e-books to regular books. Results are expected to be released later this spring. Carl Harvey, president of the American Association of School Libraries and a librarian at North Elementary School in Noblesville, Ind., says that librarians will have to adapt and expand their skill sets as libraries adopt new technology. Depending on what types of digital learning programs are used in a district, librarians may need to know how to help children find the right e-books through online libraries, help them navigate online reading 40 May 2012 programs, or solve problems on iPads and other tablet computers. Harvey says that understanding new technology is a key component in the future role of librarians. “Librarians will always be an essential part of a school, but we’ll have to become more technologically savvy,” he says. “It’s all part of the evolution. [Technology] is another tool we can utilize to get more kids reading.” MyON Reader Takes Off Impressed with the results of its digital book experiment, the Charleston County district last summer invested in Capstone Digital’s new myON Reader for its elementary and middle schools. Launched in 2011, myON is a personalized Web-based reading program that provides access to more than 2,500 online books. Available for students in pre-K through grade 8, the program is customized to a child’s interest and reading ability, which is measured through a series of assessment quizzes. MyON also develops an individual profile for each student based on interests and then generates a recommended book

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of District Administration - May 2012

District Administration - May 2012
Contents
From the Editor
Letters
News Update
Sustainability Update
Conversations
Administrator Profile
District Profile
Problem/Solution
Product Focus
Digital Reading Empowers Students
The Critical Task of Hiring a New Chief
Hard Acts to Follow
Leading the Way
Sally Reis & Joe Renzulli
CIO News
Not Your Mother’s Student Information System
Professional Opinion
Noteworthy Books
New Products
Going Mobile

District Administration - May 2012