As our world moves forward and progresses through the creation of new technologies, the general population must move forward with it. As teachers and parents, we would be foolish to take for granted the extensive collection of tools available to us and our children on the internet. By taking advantage of the abundance of emerging technological tools, we can help foster a love of literacy in our students/children. "The Joy of Children's Literature" explains how digital texts are unique: "Digital texts separates the content from the way it is displayed, making the text flexible in several key ways. Digital texts offer varied visual displays such as font color, size, shape, and background color, and other displays such as audio and video can be offered" (Johnson, 343). The textbook also goes on to discuss how the reading experience can be enhanced by the links which provide important structural labels, semantic information, definitions of key words, and a variety of other learning supports. The internet offers a plethora of reading opportunities such as: online read alouds, online books, interactive storybooks, virtual meet the author, webcasts and podcasts of authors and illustrators, and many more. Some great websites for the classroom are listed below:
Librivox
Provides free audiobooks. Children's catalog offers almost 60 titles.
Literature.org
Over 200 free e-texts of the world's most famous novels, plays, short stories, poems, and more.
Storybook Web
Children can watch and listen to authors read excerpts from their stories and answer questions about their writing.
Sources such as these will not only spice up children's literary experiences, but it will also provide them with a broad range of skills and strategies that are necessary for success in the 21st century.
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