#13 e-Books

E-Books....hmmmmm....I really had to get out of my box to figure out a way to incorporate this concept into my classroom or personal learning efforts. Because I teach PE, I struggled to make a connection between my curriculum and the Project Guttenburg listings. But, after some advanced searching, I made some significant connections. I can see where access to children's poetry would be helpful during my jump rope unit. Students are encouraged to learn old fashioned chants and rhymes to assist in their understanding of the rhythm and timing of jumping rope. I've never encouraged them to make up their own, but the e-book could give them examples of rhythms to copy and insert their own up to date lyrics. Then they could perform them for their classmates.

I also didn't realize how many Mother Goose rhymes contained action verbs. During a jumping skills lesson, I could use "Jack Be Nimble". A simple use of poetic literature as a lead in for my lesson. I could see a Smart Board interactive game where the students locate the action words and jump his/her way through a series of verbs and matching subjects.

I searched the word "health" and came up with multiple hits; but mostly very, very old manuscripts and waaaay out of date information. I did manage to find a book called, "Healthful Sports for Boys". This book would have been better entitled "Games your Great Grandpa Would Play." As I looked through the online table of contents, it occurred to me that it was actually a wealth of information. I enjoy teaching the history of games and explaining where it originated; how the equipment has changed to meet the needs of the player and their safety; the terminoloy for the game; and basic rules to play by. The book sorted various games and activities by which season of the year one might engage in the activity ---not sport season...but by spring, summer, fall and winter. Funny, there's a societal change right there...we used to play outside a lot and what we played really depended on what the weather was like outside. Now with indoor pools, indoor ice skating rinks, year round basketball leagues and such, we aren't limited by changing weather patterns as much.

Anyway, this book will turn out to be a wealth of information for me because it includes activities such as marble, top games, kite, hoops and wheels. By exposing children to these activities, perhaps I can get them to verbally engage with an older generation in their family. By teaching them old fashioned games that require little or no equipment, they can make a connection to their grandparents and begin a meaningful dialog. If I can get my students to access this book online with their grandparent, then they could look over the table of contents and get their grandparents to help them learn a game. Thereby, improving relationships through play....now there's a wonderful, old timey notion!

As for using the site, I didn't like how I had to scroll down to the very bottom of each page to advance the ebook to the next page. I wish there was an easier way to turn the page.
I think the idea of downloading the eBooks to almost any type of portable device for later use, is awesome. I can see where voice recorded eBooks on iPods could be instrumental in helping visually impaired folks explore literature.

Can you imagine articles from the world's newspaper jounalists being read, recorded and put on e-newspaper sites. You could actually hear the author reading his thoughts with the actual intonations with which he intended it to be read? Instead of getting newspapers delivered to our driveways, we would log on, download our periodical and listen to our news while we drive or ride to work or school.

That's kind of an exciting notion....oh the joys of creativity.