From MySpace to "My Book"
By Willis, Julie; Closing the Gap, Vol. 26, No. 1, pp. 1, 15-16Publication Date: April/May 2007
Article focuses on the author’s use of My Own Bookshelf from SoftTouch, Incorporated for reading instruction in a high school special education setting. The author notes her troubles in motivating students to want to learn to read. She was fascinated that despite their poor reading skills, they spent hours each day uploading pictures and communicating with friends on the popular MySpace social networking website. The author decided to create activities that would put their MySpace skills to good use while they worked on their reading, as My Own Bookshelf is a book authoring program that allows the user to make computer generated books that can be printed and burned to CD, which will read the book out loud. Like MySpace, My Own Bookshelf has a user-friendly interface, so students could easily create books to share with other students. The students were allowed to author books with the same types of video, audio files, and animations that they use on MySpace. The author found that the books created by the students varied widely in terms of subject matter and complexity, while the students began to become more conscious of their spelling and grammar, as well as that of their peers.
Assistive Products Discussed: MY OWN BOOKSHELF
Published by: Closing the Gap, Inc. (Website:http://www.closingthegap.com)
