Children's Literature and Computer Based Teaching

“This stellar book extends teachers’ thinking well beyond 'book spaces' and into 'digital spaces' by offering theorized approaches to analyzing children’s literature across media, and careful descriptions of effective learning activities that are rich in detail and practical advice. This book (and its digital spaces) is an indispensable guide to engaging with children’s literature and new digital media.”
Michele Knobel, Montclair State University, USA.

“The book overall is exciting, informative and practical, outlining important theoretical perspectives and ideas while also providing much wisdom and advice to teachers about how to transform their literary programs.”
Frances Christie, Emeritus Professor of Language and Literacy Education, University of Melbourne and Honorary Professor of Education, University of Sydney, Australia.

This book connects classroom teaching of children’s literature with the digital age. It celebrates the charm of children’s literature and its role in literacy development, as well as the appeal of information and communications technology (ICT) to students and its capacity to enrich students’ learning and enjoyment of literary texts.

The authors outline the ways in which children’s literature is developing new dimensions, for example:

• The re-publication of children’s books on CD ROM and the world wide web
• Web resources for working with literary texts, including e-mail discussion groups
• Children’s participation in the collaborative construction of online narratives

The book provides practical guidance for teachers who are inexperienced with ICT. It describes and discusses implementation of activities that extend traditional approaches to literary texts and take advantage of available technology.

Len Unsworth is Professor in English and Literacies Education in the School of Education at the University of New England in Armidale, Australia. Len was a classroom teacher in Queensland before moving into teacher education at the University of Western Sydney, and then the University of Sydney prior to taking up his present position at the University of New England. As well as an extensive list of journal articles, Len has published a number of books including Literacy learning and teaching (Macmillan, 1993), Researching language in schools and communities (Continuum, 2000) and Teaching multiliteracies across the curriculum (Open University Press, 2001).

Angela Thomas is a lecturer in English and Literacy Education at the University of Sydney. She has been a Primary school teacher, Drama and Arts Consultant and Literacy Advisor. Her main area of research is virtual theatre in visual worlds.

Alyson Simpson lectures in literacy in the teacher education programs at University of Sydney. Her current research projects include the study of design in interactive learning communities such as: children's online responses to literary texts. Her work aims to extend the successful use of multiliteracies in the classroom.

Jennifer Asha is a primary school teacher experienced in teaching students with a wide range of abilities. She holds a Masters degree in English and Literacy Education and shares her passion for conventional and computer based literacies as a guest lecturer and conference speaker. As president of an Australian Literacy Educators Association local council, she leads a group of teachers and librarians interested in promoting the use of conventional and electronic children’s literature in the primary classroom.