Surfing The Web Helps First Graders Discover The Joy Of Reading

November 8, 1996

GAINESVILLE — Although they are too young to drive, first graders at Gainesville’s M. K. Rawlings Elementary School are taking to the highway — the information superhighway. And education scholars from the University of Florida say this highway can lead to greater learning.

Linda Lamme, professor of children’s literature at UF, said there are unlimited ways in which she and her teacher education students can use computer technology to teach young children the joys of reading.

The most recent example came when Brenda Horne, a graduate student at UF’s College of Education, was reading Julius Lester’s “John Henry” to her class. Because of her young students’ interest in the character, Horne posted an inquiry on a children’s lit’ listserv, which is an electronic mailing list where members discuss a specific subject with one another through e-mail.

“You can imagine my delight when we heard from the author himself,” Horne said. “We have since written our responses to his newest book and have received another e-mail from Mr. Lester. My class thinks they are pretty special because of this.”

This group of beginning readers also has established a cyberspace relationship with Michael McCurdy, the author of the class’ favorite book “The Old Man and the Fiddle.” While the first graders offer feedback from their classroom in Florida, the Massachusetts author allows them to sample some of his stories and illustrations in progress.

According to Lamme, who has advocated the use of computers and technology in the classroom for years, these types of experiences provide significant learning possibilities that weren’t possible before personal computers and electronic mail.

“No longer will these students think of reading as just saying words,” Lamme said. “Reading has always been a conversation with the author and now these children can identify the book with a real person.

“They now know Mr. Lester and know he works hard as a writer and they look forward to his next book.”

The use of “new media” in the classroom is a trend that’s growing at a bullet train pace. The technology provides the opportunities, while the innovative and creative application of this technology generates the impact, Lamme said.

“You can find children in schools playing games on the computer or doing math problems and word exercises,” she said. “But this is no more than memorization.”

“What is truly exciting is when children think about what they are reading and they learn to be analytical,” Lamme continued. “Using the Internet and e-mail to talk to authors, or to discuss books with other students from around the country, helps open these children’s eyes and gives them a vision that we can’t give them with traditional methods.”

Lamme explained that a poll of elementary school students revealed that the least favored activity after reading a book was to write a book report. The most favored activity would be to meet the author.

“Teachers do the exact opposite,” Lamme said. “We assign book reports because it’s what we’ve always done. It’s just not feasible to bring in the author to meet the students. But now through telecommunications, we can provide similar opportunities for our students.”

Lamme said many elementary schools have produced their own home pages on the World Wide Web, allowing students a chance to publish their writing as well as review work from students in schools in other states.

“Children are no longer writing for just their teacher,” Lamme said. “They can write a book review or a creative story that could be read by a whole lot of readers.”

It is likely that the use of the Internet and on-line resources will grow more prevalent in the next few years. More and more schools are “hooking up” to networks and receiving federal and state grants to upgrade computer hardware and software. In a speech given in Knoxville, Tenn., earlier this month, President Bill Clinton expressed his belief that the latest technology should play a prominent role in education. He said he hopes to see the day where “computers are as much a part of the classroom as chalkboards.”