Digital Learning, Online Libraries

I absolutely love online libraries, not only do they provide children free access to literature, they are usually very interactive and fun. One of the biggest issues I hear students make are "My [mom, dad, sibling, etc...] cannot take me to the library" or "The are no books I like here, I can never find anything I like". Online libraries solve this by making books easy to access and search; for both children and adults. Although there is great benefit with using physical books, we must accept that not every student has access to them. With new grants and funding, schools provide students with the resources to overcome these hurdles. Digital learning is not a replacement for teaching but, it is a great addition if used appropriately and not as a student's sole source of learning. In the Newburgh Enlarged City School District, the Newburgh Free Library offers eBooks an interactive books through their website for free. This is an enormous collection of literature for all ages, children to adults. From my experience, students love it. Some students like reading books online, some like listening to stories, other like watching videos and then reading more about the topic.

One program in particular is called "ScienceFlix (a play on words for Netflix) that I really enjoy.

It has many options for various learners and organizes every topic you can think of into section that you can click on. Their are topics ranging from Dinosaurs to Weather, Geology to Anatomy, Psychology to Physics. Each section has multiple online book option, an inquiry video, and multiple articles to read more about. They even provide further resources to students who want to learn more about a specific topic with links to other websites and at home activities. Science should not be a hurdle to those who struggle with reading. Programs such as these overcome that hurdle by providing options to those who cannot or struggle with reading. Although students will need to be stronger readers to better succeed in science in the future, programs such as these give them the chance to explore and learn at their own pace and access information that was not readily available to them in a classroom other than in a book. Finally these programs are more private for students. Maybe a girl doesn't want others to know she likes learning about insects and avoids reading books about them because of the pressure she feels. Maybe there is a boy in the classroom who doesn't want to let his friends know that he doesn't know a lot about animals and is too ashamed to ask others about it. Programs such as these open the doors to these students while letting them have some privacy in what they want to learn. Although this is not science related, I had a student who was in 5th grade who really wanted to read Dr. Seuss books because he couldn't read advanced books and never read "One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish". He was always embarrassed and never wanted to read because he couldn't read books on his grade level and couldn't read the books he wanted because they were "babyish". The online library was a perfect escape for him to read Dr. Seuss and also listen to books on his grade level that he could share and talk about with his friends.

Children are people too, although young, they have the same fears and anxieties as we do, just on a much simpler scale. Problems we deem trivial are a students whole world so we must always address our students as the human beings they. We must listen to their problems to and hopefully find solution instead of just brushing them off as "not a big deal". We must teach them how to deal with the problems instead of making them think that their problems don't matter. Hopefully, we as teachers can mold them into successful adult that are ready to teach the next generation after them. I think digital learning is a step in the right direction that addresses problems that might seem trivial to some, but are a huge deal to other, especially those who are less fortunate.