step one: books
BAMBOO PEOPLE is assigned as required summer reading for all entering freshmen and sophomores—over 200 students at the International School of the Americas in San Antonio, Texas.
step two: teachers
Educators in World Geography, Biology, English, Technology, and Math develop an interdisciplinary unit to teach the book.
step three: tech
Google alerts me about their plan and I contact the tech teacher, Mitzi Moore, to offer a free skype visit. The teachers and students prepare thoroughly and we have two virtual Q and A sessions.
step four: teens
Some of the students find me on twitter and we exchange tweets about the experience. Others follow up on Facebook.
A few years ago, we couldn't have dreamed of this kind of virtual village gathering around fiction. What's next, I wonder? Live chats with an author as we read a digital book? An online fan community co-creating gaming experiences or films to extend a novel? Your guess is as good as mine, but one thing's for sure — it still starts with story, and that's never going to change.
BAMBOO PEOPLE is assigned as required summer reading for all entering freshmen and sophomores—over 200 students at the International School of the Americas in San Antonio, Texas.
step two: teachers
Educators in World Geography, Biology, English, Technology, and Math develop an interdisciplinary unit to teach the book.
step three: tech
Google alerts me about their plan and I contact the tech teacher, Mitzi Moore, to offer a free skype visit. The teachers and students prepare thoroughly and we have two virtual Q and A sessions.
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| Photo courtesy of sophomore Jon Ontiveros |
Some of the students find me on twitter and we exchange tweets about the experience. Others follow up on Facebook.
A few years ago, we couldn't have dreamed of this kind of virtual village gathering around fiction. What's next, I wonder? Live chats with an author as we read a digital book? An online fan community co-creating gaming experiences or films to extend a novel? Your guess is as good as mine, but one thing's for sure — it still starts with story, and that's never going to change.