When was the last time you saw a student copying from a print reference source? As print sources gather dust, digital materials' use grows. Digital materials are more to the liking of students raised with technology in hand. For young learners, the process of on-screen copy and paste has made replication with pen and paper obsolete. As digital…

One of the great failings in educational game design is a focus on the question-and-answer model of gameplay. This type of educational game has players engage in some sort of time-wasting activity like rolling a die and moving, and then the focus of the game, the activity of answering a question, is triggered. Thousands of educational games use…

Stepping into a school library today reveals the dramatic changes in educational games since the author's elementary school days. Many current school libraries now boast computer- and video-based games, as well as geocaching, big games, or large-scale scavenger hunts that pit teams against each other in timed races to find clues about a…

Collaboration and coteaching with classroom teachers and campus specialists are the cornerstones of a successful school library program. Whereas collaboration is the process of planning a lesson or unit of instruction, coteaching suggests a much deeper level of collaboration--one in which both the teacher and campus specialist (be it school…

Connecting students with authors is a dynamic way to promote the love of reading. A successful program shows that teens will read--if they are given time to read books they are interested in and develop a community of readers. This article discusses the Author's Day program, a district-wide yearly event held in Wallkill, New York, that brings…