Each year, Bayview Public School (http://bay.scdsb.on.ca) participates in Canada’s National Family Literacy Day, which is held annually on January 27 http://abclifeliteracy.ca/family-literacy-day. Two years ago, the parent council president asked me if we could set up a computer at the school to have families record reviews of their favorite books. Using free services, I was able to have them record these reviews via telephone from home. We got a free local voicemail phone number through freephoneline.ca which forwards messages to my email. We posted these audio reviews, of families and children sharing the books they love to the Bayview Family Literacy Day website at http://familyliteracy.edublogs.org/ . Several classes and many families have contributed audio reviews and we have even had an author respond to one of the reviews. In the process, we have built up a resource of books that families in our community are passionate about. I hope this presentation can inspire others to creatively use free tools to energize their own school communities.
This is a FREE, online conference open to ANYONE organized by educators for educators around the world interested in integrating emerging technologies into classroom practice. A goal of the conference (among several) is to help educators make sense of and meet the needs of a continually changing learning landscape. Learn more on http://k12onlineconference.org
