Children's Literature and Computer-Based Teaching

"This stellar book extends teachers' thinking well beyond 'book spaces' and into 'digital spaces' by offering theorized approaches to analyzing children's literature across media, and careful descriptions of effective learning activities that are rich in detail and practical advice. This book (and its digital spaces) is an indispensable guide to engaging with children's literature and new digital media."
Michele Knobel, Montclair State University, USA.

"This is a timely and valuable book for teachers at the primary level, actively involved as they now are with teaching literature and much else in the increasingly sophisticated world of information and communication technology… The book overall is exciting, informative and practical, outlining important theoretical perspectives and ideas while also providing much wisdom and advice to teachers about how to transform their literary programs."
Frances Christie, Emeritus Professor of Language and Literacy Education, University of Melbourne and Honorary Professor of Education, University of Sydney, Australia.

This book connects classroom teaching of children's literature with the digital age. It celebrates the charm of children's literature and its role in literacy development, as well as the appeal of information and communications technology (ICT) to students and its capacity to enrich students' learning and enjoyment of literary texts.The authors outline the ways in which children's literature is developing new dimensions, for example:

• The re-publication of children's books on CD ROM and the world wide web
• Web resources for working with literary texts, including email discussion groups
• Children's participation in the collaborative construction of on-line narratives

The book provides practical guidance for teachers who are inexperienced with ICT. It describes and discusses implementation of activities that extend traditional approaches to literary texts and take advantage of available technology. It is essential reading for Education students and English and Literacy teachers, as well as anyone with an interest in children's literacy.