Prompt #6: Jon Smith’s Success and The eBook in The Art Room

Jon Smith’s presentation “Giving Students a Voice—Global Publishing Through eBooks”is a wonderful inspiration for anyone who’s agonized over getting students motivated. He was able to get his students-- who before hated the act and the very idea of writing-- to eagerly collaborate and learn by making eBooks. The students didn’t become interested in writing until they knew they’d be reaching out to people outside their classroom. Suddenly, when given the freedom to say whatever they wanted to potentially millions of people, the students felt that there was a greater purpose to their schoolwork. What they were doing in the classroom suddenly became meaningful and relevant.

This was probably the most striking thing to me about his story: That when Smith A) gave the students the challenging “real-world” task of writing a book for the general public and B) gave them the freedom to write about whatever they wanted, the students freely CHOSE to write their book about the writing concepts they were supposed to be learning in their prior weeks of class. They wanted to write about the things they had to learn about [following the standards] only when they weren’t coerced to by Smith, who before had bent over backwards to pull writing out of them. By giving them freedom, Smith brought out their inner enthusiasm for learning.

I think this speaks to the notion that no one, especially middle schoolers, wants to be told what to do, even when someone’s trying to convince them that it’s in their best interests. Kids can smell it a mile away when you’re trying too hard to make them care. So no matter how much they may have known deep down that writing is important, they were never going to accept Smith’s instruction. As soon as he gave them the opportunity to share whatever they wanted, Smith became more of a facilitator to the students’ learning and less of a preacher about the virtues of learning how to write. He did well when he told his students the truth (in a non-malicious but brutally objective manner), and I paraphrase: “Your writing really sucks. You’re going to have to publish an eBook for all the world to see whether or not the writing is crap! And I'm going to give you as long as it takes to complete it.” He presents the students with a challenge here. And all of a sudden learning how to write becomes self-evidently interesting and useful.

How did/do you see the use of eBooks impacting the writing process?

Writing eBooks shouldn’t have an effect on the actual process of writing--the laying out and ordering of thoughts and ideas. Unless I’m mistaken, the actual text isn’t written in the eBook format; it’s written somewhere else, and the designer drops the text in later. There may be changes to the planning and outline process with an eBook. If the author wishes to add videos at particular sections of the book, they'll have to plan ahead for that. They’ll also have to consider how the videos will interplay with the text.

How do you see them fitting in your future classroom?

I’m a traditionalist when it comes to art education. You can probably tell where this is going…I don’t see eBooks fitting into my future art classroom, at least not to a major degree. However, there are a few ways I could see it fitting in:

• Having the students illustrate a storybook as a class
• A method of creating a digital portfolio
• For students who are interested in graphic narrative—a way to distribute their work

Student-created eBooks are a great way to encourage students to become invested in the work they’re creating. It gives them a platform, an audience, for their work outside their school. In order to use them effectively, we should always put the emphasis on the content being learned, and not on the novelty of the medium. As an art teacher, I would only use the eBook if we’re doing a collaborative book (or serial image) assignment, or for students who are very interested in webcomics and want to publish. The actual work is not the eBook, but the eBook is a medium for sharing that work with others.