Storytelling is a craft that takes "talking" to the level of "telling." The cleverest of teachers know these tricks. In this article the author presents the art of storytelling and why it is so important, especially in the educational environment of national standards and standardized testing.

This study investigated the information-seeking practices and interactions of school librarians and special education teachers to better understand how they support the learning of students with disabilities. The work of school librarians and special education teachers may appear divergent; however, as professionals in a rapidly changing…

Roser discusses how both teachers and librarians, whom she calls the preservers of children's reading, should cling tightly to three essential practices to ensure that our children read more, read better, and read more widely. She argues we should: a) keep the classroom library viable; b) preserve, protect, and defend time for self-selected…

The paper presents findings from 560 interviews with undergraduates on 10 campuses distributed across the US, as part of Project Information Literacy (PIL). Overall, the findings suggest that students use a "less is more" approach to manage and control all of the IT devices and information systems available to them while they are in the…

Over seventy percent of students who are deaf or hard of hearing will attend a public school and enroll in a classroom with their hearing peers or in a self-contained classroom with other deaf and hard of hearing students. Teacher-librarians who work in these schools can improve their instruction by understanding not only what it means to be…

The paper reports the theoretical underpinnings for the pedagogical role and rationale for adopting 3D virtual worlds for socialisation and knowledge creation in distance education. Socialisation or "knowing one another" in remote distributed environments can be achieved through synchronous technologies such as instant messaging, audio and…

The tool of the future sits on a desk, but what lies behind that bright computer screen? Information floats on the surface, but the author of this article is a teacher who wants to find a way to draw students into an unforgettable learning adventure. A vision is needed, an idea that will enlist motivation and initiate a serious hunger for…

Natural disasters come in all shapes and sizes and affect all areas of the earth, and studying natural disasters may make children more aware of their physical environment and their place in it. This column provides a list of websites on different types of natural disasters, including earthquakes, landslides, tsunamis, volcanoes, floods,…

The National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE) documents dimensions of quality in undergraduate education and provides information and assistance to colleges, universities, and other organizations to improve student learning. Its primary activity is annually surveying college students to assess the extent to which they engage in educational…

Library media specialists need to embrace brain research and implement its findings into the teaching of information literary skills. Research in the past two decades has used imaging techniques to allow the study of brain functions when listening to music versus composing a song or when recalling a noun or verb. Imaging allows researchers to look…

Children's emotional responses to films are the focus of the four articles in this issue designed for media specialists and educators. Following an editorial discussing the responsibilities of media as put forth by Bruno Bettleheim, the first article presents a methodology and rationale for using story films to encourage children's exploration of…

This activity book was written for the purposes of: (1) increasing students' awareness of nature and environmental issues; (2) providing an interdisciplinary curriculum for environmental issues; (3) encouraging students to use a variety of current nonfiction sources to research activities; and (4) encouraging students to work together in small…

This handbook is divided into five parts and is designed to accompany the filmstrip, "A New Look at Old Buildings," a part of the Providence Preservation Society's ongoing commitment to educating students about Providence's rich architectural heritage. (The other materials used in the program are the audio component for the film and a…

This column is a collaborative effort by library media specialists and K-16 educators who write about the motivational strategies that have worked for them in teaching IL skills. Motivational strategies include ways to gain and sustain attention, increase relevance for learning information literacy skills, build confidence in students' developing…

Students are responsible for their own knowledge construction in student-centered, constructivist-learning environments. To be successful, students need tools, or organizers, to help explore relationships, organize information, and think critically. This article discusses and provides examples of presearch, search, interpretation, communication,…