Yesterday, I gave the opening keynote for the Catholic Schools Foundation’s Summer Tech Conference at Boston College. After my keynote I stayed in the same room and enjoyed a fantastic panel discussion on using technology in K-2 classrooms. One of the panelists talked about students creating book recommendations. What struck me most was not the apps (here are some for making book trailers) but this line from the panelist,

“You can tell kids how great a book is until you’re blue in the face. But when their friends tell them, then they believe it.” 


Applications for Education
After your students create their book trailers have them add their projects to a collaborative website. (With the youngest students you may have to do this step or turn teaching the process into a separate lesson). My choices for a site like this are Wikispaces or Google Sites. The ease with which you or your students can build pages and build navigation links is what makes Wikispaces and Google Sites my choice for a collaboratively created book review site. Wikispaces is probably a little easier to initially set-up, but if you’re in a school that uses Google Apps for Education then your students will already have an account that they can use on Google Sites. The option to restrict students to editing specific pages in Google Sites is a nice option too. Click here for directions on how to do that.

In hindsight I should have asked for that panelist’s name. If it was you, please send me an email so that I can give you credit.