Week+6+Transmission

Week 6 Transmission
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When I began teaching ECI 521: Teaching Literature for Young Adults in the Spring of 1999, the Web was fairly new and possibilities for online book clubs were few. QuickTopic was a glorified bulletin board and bookclubbing with it was rather clumsy because we had to reload every second to see new comments. Actually, it was much like waiting for parcel of tweets to come in if you're engaged in a meet-up on Twitter. Not very easy at all to carry on a conversation.

In those days I was carrying on action learning projects to learn how readers responded to different types of book clubs -- real-time (synchronous) or delayed (asynchronous). What impressed me most was that regardless of how busy my students' professed to be -- they always opted to meet real-time. Delayed gratification seems hardly satisfactory for an online book club much as trying to read a compelling book by increments.

Most asynchronous virtual book clubs post to online discussion forums or even via Webspiration for the more visually inspired. But real-time, synchronous book clubs are still not seen a lot. I know that authors are Skyping into classrooms and libraries these days but I've not found Skype book clubs. I have heard of book clubs in Second Life and participated in a few.

Over the past three years, we've experimented with Second Life for our virtual book clubs for ECI 521 and they've been quite well received. No, we can't do much about the time-space continuum and busy schedules, but the Bookhenge has become a sanctuary for meeting to contemplate young adult literature and enjoy conversations around a roaring fire pit or beside a rushing waterfall or my favorite -- around the baby grand in the lighthouse. There really can be a "meeting of the mind" in a virtually immersive space.



**Scaffolding Virtual Book Clubs**
Virtual book clubs should be as open and flexible as possible. How open and how flexible depends on the background knowledge and experience of the club members.

Typically, recommendations would be:

> *Dec. 1, 2010: Note that YouTube Groups are currently on hiatus but their return as "bigger and better" has been promised.
 * There should always be choice and self-selection is vital.
 * Four club members seems optimum. It's enough to encourage a thoughtful exchange but not too many to make collaboration difficult.
 * There needs to be a space for pitching, forming, and managing book clubs. We'll look at a few tools below for accomplishing this.
 * Virtual book clubs need to meet real-time. We want to experience the intellectual and emotional highs that come from thinking deeply out loud with others.
 * Pre-planning for real-time book club meetings helps provide a bit of needed structure. Something as simple as asking each member to bring at least one question or point to the discussion is helpful. These could also be posted in the pre-meeting space for prior consideration.
 * It's a good idea for the group to keep a log with notes about the highlights of the discussion, plans for the group's artifact response, and roles/responsibilities. A club wiki would work great since all members can post to it and the artifact response/bookcast could be embedded.
 * The collaborative creation of an artifact from the club should not overshadow the discussion but, rather, should evolve naturally from the discussion.
 * Bookcasts, or aesthetic video responses to books, can serve as compelling artifacts for a book club's experience. A class or schoolwide book club could have a *YouTube group to which small book clubs and individuals could submit bookcasts from their own channels. School Tube also seems to have potential since it encourages student and teacher accounts.

Tools for Virtual Book Clubs
Virtual book club basically need tools -- to form, to organize, to plan, to prepare for the discussion, and to follow through with the collaborative creation of artifacts. A tweet pitching a book to the whole class should hopefully attract at least two additional readers. Then this fledgling club needs some online space to plan. Emails crossing in the ether can't be the most convenient. Several tools below -- from creating a hashtag for Twitter so you'll be able to have a Twitter page in common to using the group function of Skype -- provide a home space for book clubs. Amplify -- Twitter-like only with longer messages (free) Bookhenge Book Club Central -- Pitch and publicize books for book clubs. Chatzy -- free online chatrooms -- rooms can be saved for duration of the bookclub and serve as space for planning and discussion. CoSketch -- free, online whiteboard where club members can create a space for sketching out ideas and plans. PearlTrees -- nothing else quite like it; social bookmarking that enables you to visually connect sites; also has team and event functions that could work well for book clubs. Here's one I've begun for Learning Through Literature with Young Adults . .. [|Skype] -- create a group and the text chat can be synchronous or asynchronous. Could be effective for communication among book club members. How to create groups in Skype .. [|Twitter]-- book clubs could agree on a hashtag and tweet so that all messages appear on one page. Could be helpful for planning. Check out this unique use of Twitter -- "One Book, One Twitter. [|TitanPad]free online space where you can Webspiration -- really interesting tool for using visual learning to begin a virtual book club or any project. Collaboratively build concept maps or book maps with discussion questions about books. Wiggio -- you can even leave voice messages. Could work great to book clubs.