Issue 25 Autumn 1998 Literacy and the Internet - Never the Twain Shall Meet? Lynne Johnson	Collections under which this       article appears:       Projects       Reading Related Articles or Resources Other Articles by Author

Libraries - If you have an interest in children's literacy, and access to the Internet, note down the following date; Thursday 13 May 1999. This is the date on which the next ReadIn! event will take place.

"What is this ReadIn!?" I hear you cry. Then let me explain.....

On Friday 24 April 1998, Dixons City Technology College proudly took part in an online, real-time event, using the Internet, as can be seen from the Directory of Participants, one of only three UK libraries to participate. The ReadIn! began as the brainwave of one Ms Jane Coffey, who arranged for two Primary schools in the USA to 'chat' to each other using the Internet.

Six years later the event has evolved to include, at this year's event, 303,023 registered participants from 16 countries; countries as diverse as Bolivia, The Virgin Islands, Israel and Pakistan (Source: Jane Coffey).

During the ReadIn! Students can 'talk' online to children's authors, many of whom are American, but included, this year, one Australian (James Moloney). Every half-hour, throughout a 12-hour period, the author answering questions changes. This year began with David Boyd at 1.00 pm GMT, finished with Joan Irvine at midnight GMT and saw Paula Danziger, Ann M Martin, Bruce Coville and, my student's favourite, R L Stine, amongst others, drop by for a chat.

The event ran via two chat rooms, one in which the students posted their questions, the second, called the auditorium, in which the students read the authors' answers. Once the student has posted a question it goes to a team of moderators who assess the questions then pass the chosen ones on to the authors to answer. The moderators are not intended only to censor inappropriate remarks, but to ensure that a wide range of questions is answered and to send them to the authors at a sensible speed. As there were 700 simultaneous connections at any one time, no author could be expected to cope with that amount!

The organisation of the event is entirely up to the individual school/library. I ran it as the sole supervisor, but my colleagues Mrs Lynn Barrett, Ms Nadia Sweryt and Mrs Diane Anderton were instrumental by staying close at hand and allowing me to forgo usual library duties for the duration of the event.

From 1.00 pm to 3.00 pm I had arranged with the English and Humanities departments that ten out of each of our 6 Year 7 classes should spend 20 minutes at the ReadIn! The children arrived promptly and, after two minutes laying a few ground rules, I let them loose. I constantly patrolled and viewed all questions before allowing them to be submitted. At 3.00 pm school finished, and seven stalwart pupils arrived to keep me company until I closed our end of the event at 6.00 pm. I continued the event until 6.00 pm specifically because R L Stine was online between 5.30 and 6.00 pm and the children would have hung, drawn and quartered me had I not!

I allowed the children to bring in food and drink (although drink had to stay well away from the computers), and even suggested they bring their parents in to join us (only one student did).

By 3.20 pm nine of my students suggested questions had made it into the authors' auditorium, to loud cheers every time. The students were thrilled to see their own question being answered; they were identifiable by the inclusion of our school's name in the question line. I definitely have an enthusiastic group ready to take part next year!

The ReadIn! is run on an entirely voluntary basis, led by Jane Coffey. There is a charitable fund, named the ReadIn! Foundation, through which Jane hopes to raise money to allow the event to grow and expand, because it is a charitable foundation all donations are tax deductible. To help raise funds the author, Marjan Glavac, has volunteered to donate half of all proceeds from his book The Busy Educator's guide to the World Wide Web to the ReadIn! Foundation if the purchasers indicate such when ordering. The ReadIn! also has a bookstore online, which is ongoing throughout the year. Any books purchased through this website will result in 6% of its profit going to the ReadIn!

Students do need monitoring. I managed to supervise alone because we restricted online access to seven terminals only; I will need assistance next year. I also relied heavily on our IT team member Mr John Leach to ensure actual connection.

The volunteer moderators are swift to come down hard on people using the event inappropriately; 18 schools found themselves barred during this year's event, a low total considering the number of participants, I feel. It also gives me confidence in the value of the event, as the moderators ensure the concentration is on books and reading.

Many of the authors were American, and the bias is evident in that many of them are unavailable for purchase in the UK. The ReadIn! website does provide a suggested reading list from all the authors participating every year. I am hopeful next year we may be able to encourage some UK authors to volunteer their services. (Any takers?) I have been invited to become a UK co-ordinator for the event (hopefully one of many as the workload will be large), and would like to arrange to start the event at an earlier GMT to accommodate different time zones.

For further information please contact me at L.Johnson@Dixonscts.org.uk or Jane Coffey at TheReadIn@aol.com.
Lynne Johnson is Assistant Librarian, Dixons City Technology College, Bradford, W. Yorks.