» JK Rowling: Return to Kids’ Lit? » President And Mrs. Obama Host Easter Egg Roll On White House Lawn
WASHINGTON – APRIL 05: British author J.K. Rowling, creator of the Harry Potter fantasy series, points to the place on her forehead where her title character has a scar while reading “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone” during the Easter Egg Roll on the South Lawn of the White House April 5, 2010 in Washington, DC. About 30,000 people are expected to attend attended the 132-year-old tradition of rolling colored eggs down the South Lawn of the White House. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
Mercy Pilkington is a young-adult author and a teacher in a correctional facility. She does not have a single textbook in her classroom. With the top-of-the-line technology at her disposal and the low reading ability of many of her students, there’s no need for standard paper texts. Instead she relies on e-readers, iPads, desktop PCs, Polycom video conferencing equipment for virtual field trips, live streaming for science demonstrations, and text-to-speech read-aloud software to teach English and science. Within the next ten years, public school classrooms across the country are going to look a lot more like Mercy’s classroom because the educational possibilities with these kinds of technologies are limitless. Have a question? Send an email to mercypilkington@yahoo.com
