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Chapter 16
INTRODUCTION
Multicultural literature should be a part of the
regular literacy curriculum. I don’t think tech-
nology needs to be included…it is in everything
else already.
I agree children should not go through school
without being able to see others like themselves
positively portrayed in books used in their classes
but I’m not sure how you can, or even why we
should, use technology to do that.
Mary Ellen Oslick
University of Central Arkansas, USA
Ruth M. Lowery
University of Florida, USA
“Gotta Love Technology!”:
Pre-Service Teachers’ Transformation
in a Blended Online Multicultural
Literature Course
ABSTRACT
As universities move more and more classes online to accommodate a growing online-centered learning
environment, the researchers as instructors want to be sure that they still adhere to good teaching and
learning strategies and that their pre-service teachers not miss out or lose the richness associated with
lively and meaningful book discussions. This article examines how the researchers integrated Glogster,
an online interactive poster creation website with social networking aspects, in a blended (online and
face-to-face) multicultural literature course to augment book discussions. Upon analysis of personal
refections and the class’ online forum discussions, the researchers identifed three major themes that
captured how these pre-service teachers responded to, and, in some cases, were transformed by the
reader-response transaction of creating a “glog.” These themes were responses to new technology,
reading new ideas and critical reading.
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-4666-3974-4.ch016