Motivating Students to Read and Write through Computer Technology. The Carrot and the Stick?

Business Information Consultant guits his job to promote reading, writing and computer publishing for children using a new technology, web conferencing.

San Francisco, CA (PRWEB) March 30, 2005 -- Wheres the fun? K to 12 students around the world would hardly call reading and writing fun. Why read when they can have super, interactive video game experiences or kick back and watch hours of movies on TV? To advance the competitive skills of students in our worlds new computer/information age, it is important for parents and educators to somehow lure and incite students to read and write. How? Computer Graphics?

In 1991, Bill Dallas Lewis quit his lucrative, business information consulting position to promote the fun of reading and writing with elementary school students. After researching the childrens, writers market, Mr. Lewis launched, Silly Billys World (http://www.sillybilly.com)," and began writing and illustrating adventure stories with a hidden theme through each adventure. That theme was, Through reading, anyone can do anything."

Mr. Lewis began illustrating his images using computer graphics programs. Using Deluxe Paint II Enhanced (created by the Electronics Arts Company, now better known as EA Sports) he created images that looked very much like Nintendo games. Students loved the pictures. Most teachers or librarians, never having played Nintendo, didnt understand the excitement.

Suddenly, principals and parent groups started inviting Mr. Lewis to lug his computer equipment into their schools to show their students how he used computer software to get his message across in print and on the internet. Between 1991 and the year 2001, Mr. Lewis was invited to present in more than 600 schools between California and Turkey. The United States Air Force had him create a summer computer camp for nine Air Force locations in the UK, Italy, Germany and Turkey. He found that kids ages 4 to 18, loved to create using computer graphics applications.

In an interview from March 27th, 2005, we asked Mr. Lewis what he discovered having worked first hand with more than 500,000 kids.

He stated, One day I would be in a school in Richmond, Virginia where all of the students were paying more than $12,000 a year in tuition. The next day, Id be in a public school in rural Nebraska where 90% of the kids where on the free lunch program. In some of these economically challenged schools, children would be wearing the same clothes, unwashed, all week. The funny thing was that if you could get the kids in either school to brainstorm a story, write it out and then storyboard how they would display their computer illustrations with their story, then most students would spend hours writing if you would reward them with the opportunity to express themselves using computer graphics and basic animation programs. Its like the carrot and the stick."

Kids arent stupid!" Mr. Lewis added. When they do a story and then the teacher wants them to publish it using construction paper and crayons, the students know that their creation is not going to show up on a shelf at Borders Book Store. When they use computer graphics and presentation applications, any student can create an impressive presentation that would impress most boardrooms, but more importantly, impress their classroom peers. When students know that the reading and writing they are doing is headed towards a fun, computer graphics ending, then they will do about anything to get the reading and writing done so that they can get in front of the computer to create."

Mr. Lewis left the road of presentations in schools in the year 2001. Wanting to enhance his graphic skills, he moved to Silicon Valley to teach adults from major corporations computer graphics, animation and web development. We asked him, How does teaching adults help you learn computer graphic skills."

Mr. Lewis told us, When you are teaching Flash to 20 adults from companies like Wells Fargo, The Gap, Levi, Old Navy or CitiGroup, and you are in a room with these people for 8 hours a day, for four or more days, then you really have to know your applications. Its like playing a gig at the Apollo in Harlem. If you dont know your stuff, they throw you out. You spend half your time studying, and the other half teaching. This experience has taken my skills to a new level."

He has targeted the 2005 school year to go back on the road sharing what he has learned with k to 12 students once again. This time, he has a new twist.

I want to visit as many schools a possible," Mr. Lewis told us. But the world is a big place. Many schools cant afford to fly me in and pay a fee for presentations. Thats where web conferencing comes in."

We were familiar with video conferencing, but we had not run into the term, web conferencing" before. We asked Mr. Lewis to explain the difference between the two.

Mr. Lewis told us, Video conferencing is like the Jetsons. They can see you, you can see them. Its live. Its interactive. Though some school systems have this technology, its rare and expensive. The worst problem is that in the systems that do have the technology, most teachers are too busy to learn how it can work for them."

He added, With web conferencing, all a school needs is a high speed internet connection and Internet Explorer. Almost every school has those two components and 99 percent of teachers understand those technologies. With web conferencing, the school and I sign on at the same time. The school can see me as well as the desktop of my computer. Once we are signed on, I can take them through Flash or PowerPoint presentations that explain the writing process. Then, I can launch advanced applications like PhotoShop, DreamWeaver or Flash, and show them first hand how to manipulate images or create animations. The school just plugs their computer into a video projector and all of the students can see everything just fine. For audio we communicate via a speaker phone. Its great and affordable to any school."

In preparation for the 2005 school year, Mr. Lewis has used the new technology to make presentations in Texas, North Carolina, Virginia, Florida and even Bangladesh. Our interviews with teachers from those schools have been extremely favorable.

My goal in life is to make the world a better place," Mr. Lewis told us. He added, Ive found that the more I read, the more fun I have in life. Ive found that writing is a skill needed in almost every endeavor. Using affordable computer technology, one can create for print, multimedia, web, video or audio publications. If I can share these skills with children, I feel as though Im getting closer to my goal."

Author/Computer Illustrator, Bill Dallas Lewis brings a refreshing, motivational perspective to reading writing and technology. To learn more about his web conferencing programs, visit his web site at http://www.sillybilly.com.

Frada Merritt
Contributor
Merritt Consulting
650-346-5553
Belmont, Ca

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