Share digital hero books
The Digital Hero Book Project began with a pilot project (August 2006 - September 2007) that involved getting learners in grades 6 and 7 in IT-enabled schools in Cape Town, San Francisco (USA), and Nyeri (Khenya) to create digital hero books and put them on a secure website called iEARN. iEARN is a global network that enables teachers and young people to use technology to collaborate on projects that both enhance learning and make a difference in the world. The interaction mostly happens through discussion forums. Only the learners and their teachers have access to the password-protected website, so that the learners can safely and securely share their stories and connect with other heroes from around the world, affirming one another by recognizing their common challenges and exploring ways to overcome them.
If your learners would like to share their digital hero stories, there are 2 options:
- Private: Participate in the iEARN forum with other schools or youth groups. Your learners will post their stories online and discuss issues with other young heroes, none of which will be visible to the public. By exchanging positive youth stories created in digital format, in a safe online environment, the youth heroes participating in the project will meet new and far away friends and learn new skills. (See more iEARN resources below.)
- Public: Display stories on the Digital Hero Book website, e.g. Cafton's story. Here the stories will simply be displayed to share and inspire others. Comments from the public are allowed (although these are first moderated).
For both options, send an email to info@digitalheronbook.org. The project is open to anyone who would like to join, upload their stories and possibly meet other heroes online.
Safety note: Remember that the decision to make a digital hero book does not necessarily mean that the author wants to publish the hero book, digitally or otherwise. When and if a paper hero book author decides to publish a non-confidential version of their hero book, they have the opportunity to change identifying information and they can put their story on the password-protected website for other digital heroes, or they can publish it on the digital hero book website that is open to the public where anyone in the world will be able to see their story! Some stories are meant to be shared so that they can help and inspire others; these are the kinds of stories that are published openly on the web.
Your learners should consider releasing their own stories under a CC licence (expplained in Images), which means that anyone else can use their work in their own stories, or even remix the original work into newer versions. This toolkit is free and open, released under a CC licence -- see the footer of this page.
To add a licence to your content is easy. Go to the CC website and step through the wizard.
iEARN resources
Below are resources to help you make the most out of iEARN's global network and online forums:- The iEARN Handbook (PDF, 900K) outlines some of the steps to getting started in online collaborative project work, and illustrates a variety of ways of integrating iEARN into your classroom.
- Tutorials
for using the iEARN web forums - The 7 Habits of Highly Effective iEARN Project Facilitators by Farah Kamal (iEARN Pakistan) and Diane Midness (iEARN USA) (PDF, 375K)
When actually participating in the iEARN Digital Hero Book forum:
- Getting Started with iEARN (PDF, 100K)
- Netiquette (internet netiquette) (PDF, 60K)
