E*LIT 2009 represented the sixth and final installment of this event, with Andrea Davis Pinkney presenting as our featured author to a crowd of almost 500 local school children. We are very pleased with the era of E*LIT.

Enriching Literacy through Information Technology (E*LIT) was a project intended to help children (K-12) in Central New York understand the synergy between technology and literacy. This event was highly successful in motivating children to read, to work collaboratively, and to use technology in productive ways. With the collaboration of their librarians, classroom, and special teachers, groups of students develop technology-based projects related to a specified author's life and/or work. Each author we select has devoted his/her work to showcasing the perspective of an underserved population.

The students submitted their technology projects electronically to our panel of judges (made up of local public and school librarians, teachers, and graduate students) who selected the top projects, based on a rubric. CDL brought the winning groups to campus where they attended a presentation by the author and received prizes (technologies and books by the author) for their school libraries, after which they had lunch and a book signing with the author. The top winner(s) presented their winning projects to everyone during the event.

Every school that entered the competition received an book autographed by the author for their library.  The E*LIT project was organized and managed entirely by S.U. graduate students and held in May on the Syracuse University campus.

To read an article in the SOS Educators' Spotlight Digest by Marilyn Arnone and 2009 E*LIT coordinator Jennifer Sullivan, click here.

Past Featured Projects and Authors

2009 E*LIT Author | Andrea Davis Pinkney

2008 E*LIT Author | Uma Krishnaswami

2007 E*LIT Author | Myron Uhlberg

2006 E*LIT Author | Joanne Shenandoah

2005 E*LIT Author | Joe Cepeda

2004 E*LIT Author | Charles Smith Jr.