Cool Use of Web 2.0 and Social Media to Re-Tell Stories

I came across a blog called Stories From the Cloud yesterday. Stories From the Cloud uses social media and Web 2.0 tools to discuss books (young adult books) in their original (usually printed) form and then re-tell them in a new, online, and collaborative way. A lot of people seem to think that books and reading are dying, but as an academic librarian and sometimes public librarian, I can tell you that books and reading are definitely not dying! The formats are changing though. I love to read and I love movies and TV, and when I hear people lament the remake of a book because it doesn't stay true to the original, I like to tell people that I just think of the movie or TV adaptation as just that - an adaptation. I have seen plays where Shakespeare was set in 1940s Austria and Gilbert and Sullivan set in 1920s Hollywood. It's just someone else's (not the author) version of the story. What's really impressive about this web site though are the students' re-tellings through social media and Web 2.0 tools. This website organizes the material in date order, alphabetically by author, AND by the tool the students' used. Many of the tools we've learned about in this program are showcased here. It is a great source of ideas for how you might use these tools in your classroom. To me, what also is exciting about these students' re-tellings is the emphasis these creations place on the higher learning levels of Bloom's taxonomy. Check it out because the student projects are really cool!