Posted July 2007 Online book club has profound effect on students
		Students included rural, remote and special needs students, from Queensland to Tasmania and Vanuatu "The book club provides a place where my thoughts (which I often feel are the real me) are what people see … I don't know if you understand just how rare it is to find a place where you can be judged completely for who you are without the influence of appearance …" (Student, BSDE). "This was one of the first places I have found since Year 4 where I felt accepted, because people didn't see my problems." (Student, BSDE). When Karen Edwards (then Teacher Librarian, Brisbane School of Distance Education) first thought about setting up an online book club, she had no idea of the effect it would have on some students. Ms Edwards' students included rural, remote and special needs students, from Queensland to Tasmania and Vanuatu. "Reading promotion was difficult when students were so widely spread," Ms Edwards said. "The previous system involved sending a series of reviews written by students out to those who were interested."

Ms Edwards thought there must be a better way.

A book club where students were involved in real-time, online chats would not only promote reading: students could also interact, make friends, expand their reading interests and improve their communication skills.

Ms Edwards set up a pilot book club for students aged 14 to 18 years through the Learning Place. "The Learning Place provided me with the platform for the project and the skills to run it," she said. Ms Edwards ran the pilot book club for a term, with weekly online sessions. It was a success. The online book club was advertised to the wider school and new members joined in.

The book club had a profound effect on some students, Ms Edwards said. It gave them, sometimes for the first time, a place where they were not judged for their appearance, or how they sounded. "It ended up being so much more than a book club to them and me – much more than a weekly chin wag about what they were reading."

Ms Edwards has since left BSDE and the book club has closed. "But," Ms Edwards said hopefully, "I did hear rumours that another TL at BSDE was looking at starting it again."