My first response to this, I must admit, is a sense of overwhelmed-ness. How many hats can one writer wear? Must I truly add digital guru to the list? My second response grows out of a post over at I.N.K. (Interesting Nonfiction for Kids blog). Jennifer Armstrong has started a discussion about getting kids outside and, strangely, one of the ways I feel I encourage this is through the "digital" side of my work ... blog entries about research activities (most of which are outdoors), photo galleries of working in the field, etc etc. But I am left with this circular conundrum in which I am using the computer to encourage kids to spend less time on their computers ... Loree Burns www.loreeburns.com

Loree: While I too feel overwhelmed, I also feel excited at what is possible, how we can expand what we do. And I don't see this as binary -- if books and sites stimulate kids, they will go out into the world. If exploring leads to questions, they may consult books and sites.

I am excited about all of the possibilities of the digital world and I'd love to connect with students during the research phase of my writing more, but I also find it a bit overwhelming. It is a different way to think. Instead of thinking of the readers with book in hand, we need to think of them so much earlier and prepare ahead. It's not impossible - it just will take some time to train our braines in that direction. www.nancycastaldo.com

Nancy: We will have the chance to think of our readers not only in terms of what we get down on the page, but how we learn what we learn, and how we shape that information into text and art. I am sure that, at times, that will feel like a burden, and, at others, like an opportunity.