The numbers are in, and it looks like the North Pole may need to kidnap Bill Gates or Steve Jobs to keep up with the demand for electronic gadgets. I think one of the reasons i pods and e-books make such great gifts is because they can serve such a diverse range of interests. You can listen to Frank Sinatra or Frank Zappa, and on the same device. You can read John Updike or J.K Rowling. In a way, it’s the gift of choice.

The UK’s John Lewis, a bellwether for the retail industry, reported that their fastest selling item this Christmas season was the Apple iPod Nano. Trailing closely behind were penguin torches, digital cameras, eframes, satellite navigation systems, DVD players and e books.

Also, Random House is adding 7,000 additional e books to its range because the kindle reader has helped improve sales. Matt Shatz, Random House’s vice president for digital operations, says e book sales have increased by triple digit percentages in 2008.

All I know, is that I would love to see a crowd of kids as giddy over the latest e book as over the latest i phone.

Could technology make literature more accessible, more in demand, and most importantly,

cooler?

Forward thinking teachers are beginning to integrate technology into their lesson plans. They understand that more resources equal more ways of reaching their students and keeping them interested. The old days of spending an hour out of a week practicing typing on ancient, feeble Macs are long gone. These days, teachers use power points, online grade books, DVDs, and most recently, e books. This new, inventive curriculum utilizes technology not only for technology’s sake but for the sake of enhancing all things learned: dinosaurs, fractions, and even, working together.

Teachers have witnessed two specific and unique ways in which e books have come to the rescue. Since the human mind processes information quicker when it is in the form of a story, e books have proved particularly efficient in teaching a second language. Imagine the improvement over simple vocabulary lists. It is not a matter of memorizing, but truly learning and absorbing. Secondly, e books are deeply advantageous in personalizing lesson plans and organizing group work.  Each student’s computer can be programmed to offer a different level of difficulty or accommodation.   In a group, an e book can function as an adhesive with which to hold the work together.

I know I know, that’s three, and there’s even more, some discovered, some still waiting, unhatched, in the minds of creative teachers and schools. I can’t wait to see all the other ways e-books will pop up as teacher’s pet and student’s aid.

In the meantime, check out this blog entry from TeleRead to hear one teacher’s experiences with e books in the classroom.

One of the most exciting things to observe is all the possible niches we can find for new technology; how someone’s great idea can be integrated into so many different lives. A blog can unite house wives, professionals, and dog lovers. A site like e-bay can bring together collectors, gift hunters, and those with crowded garages. And as for e books, they’re just beginning. We know they’re great for children and travelers and waiting rooms, but one hotel in New York City is taking the dream even further.

The Algonquin Hotel, long known and justly proud for its clientele of famous writers such as William Faulkner and Gertrude Stein, is extending its literary roots. In September 2008 (coinciding with National Literacy Month), the hotel launched a digital book service, offering free loans of Amazon’s Kindle, pre-loaded with requests and classics. It is a captivating combination of literacy and convenience, offering travelers a getaway within a getaway. We can only hope that more hotels will take the hint and offer a copy of Moby Dick along with a pillow mint.

The internet is not a fad. The web is here to stay. Online shopping, blogs, email, all these features and more will become a greater part of our lives as they evolve and innovate into a plethora of sophisticated forms. As any medium, they are malleable to the touch. We can utilize them to grow and connect or we can deny and abuse them to self destructive degrees of confusion. One thing is certain, the next generation will know them even more intimately than we do. They will take for granted what astounded us. One face of this wave of change is seen in the new trend of e books.

Aware of this phenomenon, major publishers have jumped on board, transferring the classics onto e books. Accessibility. Currently, e-books are a 35 billion dollar industry, a product of demand, adaptation, and good reason. They may not be as glamorously futuristic as the vision of flying cars, but they do harbor an incredible sense of potential and possibility. A book is a beautiful thing and always will be, neither diminished nor intimidated by the coming mediums. Scholastic’s chief academic officer, Francie Alexander, wisely notes, “We’re so lucky to live in an era when kids can have books in multiple formats. Each format offers something that the other doesn’t.”

Specifically, an e book can offer features, options, and conveniences that accommodate, comfort, and enrich its audience. In addition, an e book can be very interactive; it can be programmed to read aloud or end with a spelling quiz, engaging a book shy child with questions and sounds. For a child, an e book can not only make technology familiar but information, instant.

Children have been reading through Scholastic for over 87 years. They give opportnites for learning by working with schools, teachers and classrooms to bring books into the hands of children. In addition to their in classroom marketing they are now offering online e-books, that work along side of BookFlix. This new resource pairs a fictional video storybook with a non-fiction ebook, to teach and entertain at the same time. With options to read along and cross refrence the non-fiction e-book. 

This new media is booming, the e-book industry is a “35 billion dollar” (cbc.ca) machine. Until recently childrens e-books have not been the majority of the market, it was advertized to adults and college students for a less expensive text choice. However, marketing to children through electronic media is becoming a unsurprising use of resources. With the majority of toys, games and televison shows having a onine counterpart the option for online learning though classic and neo-classic books is not an unwelcome resource.

Suzanne Murphy with Scholastic says:

‘I’d be hard pressed to say there won’t be a time when bedtime reading is with an electronic device.’

Some might be turned away by this fact, and argue that reading to children is one of the most memorable and rewarding parent/child experiences. I agree. I am not trying to say that e-books should replace those moments all togeather, but give another way to experience learning. Just as one uses online resoreces to learn and educate. E-books are another fomat that can inhance reading, learning and bring something different to the way a child recieves the information. 

“We’re so lucky to live in an era when kids can have books in multiple formats. Each format offers something that the other doesn’t,” said Francie Alexander, Scholastic’s chief academic officer.

In a recent article written by John Biggs, a contributor to CrunchGear.com he says:

We won’t need any more “things” in the basest sense as long as the media we consume is compatible with the things we have. By buying digital, we will point to what formats we want to use. 

He has a point. We consume things, collect things, give things; all in the name of gaining more things. The same things to which we consume (gadgets, phones, game consoles, etc.) can be reloaded, so-to-speak with the things to which we bought them for. For instance, giving this holiday season can be maximized by gifting digital formats to be downloaded to the hardware we already own.

John Biggs goes on to say that:

How should you give digitally? Head over to the Amazon MP3 store and gift an album. Buy someone with an XBox a 1-year 1 DVD/streaming only subscription to Netflix (I know it’s cheating, but tell them not to get the DVD).Buy someone some cool ebooks and some software to read it on their phone.

I am facinated by the fact that when I buy a gift not only does the price of the gift factor in but the wrapping, postage, and card; they cost as well. One of the perks of digital giving, card comes with it no wrapping or shipping. Not only is this cool, it contributes to the “green” movement. 

The fact is we, people, kids, grandmas, teachers; are all telling the industry what to keep, toss and recreate. Conservation does not have to mean skimp on giving, it’s mearly giving the right thing. We can still give music, books, DVD’s; just in a more conscious way. We need to tell the market that digital downloads are user friendly, more convenient, and better for the wants and needs of the public. 

Top 5 Digital Gifts:

1. Credit to Wizz-e, allowing your child/family member/friend to enjoy the great selection we provide online.
2. iTunes gift card, can be sent via. email.
3. Wii, Xbox, PS3 gift card to download games 
4. Amazon allows you to download a great deal of various gifts. Video on Demand can be gifted through emailed gift cards. Video on Demand can be played on your PC/MAC or Portable device like TiVo.
5. eGifts has 100+ stores you can purchase egift cards. 

In 2008 many things became historic, new ideas and new ways communicating have connected not only the world, but the world of technology. No longer is about which company can out-design, but which company can be more social; supplying instant gratification though the use of smart-phones, email, downloads and compact quality products.

Social networking/marketing genius Twitter, gives instant updates from those experiencing something first hand, allowing links to pictures and video. During the Mumbai attacks, Twitter users brought updates from inside and around the chaos. Turning on CNN is great but, if I can get instant updates from various locations from different points of view, that is priceless.

The use of eBooks is growing and more in demand. The fact that I can download my favorite book, or better yet my children’s favorite book to my iPhone is fantastic. Long drives, flights or waiting rooms become less stressful and gives them more exposure to reading.

Don’t get me wrong, sitting with a warm blanket and a great cup of coffee on a Sunday afternoon curled up reading is wonderful; however, you can’t do that waiting for the dentist.

In the Technology review published by the Telegraph, UK eBooks are among one of the fastest growing gadgets of 2008:

Much as the music industry is slowly getting to grips with digital, so too is the publishing industry. This year saw ebook readers move from geek to mainstream. Amazon launched the Kindle in the US, while in the UK, Waterstones started to sell Sony’s Reader. Other mobile devices, too, embraced the medium, with several apps available for the iPhone that turn the handset into an ebook reader, and even Nintendo announcing that DS users would soon be able to read classics published by HarperCollins on its device. In truth, though, sales of ebooks and ebook readers remain dwarfed by those of old-fashioned “proper” books, but 2008 has arguably seen some much-needed momentum build behind the ebook format.

The industry is booming with opportunity. It is the storefront for many ideas to transpire in the near future. The idea of a magazine being updated online with the latest information, being able to update version of a book without having to buy and new one (all university students will appreciate this one), knowing you are getting the most recent knowledge in what you are reading. Newspapers have the opportunity to do less print more electronic, saves money builds more followers.

This will make your mind explode! [in a good way]

I did not know.

Reading is not just about the story being told. Reading incorporates imagination, focusing skills, interpretation, and reasoning. Literacy starts at birth, and with a head start of vocabulary and language skills the transition into pre-school and kindergarten is easier with a strong foundation for learning. 

Some Thoughts:

1.  eBooks are interactive. They capture the attention of children, by means of sight and sound. They are able to participate in the flow of the story. Turning the pages by clicking the mouse. Hearing the words and sounds of the chimes, clicks and knowing that they made those things happen. They are in control of the story and where it goes.

2. Access is easier. I know that when my 5 year old wants to read a story and it has been returned to the library, it is war until we get it back. The ability to ask your child what they want to read about, then be able to log on and get it, fantastic. 

3.  Maintaining motivation to read. There is a big difference between being able to read and enjoying reading. The idea that reading is enjoyable is set at an early age. If it is a pleasurable experience, such as time alone with mom or dad, or a time in which the child has all the attention it is remembered as a happy time. Later when reading is required, those memories are instilled that reading is enjoyable. Even though the child is grown, it still is a happy memory and therefore an activity they are more apt to engage in.  

4.  eBooks are updated more often, and they come with more features than a print book. Such as, an online version may have bonus material, as well as different endings possible. You may pay a different price for the two but you get more than the traditional print. 

5. Portability. The ability to download a book to a laptop and carry that file with you, gives you the possibility to use it while traveling, or long bouts of downtime where the use of toys or other means of distraction are not available. If you have ever had to entertain a young child while experiencing a layover, you know what value a eBook would bring. Even if you are trying to get some work done, it is a easy way to keep track of book for easy access when you take a work break and spend some time with your child. 

6.  Going Green.  We are facing a more conscious environmental state. The use of green products are becoming more and more accessible and user friendly. The cost to print and maintain paper resources is coming at a higher price as the economy is changing. It’s becoming fashionable to be “green.” The nation is taking notice that we have options to stop doing the kind of damage on the environment we have been. 

7.  The technology will get better. Advances in technology will bring more options as well as more information to be utilized. Children now are preparing for the jobs of tomorrow. Technology will be such a big part of their world, it will be their first instinct to Google before Encarta. I mean, my 8 year old has friends with iPhones and Blackberry’s. Amazing. 

8. Device. With Wizz-E there is not a need for another device. You just use your PC/Mac. You don’t have to buy another device to use the eBooks. You can browse using your iPhone then download to your PC, and there they remain. 

9.  eBooks are not a replacement for reading to your children. They are a way to enhance the learning and attention of children to get them involved in not only books, but computer use and technology. 

10.  The possibilities are, as they say, endless. You can browse so many interesting topics, search international books, and use hyperlinks to read about something and then go see the pictures, or watch a video. The use of college textbooks online would be great. The ability to read the text online, discuss with others, get insights from other professors using the same text. The learning that would come from a community of readers would be priceless. It opens up a whole world of learning, and seeing the world from outside the bindings of a book. You can teach a child to read, but teach a child to learn and they will always have the confidence to teach others.

Check out some great books online at Wizz-E and be watching for updates here.

Great things are being written and available to discover. 

Education is defined as: The process of giving or receiving systematic information. 
Now, I don’t know about you but that tells me nothing about learning. Learning is more than being able to babble off useless facts or being able to regurgitate them for testing. When your learn something it becomes a behavior, a part of your understanding.

A baby, for instance does not become educated on how to sit up, or crawl; they learn to do these things. The same with a 3rd grader who is forced to write multiplication tables repeatedly, in which case he only learns how to get them done.

The new age of education is by far the most interesting and available to all children and adults. We have more colleges online than ever before, high school is online, even the academic side of getting an RN can be done online. Professors and universities are using online black boards to get student updates and post information.

Smart-phones, like the iPhone have applications for all ages to help you learn; areas of vocabulary to medical academics. The use of technology is growing, changing and infiltrating the classroom. My third grader uses my iPhone to work on his math skills, and my 5 year old can play the games and draw.

Major differences are in place from 10 years ago, grandparents are raising their grandchildren, 95% of all american children from the age of 5-17 have a computer in their room (this replaced their tv). Education is becoming electronic, and some of the coolest things are becoming more and more available to those who would not have the resources to learn about them before.

Learning is transforming, and it is bringing with it some really clever tools!