As a student I am so excited about a article written two days ago on Econtentmag.com about Web 2.0 and ebooks in the classroom. Educators are taking notice the opportunity to not only save money from the rising costs of printing new and updated versions of textbooks each year but also the effects of green economics and more and more students looking for alternatives. 

Bookshelf provides free software, allowing users to download, store, and manage etextbooks. With publishers such as McGraw-Hill, Elsevier, and John Wiley & Sons providing textbooks in the VitalBook format, users have the option of downloading directly from a publisher’s website or through VitalSource.

Just to give an example of the uses increase, last years NFP Read an eBook Week saw and catered to a small group of 1200 readers, however this year the group heard from and saw participation from some 30k users. 

 Jason Overby from the College of Charleston explains, new features are making the books more useful. “I’ve known about electronic books for quite a while, but I’ve never been a fan of what was available up until this point,” 

The new options for not only download of textbooks, but to take notes and transfer chapters to mobile devices such as iPhone and Blackberry a student does not have to drag with him 5 textbooks, a laptop, and notebooks; the new student be more efficient and learn in a language that not only speaks his, but also is more likely to be read and studied. Since users are more comfortable with downloading content (thanks iTunes) it is now user friendly so use ebooks and etexts. 

Like I said before, as a student this is a simple sell for me. 

 

what do you think?

In a longitudual study done by the Children’s Hospital of Boston and Harvard Medical School, that concludes

“TV viewing before the age of 2 does not improve a child’s language and visual motor skills.”

The study done on children birth to age 3, published in the March issue of Pediatrics, didn’t measure any detrimental affects of television viewing. But the researchers say there are other indications that children younger than 2 should not watch television, which is the stance of the American Academy of Pediatrics as well.

“Contrary to marketing claims and some parents’ perception that television viewing is beneficial to children’s brain development, no evidence of such benefit was found,” Marie Evans Schmidt, Ph.D., lead author of the study, said in a statement.

BUT…programs like “Sesame Street,” “Between the Lions,” and “WordWorld,”  all provided by PBSKids, have been shown to boost some of the pre-skills necessary for learning to read. There are even some efforts under way to help parents, child caregivers, and teachers of young children to use educational programming more formally. These programs also provide online support to enoucourage and enagage children into reading and words/languge skills. 

Also, Tennessee Public Television is launching a program for children 3-8 that will enhance reading and the way kids learn to read. The program called “Raising Readers” is partnering with 20 PBS stations to bring reading to the fore front on education. Catching children early to start the fundamentals of reading and build the foundation through programs they watch everyday. 

I know that my 5 year reads along with “Between The Lions” and “Word World” I too love playing the games online with him!

What do you see as the pros and cons of promoting educational television as a learning tool?

Alexis Marcionette, 5th grade student from Florida, has signed a deal with K-8 online learning company BigIQkids.com to release her first book “”UGH…You Again!” in eBook format complete with interactive graphics, “click to hear” word functionality and built in reading comprehension and vocabulary quizzes.

This is fantastic. Kids are not only reading online they are writing! This shows those stuffy old adults that reading from a worksheet and then answering question in short answer is not learning. Kids who take things outside the box, are learning. They are taking what they take in and out putting it into a format they see. If you did not catch that allow me to rephrase. Billy, a 5 year old in kindergarten hears a story about a knight and a castle; he then goes home and tells his mother what story they read today in class. She gives him a piece of paper and a crayon and he draw the images he heard about. Then he makes a story to go with those pictures. He took that information in and relayed it into something tangible that he can now share with others. He learned. In opposition, Susie who is 7 read a short story in class today about a man who discovered a technique for pasteurization. Susie was asked to then write 5 sentences about the story of Louis Pasture. She wrote 5 basic sentences and handed her appear in. When she got home she was asked about her day and what she did. She relayed the information of “some guy who made milk safe.” Because she was forced to regurgitate the information her imagination was blocked. 

This proves that information must be free when teaching children to learn. Not just read but learn. Miss Marcionette took advantage of speaking out in a an area she felt comfortable to explore and therefore share what she is learning. 

Giving children the book is not as important as giving them the knowledge to interpret and share the information inside it.

In 1895 Charles Post began adding gadgets, pamphlets and gizmo’s to “entice” buyers to purchase his cereal. His “add-ins” would promise that Grape Nuts could cure appendicitis, make your blood redder and raise your IQ. By 1903 Post was getting $1 million in sales. Why? Because people want to get more for their money. They want to think that the money they spending is getting them more than cardboard, oats and grain. With the addition of Post’s “incentives” people felt better about spending the money they did not have on the this new idea cereal because they were getting a cure or an advantage, or something they could use after the product was gone.

Today, in 2009, we want the same thing. But who of us would buy a cereal that promised a cure for appendicitis or would raise our IQ; probably not most of us. We still want our money to go further and in this economic hardship if we can do that it’s exceptional.

The same idea is still used and is accepted in most things. However, the Publisher that’s responsible for the Harry Potter series is getting slack for selling the books as well as Harry Potter book toys through Scholastic Book Club, the club that is sold through your child classrooms. They argue that they are bribing kids to read. Scholastic’s Judy Newman says ”We’re losing kids’ interest [in reading]. We have to keep them engaged,” when speaking about selling items other than books to kids.  

The idea behind the argument is kids are being desensitized to the world around them. Books are not just enough, they need to come with a toy, games, kit, doll, etc. If you have not noticed it before everything marketed to kids comes with something or has a cartoon, tv show or doll right along with it. Even kids toilet paper has a cartoon friend to remind them when enough is enough.

So is enough enough? Do we really need to give a “prize” to out kids to get them to do what they need to do to succeed? eBooks are all book. They have animation and sounds, but a doll doesn’t come with the finishing of the story. There is a sense of satisfaction that comes from finish the book, then reading the book without the sound. The child is challenged and entertained while doing something that will encourage them to read again.

If you have or know a child with ADHD reading to them or asking them to read is at the best, frustrating; not only for you  but for them. Kids with the struggle often are very smart, but in school they are not given the tools to become great readers. After doing some research on ADD through various websites (my favorite - ADDitude) I have gotten some very useful information on how to help encourage a child instead of avoid the struggle.

Great Tips:

Engage the imagination.

While your child reads or listens, encourage her to visualize the events in the story, creating a picture or movie in her mind. After a few pages, ask her to describe it.

Use sounds, voices and actions to illustrate what is going on. Make is a adventure. Since some kids with ADD can focus on TV or music, play it a puppet show or play, add songs. Ask them to act it act, make up the soundtrack or draw the images while you read.

Increase word power

The stronger your child’s vocabulary, the better his comprehension—and the less frequently he’ll put down a book to ask about a word.

If you know that a passage contains unfamiliar words, define them—or have him look them up in a dictionary—before he begins to read. Give them a little word dictionary to look up the words and then take notes on them so they are familiar next time.

Try the magazine rack

An entire book may be daunting to the child who can’t stay focused. A children’s magazine may be a less intimidating alternative. If your child likes stories, try Spider (ages 6-9) or Cricket (ages 9-14); if she likes science, pick up Ranger Rick(ages 7 and up) or Kids Discover (ages 6 and up). [For more information, visit CricketMag.com, NWF.org, andKidsDiscover.com.] Ask her teacher whether your child can read a few magazines to meet the monthly reading goal.

Use Audio books

You can get great books on tape from the library. Make it a speacial time when your child can get cozy, put in the tape and have some “me” time. Maybe buy them some special headphones that are just for reading time or a blanket that they make with pictures on it. Make it all about them and the book in their hands. Take the focus away from the challenge with sound, atmosphere and relaxation.

The great thing about children with this particular challenge, as much as it is a challenge for us as parents, educators, friends or leaders is that it is twice or more of a challenge for them. Not only to be understood but to be accepted and receive the right tools to iron out the wiggles and giggles and focus on the task they are given.

Some other ADD favorites:

Sizzle Bop

ADD

Carol Hurst

You can read the full article  ADDitude by Leane Somers.

I had the chance to talk with some really diverse and great teachers, moms, and directors this weekend and here part one of the what they are saying about online learning for kids.

First Jamie Miles a  Kindergarten Teacher of 3 years at a private school in Oklahoma City said:

NIL: What do you think about ebooks for enhancing kids learning:

Jamie: I personally have never used ebooks, We don’t use books as a center in my classroom. Usually centers are a learning game, puzzles, art…etc.Each child reads with me during centers but it is not a center activity. Our kids go to Computer Lab twice a week and usually do some sort of reading in that class

NIL: Do you think that kids can learn using technology if it is not a replacement for traditional reading?

Jamie: of course, technology is a great tool

NIL: in most classes do children have access to computers at home, and do you see that parents encourage kids to learn how to use them?

Jamie: well it depends on the school. In my school I would say most kids have access to a comp at home. But some schools especially poor districts will have kids that can’t afford it at home. As far as the kids is my class I know for a fact their parents encourage learning on a computer

I believe that online books and the option to read online is such a growing and maybe a little awesome opportunity to teach kids and get them involved in technology. The main problem is getting the tools in the schools and in the homes of those students that are missing this opportunity. All children need to have access to this tool if they have the hope of competing in the world to come.

Tomorrow Director extraordinaire!

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?