Big things this week in the world of eBooks!

1. It’s Read an eBook Week!

This is a great opportunity to go check out that eBook idea you have been hearing about but not sure what to do with. eBooks are being used all over through readers like Kindle, Sony and even your iPhone. You can take your favorite novel or favorite magazine with you anywhere. 

2. Thinking of saving money?

College students listen up… etextbooks are available and they are for the most part, CHEAPER. Its cheaper to download and etext, then spend the money for the hard copy. Most retailers are providing the alternative and advertising the alternative. These days everyone is counting pennies and with rising cost of education with the lowering amounts of funds, saving big bucks when buying those required  textbooks is a BIG bonus!

3.  Retailers are getting the eBook bug!

Big time retailers are taking notice to the ebooks. Big time book seller Barnes and Noble release a staements saying that they plan to offer ebooks in the coming year. This is huge! The fact the retailers are taking notice to their customers that are wanting the option to purchase ebooks. I know that I love to grab a book the second the mood strikes, when a new book comes from a favorite author I want it now. I don’t wait for it to show up in my mailbox, by then I have lost the desire to read it. Read the full release at TG Daily

4.  Kids dig ebooks!

Ok moms, grandmas, caregivers and au pairs listen up. Need a afternoon activity to help get those kids through the day? Go with them online to read. Reading online is more than putting words in front kids, it is engaging them into a world that changes their perspective on what reading is. Reading is more than words, it is the story that takes a child into his imagination and tell him or her it’s ok believe in something else beside reality. Reading takes a child to a place where they be anything. Allowing kids to read online lets them be in charge of the story and the outcome. It gives control, and what child does not what that. Reading together with a child gives them security and a memory they can hold onto. 

eBook Week is March 8 ~ 14 download some great reads!

If you have been to college or university or know someone who has you understand that buying a textbook for $100+ dollars, using half the book and selling it back for $7 is not the best investment. College students spent a whopping $5.543 Billion (NACS.com) on course required materials. What? That is madness; good for the presses but bad for students. In action against this model, students have founded site that download textbooks in the same way as music file sharing is done. I hear you asking, illegal, yes. Publishers are catching on to this new trend and with a vengance seeking a way to stop it fast. I mean, they have to eat too. 

The students that support these textbook download sites are arguing that given the opportunity to downlaod legal copies of the books without paying insane prices they would. It is faster, more convient and allows books to be taken anywhere a laptop/MP3/4 divice could. 

Is there really a market for this? You betcha. Sales on college campus bookstores are down 14% (The Chronicle of Higher Education) and downloads are up with student speaking out about it.

The growing market for ebooks, whether online or downloaded,  opens up so much possibility for those who they were written to educate. If college students had that option, with legal and open parameters to use this form of technology they would and they would actually open the book to read it.

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.