From PC Magazine, here's a multipart article on the current state of ebooks (from the consumer point of view), along with the latest info regarding the quickly changing face of the eReader market.
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Showing posts with label ebook. Show all posts
Showing posts with label ebook. Show all posts
19.10.10
Ebooks coming on strong - Negroponte
After our presentation in September about eBook formats and devices, I came across this interesting video clip from CNN with Nicholas Negroponte waxing prophetic about the value and place of eBooks.
Will physical books be gone in five years? [CNN]
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7.10.10
Toon Book Reader
Here's another site that features virtual books online:
The Toon Book Reader.
Great for projectors, Smartboards or individual reading. Also comes with a variety of "wordy" activities.
MeeGenius personalized online storybooks
MeeGenius!
Read classic fairytales and children's stories. Each book can be personalized and viewed with auto-audio playback or manual page flipping. Great for SMARTboards.
"MeeGenius is founded on the philosophy that children learn the most when they love what they are doing. As parents, the co-founders of MeeGenius! wanted to create an inviting site that is easily accessible by parents and children.
All our books come with audio playback and word highlighting, and can be personalized just the way you like them. Just answer a few questions, and presto, the book is rewritten for you. So read and personalize your favorite books!"
WeGiveBooks - virtual reader
For those of you who loved Lookybook (no longer active), WeGiveBooks allows teachers and students to view "virtual" picture books online. It is easy to create an account and you can read from a growing number books to your class using a projector or Smartboard.
This site allows you to read picture books online and for every book you choose, they will donate to needy schools. They currently have a new promotion, and are trying to set a reading record.
For more details about the contest, please visit - http://www.wegivebooks.org/newsletter/view/15
The featured book is "The Snowy Day" and the site offers a number of downloadable activities to go with the story.
(See the bottom of the page for activities)
4.10.10
Flexbooks - digital highschool texts
Please share this with your senior Math and Science teachers.
ROWSEfornia Free Digital Textbooks Titles:
- CK-12 Probability and Statistics (Basic)
- Dow12 Probability and Statistics (Advanced)
- CK-12 Calculus
- CK-12 Geometry
- CK-12 Trigonometry
- CK-12 Biology I
- CK-12 Earth Science
- CK-12 Life Science
- CK-12 Chemistry
People's Physics Book
9.6.10
Library of Congress - Digital Kids Books
The LOC has a number of "bookish" resources to explore, including this page with some digitized classics. (Other resources are listed in the left side navigation bar.)
"Turn the pages to explore bygone eras, time-honored tales and historical narratives. Adventure awaits in these classic books online."
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3.6.10
Sites offrants des e-livres gratuits en français
Some books that might be good for senior French students.
Ebooks Libres et Gratuits : www.ebooksgratuits.com
Livres pour tous : www.livrespourtous.com
Projet Gutenberg : www.gutenberg.org/browse/languages/fr
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Digital books - in French
Some book sites to explore: (digital and print)
The article below (in French) has many excellent links and interesting info about the world of digital books in the francophone world.
12.5.10
Inspiring the Best in Students - Book
How to connect with kids beyond the content!
* Inspiring the Best in Students: Read parts online
"Inspiring the Best in Students was born out of my 23 years working with children and adolescents, first as an English teacher, drama director, and coach; next as a staff development specialist; and finally as an education consultant, often invited to work with schools' most challenging students. I entered the classroom in 1986, well prepared to teach English, but not nearly as well prepared to teach kids. My preparation focused more on teaching content than on understanding how to connect with, motivate, and manage adolescents. Most of my education courses were theoretical survey classes, with little exposure to real children until student teaching, which was during my last semester. Needless to say, there was a lot of "on-the-job training."
10.5.10
WeGiveBooks.org - view books online an support global literacy
Through We Give Books, readers can support global literacy and charitable giving by reading an online version of selected texts! Check out all of the award-winning books Penguin and DK have to offer. Each book read by a site visitor will generate a title donated by Penguin and DK to support a number of literacy campaigns. If you sign up as a "member", you can see more than the 3 sample titles on the initial page. (Good for SmartBoards)
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28.4.10
Teaching Writing in a digital world
iWrite by Dana Wilber
Sample:
"The power of Dana Wilber’s insight is in its simplicity. Students are texting, networking, and blogging— i.e., writing and reading— all the time, everywhere, just maybe in places we aren’t necessarily paying attention to. Build on their authentic interest and motivation using the technologies they are already committed to and you’ve won half the battle. You won’t believe how engaged they are; they won’t believe they’re learning for school."
The Digital Writing Workshop by Troy Hicks
Sample:
"Where others have talked about new technologies and how they change writing, Hicks shows you how to use new technologies to enhance the teaching of writing you already do. Chapters are organized around the familiar principles of the writing workshop: student choice, active revision, studying author’s craft, publication beyond the classroom, and assessment of both product and process. In each chapter you’ll learn how to expand and improve your teaching by smartly incorporating new technologies like wikis, blogs, and other forms of multimedia."
22.4.10
The art of game design: a book of lenses By Jesse Schell
I heard an interesting interview with Jesse Schell on the CBC show Spark.
He has written a book called "The Art of Game Design". In it, he lists 100 "lenses" that game designers need to try on in order to be good designers. What struck me, was how many of these lenses can be transposed into the teacher's role as "lesson designer." While they are not all a perfect fit, it's a great metaphor for what teachers do everyday.
Here's the Google books link for a preview. The table of contents lists all the lenses, and you can read his take on many of them from the Google Books preview.
20.4.10
Fostering Independent Writers in the Primary Grades - Preview online
No More I'm Done!
Fostering Independent Writers in the Primary Grades
"No More "I'm Done!" demonstrates how to create a more productive, engaging, and rewarding writer's workshop. Jennifer guides teachers from creating a supportive classroom environment through establishing effective routines; shows teachers how to set up a writer's workshop; and provides an entire year of developmentally appropriate mini-lessons that build confidence and, ultimately, independence. Through her years of teaching and consulting, Jennifer has heard all the tough questions about working with primary writers: How do I get my students to sustain for a full writing period? What do I do about the student who can't choose a topic? What about the student who writes about the same thing every day? She answers these questions and many more in the final chapter of the book."
15.4.10
"Catching Readers Before They Fall" -preview online
Catching Readers Before They Fall:
Supporting Readers Who Struggle, K-4
by Pat Johnson and Katie Keier
"Every teacher of reading plays a vital role in helping to catch those readers for whom learning to read does not come easily. If you have ever been at a loss for what to say and do when confronted with a child who struggles, this book is for you."
9.4.10
Productive Group Work - preview the book online
Productive Group Work: How to Engage Students, Build Teamwork, and Promote Understanding
by Nancy Frey, Douglas Fisher and Sandi Everlove
Please forward this link to interested staff members.
Groups are smart. From the earliest interest in how groups work at the beginning of the 20th century to research today, evidence gathered has shown that "under the right circumstances, groups are remarkably intelligent, and are often smarter than the smartest people in them" (Surowiecki, 2005, p. xiii). We are not suggesting that teachers turn their classrooms over to student collaboration in the absence of instruction, but we are suggesting that productive group work be considered a necessary part of good teaching.
"Pulling Together" - for English Teachers - online preview
Pulling Together: How to Integrate Inquiry, Assessment, and Instruction in Today's English Classroom
Preview the book on-line - share this with interested members of your staff
Complete with diagrams, graphic organizers, classroom examples, assessment tools, and lists of core understandings, Pulling Together presents a comprehensive answer to the current big ideas in teaching—formative assessment, backward design, inquiry learning, strategic teaching, metacognition. The authors show how this collaborative process is reflected in all aspects of the literacy learning, from unit planning and lesson sequences, through the inquiry process and gradual release of responsibility in the classroom, to linking formative and summative assessment for responsive planning.
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31.3.10
Conferring - The Keystone of Reader's Workshop (Read on-line)
Conferring
The Keystone of Reader's Workshop
(Read on-line)
In professional workshops with teachers over the years, Patrick Allen has encountered a list of "counterfeit beliefs" about the process of conferring with readers, including such comments as: "I don't have time, I don't know what questions to ask, It's too hard, I don't know what to write in my notes, I don't even take notes, I don't know how to go deep. . . ." In Conferring: The Keystone of Reader's Workshop, Patrick maintains that the benefits of conferring are worth the effort of learning to do it well. Then he sets out to reveal how teachers can overcome their perceived obstacles and make the somewhat intangible aspect of conferring with readers tangible.
Metaphors & Analogies (Read the entire book on-line)
Metaphors & Analogies
(Read the entire book on-line)
Power Tools for Teaching Any Subject
Metaphors and analogies are more than figurative language suitable only for English classes and standardized test questions. They are “power tools” that can electrify learning in every subject and at all grade levels. Metaphors show students how to make connections between the concrete and the abstract, prior knowledge and unfamiliar concepts, and language and image.
4.3.10
Igniting a Passion for Reading - preview entire book online
Help build a school culture that values the will to read.. In Igniting a Passion for Reading award-winning children's book author Steven Layne provides classroom-based solutions interest inventories, book chats, teacher modeling, reading lounges, and author visits to engage kids in all grades. Preview the entire book online!
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