eBooks in Education: 10 eBook Resources for High School Students

I want to thank Donna for this great piece about eBooks in educational settings. She addresses this to high school students, but really, it is applicable to all students. For more info about Donna and her work see the link below.

If you’ve ever researched ebooks online, you’ve probably found lots of resources and ebook titles for very young children. Playing on these sites is a good way to teach preschoolers and elementary age children about reading and technology, and it gives them a safe, educational space to experiment with the Internet. But older students can also benefit from ebook resources, as they offer an engaging, convenient opportunity for students to explore reading and catch up on homework assignments. Here are 10 ebook resources for high school students.

1. eBooks.com: This website has a great selection of non-fiction books and guides about economics, architecture, art, current events and computers, providing students with supplemental study materials and books that can help them research future careers and college majors.
2. Scribd.com: This website features open source high school textbooks and resources for chemistry, math and physics.
3. Ebookexplorer.com: Here you’ll find books that teach marketing, financial tips, sports and fitness tips, and more.
4. Project Gutenberg: Project Gutenberg shares an extensive online book and reading collection with periodicals, fiction, non-fiction books, biographies, plays, travel books, and more.
5. Mobipocket.com: On Mobipocket.com, teens will find fiction books, including classics, young adult books, mystery, science fiction, humor, short stories, poetry, theatre and more. Mobipocket.com also offers dictionaries, medical books, and other elearning resources.
6. eReader.com: Purchase books from Barnes & Noble’s eReader.com, which markets itself as “the world’s largest eBook store.” There is also a free ebook section with classics by authors like Jane Austen, Victor Hugo, Edith Wharton, Robert Louis Stevenson, and more.
7. TextonPhone.com: This resource lets iPhone users download full-text books to their phone via a Facebook app.
8. Amazon.com Kindle Store: If your child or student has a Kindle, you can purchase or find free Kindle fiction, non-fiction, newspapers, magazines and more at Amazon.com’s Kindle Store.
9. E-library.net: This site has a directory of over 11,000 ebooks and can connect you to the original bookseller site.
10. Microsoft Reader: Download Microsoft Reader for free to find over 60,000 ebooks. Microsoft Reader includes a note-taking feature, text search for each ebook, font features, annotation storage, and more.

This post was contributed by Donna Scott, who writes about the online school. She welcomes your feedback at DonnaScott9929 yahoo.com

2008 Global Student eBook Survey, the Popularity of eTexts and a New Look for eBooks

2008 Global Student eBook Survey

 2008 Global Student Survey on eBooks is a study designed by 150 librarians.  The study explores how students use digital information and eBooks.  The study offers the perspectives of nearly 6,500 college and university students about eBook usage, benefits and needs.

The attitudes and awareness about eBooks is definitely changing.  Most notable for me was the finding that eBooks were in second place (78%) as the most used resource for research/class assignments. In first place was Google and other search engines; print books followed closely at 77%.  Basically Google tops books of any sort.

Students are beginning to see eBook on a parity with print books.  Faculty members, however, do not seem to be as convinces.  Last year the 2007 Global Faculty Survey showed that teachers put eBooks in 6th place on a list of electronic resources they use. 

Maybe this is a case where the students can teach the teachers a thing or two.

eTexts: Why Students like them

And on the subject of eBooks in education.  We should note that In the last year there has been a 400% increase in digital textbook adoption.  Ingram Digital wanted to find out why.  So they did a survey of  680 e-Book Users to find out why.  Key findings:

• 47% of those surveyed believe that "cost in relation to print copies" is very important.
• 46% stated the convenience of e-books is a big attraction
• 45% sited interactive features (45%) as being very important.

Price, convenience and interactivity seem to trump the smell or feel of a book.

A New Look for eBooks

Finally, last week researchers at Maryland and Berkeley Universities announced a new prototype eBook.  One that let's you turn pages just like you can with a print book.

Why anyone thinks this is a good idea absolutely mystifies me!   Evidently there are people who are still clinging to the idea that if you somehow make the digital reading experience more like the paper experience you will get people to eBooks.

Maybe they should refer to the student survey about why eBooks are popular with them:  price, convenience and interactivity.  This design does nothing to enhance any of those stated reasons.

Personally, I would like to see all of that creative energy go into figuring out how to create the $100 eBook reader that reads every format (with or without DRM).  

Or better yet, use that creativity to create real content that people want.  Content with enhanced interactivity at a lower price would be a good start.

del.icio.us Tags: ebooks,e-books,etextbooks,ebook readers,ebook ebooks in education

One Laptop Per Child - Version 1.5

Nicholas Negroponte had a good idea: a cheap laptop for the poor children of the world loaded with software and connected to the Internet.

With this in mind, he (along with a few friends) formed a nonprofit group.  They called it OLPC:  One Laptop Per Child.  The organization's mission statement says:

Any nation's most precious natural resource is its children. We believe the emerging world must leverage this resource by tapping into the children's innate capacities to learn, share, and create on their own. Our answer to that challenge is the XO laptop, a children's machine designed for “learning learning.”

Last December OLPC began shipping first version of the XO laptop. 

Version 1 is an amazingly powerful machine for a hundred dollars.   OK, so it actually ended up costing twice as much as projected ($200) and it looks a little like Kermit.  But it is rugged, Internet connected and has great battery life.  All in all a pretty impressive achievement.

Naturally there critics and detractors.  Those who disparage the machine as too simplistic and not powerful enough.  Those who question Nicholas Negraponte's motives. There are Techies who are scandalized that OLPC decided to go ahead and use Microsoft Windows as an alternative operating system.  And to be fair the first version has had it's share of hardware failures and distribution problems.  But all in all, it is a wonderful idea and an impressive achievement.

Of course any technology you can buy is already obsolete.  So last week at the MIT Media Lab, OLPC announced a new version of the laptop.  Dubbed Version 1.5, it is slated for release in 2010 at the low, low price of $75.00. 

Guess what -- the thing is an eBook!

The idea is pretty interesting.  You take two DVD type player screens, add touch capacity and hinge them together.  The book-like configuration can be easily used to simulate book reading.      

 

 

 

Or you can turn it sideways, bring up a touchable image of a keyboard to use for typing and position the other side as a traditional laptop screen. 

Pretty cool, from my point of view!  Makes me wish I were a kid again (sort of).  I can't think of a better way to get a child to learn or to read a book for that matter.

del.icio.us Tags: OLPC,One Laptop Per Child,Negroponte,eBook

Note:  OLPC (like all non profits) can use your help to make this dream a reality.  Find out how you can participate!

Fat Envelope Frenzy eBook Edition

I grew up in a solidly middle class family.  I honestly did not know that NOT going to college was an option.  On the other hand, it never occurred to me (or my parents) to apply to an Ivy League college -- too expensive and way to Eastern. 

Even so, I have always had this secret fascination with the idea of Harvard or Yale -- kind of like a sociological study in how the other half lives.  Fat Envelope Frenzy gave me a whole new perspective on education in the 21st century and the Ivy League.

Joie Jager-Hyman followed five high school seniors in their quest for admission to Harvard.  These kids are remarkable (and a little intimidating).  All but one of them has achieved more in their short lives than most of us will achieve over the course our fifty years.  And believe it or not, the "under achiever" is something of a relief in this line up of super achievers:

• Felix, the child of Chinese-American doctors who grew up in Philadelphia.  He achieved perfect scores on all seven of his Advanced Placement tests, has toured internationally , and edits and online science magazine.
• Nabil, son of a Memphis gas-station attendant, is a math wiz who takes multivariable calculus at the University of Memphis, just for fun.
• Andrew , a New Orleans native who survived Hurricane Katrina is a tennis-playing class valedictorian and does charitable work at his church.
• Lisa, is an internationally ranked gymnast who is weighing college against the Olympics.  She got a B-plus once -- in Driver's Ed. 
• Marlene, the daughter of impoverished Dominican immigrants.  She is the "underachiever" with excellent test scores but a less than perfect school attendance record.   

Jager-Hyman does a good job of making each one of the characters vibrant and real.  I got very involved in their ups and downs and couldn't help but routing for them. 

She could have been less "academic" about the process -- there were lots of detours through her experience.  She also has lot of ideas and opinions about the admissions process. 

If you are interested in applying to the Ivy League or have a child who wants to apply this is arguably valuable information.  For the rest of us -- just skim over those and follow the storyline.   

The most profound sentence in the whole books is near the end:  "Past experience suggests that the particular college a student attends is far less important than what the student does to develop his or her strengths and talents over the next four years."

This is a great "bedtime book"; you can read a little every night for several weeks and not lose the storyline.

Here is the Harper Collins synopsis:

A former Ivy League admissions officer, Joie Jager-Hyman follows five bright and eager high schoolers—students from diverse ethnic, social, and financial backgrounds—as they each put their best foot forward on the road they hope will lead them to the hallowed halls of Harvard University.

At once a remarkable true story of dedication, achievement, and heartbreak and a guide for success in an ultra-competitive environment, this important work deserves a place in the home of every family that has ever dreamed of receiving that coveted “fat envelope” in the mail. Jager-Hyman also offers a startlingly frank appraisal of the college admission process and the important roles race and class continue to play in a student's efforts to attend the best school possible.

del.icio.us Tags: ebook,e-books,Fat Envelope Frenzy,Ivy League,Harvard,Princeton,Dartmouth,college admissions

eBook News Items of Interest

Adobe Digital Editions Release 1.5

This week Adobe announced that the Beta version of Digital Editions 1.5 is available for download.

This release will fix some of the annoying DRM problems and FINALLY support the Mac Leopard operating system. The Adobe Blog has a long list of features and improvements.

I was very exited when I read about this and rushed over to the Adobe site to find out more. I followed the (broken)link with the intention of downloading and testing it. I'm an old beta tester. I was ready, willing and able. And then I saw the follow notice:

You should be aware that this beta release includes a new version of DRM (Digital Rights Management) protection. If you plan on using Digital Editions for mission critical work, we recommend that, if possible, you continue to use Digital Editions 1.0 until Digital Editions version 1.5 has reached commercial release status (at which time existing Digital Editions users will be automatically prompted to update).

Important: If you have already downloaded Digital Editions 1.0, you must first uninstall the application prior to installing the beta release. Running Digital Editions 1.0 and 1.5 simultaneously will cause issues with accessing and managing your content.

Oh well -- Never Mind!!

Saving Trees

The Standard had an eye catching report about eBooks in education and the Chinese government. It seems that "the government decided to supply 165 million students with an e-reader in order to avoid all the physical costs associated with textbooks."

That should save a couple million trees!

And if that's not enough, here is a way to save a couple million more.

Buy the new scanner from Atiz called the BookSnap aka as the "book ripper". For a mere $1,600 you can purchase a book that will "let users convert physical books into ebooks at a blazing speed of 500 pages per hour. The magic of BookSnap includes unique V-shaped book cradle and V-shaped transparent platen that operate together like a V-shaped sandwich. It is extra easy on your books and ensure you always get scanned results with no page curvature."

Technorati Tags: ebook,ebooks,adobe digital editions,atiz,book snap,ebooks in China

eBooks in Schools

The Stamford Advocate has a great piece about eBooks in schools; specifically about a test program using Sony eBooks at the Bi-Cultural Day School.

Instead of lugging a huge back pack of books these students have one small book loaded with all of the material they need. Sony provided the school with 25 readers. And Pat Seldin, director of technology at the school, says that the school plans to download books for the readers to fit certain grades' curriculums.

Bi-Cultural Day School Headmaster Gerald Kirshenbaum said e-book readers may find a place in the classroom as they appeal to a generation growing up with technology. "We're pushing books, and sometimes we don't always get takers," he said. "This is an exciting, imaginative and enticing piece of equipment that will get to our goal of increasing their love of literature."

This piece makes me very happy! And not just because I sell eBooks. But also as a concerned parent. I watched my kids haul around a bulging backpack. Thier school had taken all the lockers out; evidently as a way to fight drugs. I do wonder about that particular piece of logic, but never mind. The point is that it made my back ache just to see them struggling with that huge, heavy load! Admitedly rolling cases allieviate that problem, but they are cumbersome and inconvenient.

Add this hassle to that the cost of text books and eBooks in the class room look like a natural. Presumably eBook text books will be cheaper than printed books which would be a great benefit!

Not so quick! Text book publishers, professors and college bookstores all have a large vested interest in maintaining the status quo. I suspect that only consumer pressure will ultimately make them grudgingly change over.

Anyone want to start a consumer advocate group?