New Study on Reading in the Digital Age: Parents Say Electronic, Digital Devices Negatively Affects Kids' Reading Time | Scholastic Media Room

New Study on Reading in the Digital Age: Parents Say Electronic, Digital Devices Negatively Affects Kids' Reading Time | Scholastic Media Room: "The report found that the power of choice is a key factor in raising a reader. Nine out of ten children say that they are more likely to finish book they choose themselves. And parents don’t try to overly influence that choice toward award winners or classic literature. Nine out of 10 parents say 'As long as my child is reading, I just want my child to read books he/she likes.'"

Kindle | Clearwater High School Students Trade Textbooks For Kindles | Which Kindle

Kindle | Clearwater High School Students Trade Textbooks For Kindles | Which Kindle: "“I can have them write reports without having to go to library and research. They can do it in my classroom,” says Mary Koning, English teacher at Clearwater High School. Mary says the Kindles offers a teacher the tool to speak a language students understand today. Mary says, “These kids have grown up with cell phones and computers. I’m a bit older than them and I didn’t grow up with all that. I think it will help them be more interested and engaged in what they are learning and want to read.”"

Will the Kindle Change Education? | Scholastic.com

Will the Kindle Change Education? | Scholastic.com: "Kindles stocked with well-chosen e-books would also allow teachers to flex new teaching strategies, according to Cornelia Brunner, the deputy director at the Center for Children and Technology in New York City. “You could have a very nicely selected group of readings. . . . Kids could read, annotate, and actually clip and be asked to make connections among those clippings,” says Brunner."

Surplus to Requirement | TeleRead: Bring the E-Books Home

Surplus to Requirement | TeleRead: Bring the E-Books Home: "When it comes to teaching children then yes, we absolutely need to indoctrinate every last one of them into the specific skill of absorbing large swathes of written information, not because it’s essential or somehow noble, but because any one of them might go on to lead a life where they will need it. Early pedagogy is about providing the fullest range of likely options for valuable later use that we can muster."

MLive.com : West Michigan schools catch up to 'digital kids' with new technology

MLive.com : West Michigan schools catch up to 'digital kids' with new technology: "Blended learning will grow rapidly in K-12, as it has at the college level. Two area districts, Coopersville and Grandville, just added staff to increase online offerings. Kentwood has two full-time and one part-time educational technologists consulting teachers how to integrate it, Superintendent Scott Palczewski said. Districts like Caledonia and Hopkins paid for new technologies through recent bond campaigns, and buy inexpensive netbooks for about $300 each. Other districts, including Grand Rapids Public Schools, used federal stimulus funds for new technologies. Some administrators also see blended instruction as a way to cut costs long term.

Even so, technology evolves so fast that it's continual challenge for resource-strapped Michigan school districts to stay current, said Dan Takens, superintendent at Byron Center. The district's student-to-computer ratio is almost 2-to-1, but most of the technology is six years old.

Rockford Public Schools will debut six new Smart classrooms this fall -- two at each level -- with state-of-the-art hardware, software and furnishings. These 'classrooms of the future' are sponsored by Steelcase, Microsoft and Custer Furniture, who will use them to gather data on how the new bells and whistles affects student achievement."

ACLS Humanities E-Book: White Paper No. 3

ACLS Humanities E-Book: White Paper No. 3: "HEB's initial findings in this study indicate that titles formatted for existing handheld devices are not yet adequate for scholarly use in terms of replicating either the benefits of online collections—cross-searchability, archiving, multifarious interactive components—nor certain aspects of print editions that users reported missing, such as being able to mark up and rapidly skim text. A turnaround is underway once a common and more robust format optimized for handheld readers is determined and devices themselves evolve, adding improved display options and better and more intuitive web-access, searching and other interactive use of content."

ACLS Humanities E-Book: White Paper No. 3

ACLS Humanities E-Book: White Paper No. 3: "About 88% of our 142 survey participants expressed overall satisfaction with the appearance and functionality of the three remaining handheld samples, although roughly half reported some level of frustration with the search function using either format, and only 26% felt they would have an easy time citing and referencing these editions. Satisfaction with other interactive features, such as adding notes, bookmarking and highlighting, was noticeably higher; however, the “n/a” option was also selected frequently for these categories, and it appears that a large number of participants were unable to perform the tasks in question due to confusing or insufficient instructions from the device manufacturer. As formats evolve, future satisfaction with these features may increase. Irrespective of specific limitations, 75% of participants were interested in potentially downloading additional similar titles for free or if priced below $10."

ACLS Humanities E-Book: White Paper No. 3

ACLS Humanities E-Book: White Paper No. 3: "During its in-house assessment phase, HEB experienced some navigational difficulty with both formats and found that annotation and other interaction with the text was difficult using a number of popular e-readers. (Specifically, the sample titles were tested by HEB on the Sony Reader PRS-700, Amazon's Kindle 2 and the Stanza application on the Apple iPhone.)"