The answer may surprise you. The debate over whether physical or digital reading is better for kids is warming up. We are long past the days when the claims for print books were primarily aesthetic; nowadays, you need data to prove a point. Researchers are now suggesting that certain aspects of physical, print books actually…
Tag Archive for research
8 ways to jump into eBooks from eSchool News
by Will DeLamater
My favorite is “2. Research eBook best practices.” Devices and databases will work themselves out, but using these digital resources to really help kids is most likely to be worked out, as all great teaching gets worked out, in the trenches by people like you, dear Reader. So become a teacher-researcher: see how all the…
7 ways readers would change Amazon’s Kindle Paperwhite e-reader
by Will DeLamater
Related: Beware Automatic Book Updates on Kindle Dan Cooper at Engadget put this question to his readers. What did they come up with? 1. Bring back the page turn paddles (er, buttons): The desire to limit physical movement to a minimum while reading seems to be the motivator here. 2. Why no ePub, really? Could…
“Got iPad” beats “Got Kindle” on Christmas
by Will DeLamater
According to Topsy Analytics, there was a clear winner on Christmas morning between iPad and Kindle, at least among Twitter users. Using the Topsy analytics engine, Philip Elmer-Dewitt of CNN Money ran a search on the phrases “got iPad, got Kindle, got Note” in Tweets that people shared on Christmas day. The results are startling…
Print books aren’t going anywhere!
by Will DeLamater
Is the iPad Mini Relevant to Educators? Survey Results Here
by Will DeLamater
Based on our admittedly informal and small sample survey, the answer is YES. 83% of our respondents indicated that they would consider a Mini instead of a full sized iPad for their schools. On the flip side, over 80% indicated that the Mini does not offer them anything new that they don’t already have access…
Why do teens prefers phones to Kindles as e-readers?
by Will DeLamater
The recent Pew report on Young Americans’ Reading and Library Habits contains a number of great take-aways, including the news that young people frequent libraries at an unexpectedly high rate. But another finding has emerged that may have an impact on the way that schools think about pleasure reading and reading instruction both inside and outside…
The New Kindle Lineup: What It Means to Educators
by Will DeLamater
Just a quick update on the new lineup of Kindles announced earlier this month: as ever, the new Kindle models have one key audience in mind – the individual consumer. Backlight for reading in bed, integration with a vast media library, seamless purchasing opportunities, high resolution screen, touch navigation, whiter backgrounds, the works! All improvements…
More Research Says Bigger Fonts Help Kids Read
by Will DeLamater
Once I started digging in to why everyone seems to crank up the font size on the Kindle, more and more evidence has been sent my way. I want to thank Kerrie Smith, the Australian teacher and LEO at Education.au, for pointing out another significant research compilation on the importance of variable text size. This…
It’s Not the Kindle, Stupid! It’s the Text…
by Will DeLamater
As a blogger on a topic tied to a specific device, the Kindle, it has been easy to overlook the real hero of the ebook revolution, and that is the digital text itself. The virtues of ebooks for schools reside not in the features and benefits of a specific reading device, despite what the pundits…