More on TechnologyTell: Gadget News | Apple News
Sony Reader in use in Connecticut religious school: How do you feel about E Ink machines for K-12?
September 27, 2007 | 11:52 am
|
By David Rothman
Kids have just started using Sony Readers at the Bi-Cultural Day School, a 50-year-old Jewish institution in Stamford, Connecticut, as part of a new Sony program. Is this the first actual K-12 use of E Ink, beyond evaluation units?
Through the Sonys, the students will be reading classics such as Huck Finn. Perhaps the devices will appeal to gadget-loving boys—a nice plus, considering the resistance of many young U.S. males to literature.
E-books, as we know, can be catnip for kids, teachers and innovation-minded people in the publishing industry. And some people say E Ink machines are easier on the eyes, since they reflect light, just like paper, rather than forcing you to look into the glow. I’m certainly all in favor of experimentation.
So does Bi-Culture Day have company out there in K-12 Land, and what E Ink-related tips might educators share?
That said, as as a former kid, I’ve got a few questions:
1. Will the kids suffer from the Reader’s lack of a word-based search function? And how about the absence of a dictionary, similar to those in Rocket eBook-style machines? Remember, too, that the Sony lacks annotation capabilities. Then again, it’s not as if the kids can’t make notes the old-fashioned way.
2. Would some students and teachers prefer the greater contrast of LCDs? Or is the new Vizplex technology already in use at Bi-Cultural?
3. Could there have been a way for other kinds of machines to be available? Not under the Sony program, of course. Based on the resources of the school and the caliber of its people, I suspect that arrangements could be made for support of other e-reading gizmos. Of course, with everyone using Sonys, the support burden will be less, so teachers can focus on education. What’s more, I wonder if there’s a way to arrange for classes to have standardized bookmarks on the Sony via preloaded files.
4. What about the advantages of PDAs, such as their greater flexibility and their ability to be carried in the pocket?
5. Does the school want the kids to read books besides those in BBeB format? Has Sony shown the teachers how to explore Project Gutenberg libraries and others to pick up more titles?
6. Will the school accommodate kids who prefer to read books the old-fashioned way?
Meanwhile the very best of luck to Bi-Cultural and Sony in the experiment. I wonder what other schools may be in the program.
Related: U.S. Department of State news release on e-books.
|
Previous
SUBSCRIBE TO RSS
Comments:
This sounds good. I hope they like it, faculty and students alike. I hope it’s a big success and that Sony trumpets heck out of it and other schools are inspired to go ebooks.
The article only mentions public-domain books (and only 2 of them at that) as provided by Sony’s Connect website. This also lessens support issues: apparently the readers were pre-loaded with the books (maybe by Sony, maybe by the school IT teacher).
So while it’s not a full test, it is a good test for dealing with issues such as “Class, look on page 248, where he says…” — again, with only a single-format, and a single-device, “page 248″ will represent the same text for all students … IF they all have the same font and font-size!
Word search and dictionary search are no problem, as David says: ‘do it the old-fashioned way.’ But getting everybody in class ‘on the same page’ is most easily done with word search, if some students have sans-serif and others have serif fonts, and if some have LARGE and some small text-size.
This seems like the tiniest toe-in-the-water kind of trial, no doubt sponsored by a parent or administrator who either has an ‘in’ with Sony or who is as much a geek as we all are!
This is interesting, particularly as a test for e-ink; however, it is worth noting that the VitalSource Library has been delivered on over ~400,000 computers in K-12. The Library includes over 2500 classics from literature, history, and the arts, as well as a dictionary (Oxford or Houghton-Mifflin) and, depending on the version, thesaurus or encyclopedia (Britannica). Most private schools with laptop programs include the product in their image and LAUSD (the second largest school system) images it all instructional machines (Gateway, Dell, Lenovo, HP, and Apple). As I believe you (David) know, VitalSource’s BookShelf software takes full advantage of the digital environment with an XML-based format that is reflowable and searchable (across entire libraries of content and notes). Learners can also highlight, takes notes and share notes with other BookShelf users.
It is worth noting that in the independent school laptop school market, they all clamor for e-textbooks. Unfortunately, K-12 publishers are quite ready to delivery yet, so the inventory is limited. However, the higher ed market is turning quickly.
I could be wrong, but since I grew up down the street from it, I think Bi-Cultural only goes up to 8th grade – not High School.
Personally, I think this is just a great idea. While it would be lovely for a single device to offer all the things we dream of (dictionaries, anotating, web searchs, notes, etc), that is not what we have now. It has been way too long coming for this magical, mystery device that is not appearing. I think it’s time that we look at the available, affordable technology and start working with the schools.
As I’ve always said, I don’t care how or what people read on, I just want them to read. And in the case of eBooks, the technology (as yet) is not going to dictate the consumer, the consumer will dictate what is good, good enough, great, ideal, back to the technology.
But it HAS to start. (Please note at the end of that sentence I stomped my foot like Veruca Salt.)
Claire
Claire re Sony experiment: Totally agree with IT HAS TO START! Thanks for your feedback. Let’s hope that the Sony experiment succeeds and is followed by others with E Ink. As for the grades covered, yes, the Web site mentions only up through the 8th. I was using K-12 as a category rather than a description of the offerings of that particular school. Thanks. David
I hear people talk about how much they are in love with word search and dictionary functions. I’m sure I’d fall in love with them if I had access to those features, but I certainly don’t miss what I never had. (Well, with the exception of an iPhone.) I suspect the kids won’t mind going to a dictionary. The search function, on the other hand, might be sorely missed. One had better hope for a well bookmarked or indexed file.
This is an interesting idea, and one that I think might really help. As a teacher, I’ve been using ebooks in an educational format for the last year, and have found them to be really handy. Instead of lugging around a bunch of books between classes (I don’t have a set room at my school), I just bring my laptop with all my books already loaded on!
Hopefully the teachers put more than just novels on the readers though. Workbooks and other resources can be uploaded as well (I get mind from http://www.dedicatedteacher.com ), giving the kids everything they need to truly benefit from the texts. Merely substituting screens for print isn’t going to make kids read more or better unless the technology is used to its full potential.
[...] via Sony Reader in use in Connecticut religious school: How do you feel about E Ink machines for K-12? |…. [...]