Kestrell

New Nook ebook reader offers Read and Record function

2011-11-23T12:58:23Z

Technology Review's summing up of reviews for the Nook ebook reader
http://www.technologyreview.com/blog/helloworld/27358/
mentions that the new device has a Read and Record function so that someone can record herself reading aloud to accompany a child reader as the child reads a book on the Nook.

While Technology Review called this feature "sad," I immediately thought of kisd with print disabilities--things like dyslexia, as opposed to vision impairments--as having an audio text to listen to while reading the print text is a common way to make reading more comprehensible for readers with print disabilities.

I'm a big advocate of getting kids with disabilities used to using technology as soon as possible--there are games now available for getting two-year-olds familiar with using a computer keyboard--both because the earlier you teach a kid something, the more intuitively they will use it, and getting kids hooked on books is a prime example of this.

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DIY book scanner designs+The godfather of the E-Reader

2010-04-11T14:01:22Z

This Website and blog has numerous designs for making your own book scanning device
http://www.diybookscanner.org/
(thanks to Jesse the K for the link)
while this NY Times article titled
"The Godfather of the E-Reader"
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/11/books/review/Schuessler-t.html?emc=tnt&tntemail1=y
discusses Bob Brown, who wrote a manifesto for the electronic book reading device titled
The Readies
http://rup.rice.edu/readies.html
back in 1930.

block quote start
Reading Brown’s manifesto, it’s hard not to recognize uncanny preludes to today’s claims that digitization will establish a new utopia of cheap books, downloadable
from even the most obscure library while you’re waiting for the bus. (“The Readies” itself, previously available only to those who could afford one of
the 150 original copies, was reissued last year by Rice University Press, which is now entirely a digital print-on-demand operation.) The machine, Brown
argued, would allow readers to adjust the type size, avoid paper cuts and save trees, all while hastening the day when words could be “recorded directly
on the palpitating ether.”
block quote end

You can read _The Readies_ online here
http://cnx.org/content/m31518/latest/

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Conflicting conclusions regarding Kindle use amongst college students

2010-02-23T17:36:31Z

according to this page on the
Princeton University Kindle Pilot Results
http://www.princeton.edu/main/news/archive/S26/64/38E35/index.xml?section=topstories

the pilot program was a success because it reduced the use of paper, while according to this Inside Higher Ed article
Highlighting E-Readers
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2010/02/23/ereaders

many students felt that the Kindle fell short of their needs.

The Princeton study attempts to separate the satisfied users from the rest of the users by calling the satisfied users "power users" while framing the dissatisfied users as less technologically adept, but in looking at the criticisms, I notice that many of the criticisms are highly relevant to people with learning and print disabilities, such as the lack of highlighting capability, or the inability to make annotations to PDF docs. The first article doesn't really frame these dissatisfactions as criticisms, however, but as quote suggestions unquote.

I'm also interested in hearing textbook publishers position on the Kindle read aloud feature, as this is another way that many students with print disabilities manage their reading. Are textbook publishers and individual professors going to allow this feature?

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New dual screen ereader device offers both e-paper and LCD

2009-12-07T15:42:11Z

plus a bunch of other whizbang features which make me think of a science fiction film
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/06/business/06novel.html?_r=2&partner=rss&emc=rss

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