Category:

These basic devices are intended for reading ebooks and not much more. (We’ve included the more sophisticated devices from the same manufacturers in our post on tablets.)

Manufacturers and models:

• Amazon (Kindle, Kindle Touch)
• Barnes & Noble (NOOK Simple Touch, NOOK Color)
• Sony (Reader)

Pricing:

$79-199

Strengths:

• Enhanced features for reading, including variable display, dictionary support, search, notetaking, etc.
• Low cost
• Long battery life
• Single use (minimizes distraction)
• Wireless not required

Weaknesses:

• Single use

Killer applications:

• Ebooks

Things to consider and some opinions:

• These devices are designed for reading ebooks. If you want a device that does more, consider a tablet.
• While the use of these devices is limited, they are good at what they do. Not having access to a ton of other apps can also help students focus on reading. Having a few of these devices in a classroom or making them available for checkout from the library is a great way to encourage reading and provide some extra features like vocabulary support, searching, and variable display options.

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These books include subjects in ELA, math, social studies, and science and are formatted in web, Kindle, and EPUB versions.

We’ll be adding more titles to this collection over time.

Enjoy!

The post New free ebooks appeared first on K12 Handhelds.

First, they caved on the decision to include text-to-speech in the Kindle 2. Instead of making it a built-in feature, they will leave the decision to turn text-to-speech on up to publishers on a title-by-title basis.

This is a blow to education and really a ridiculous move (although perhaps understandable from a business standpoint since publishers were applying pressure and they are a key partner to Amazon). Text-to-speech technology has existed in commercial applications for over 25 years and represents absolutely no copyright infringement. I hope that various constituencies will weigh in on this and bring pressure as has been done with DRM.

In another much anticipated move, Amazon is making ebooks available to iPhone and other mobile device users. This only makes sense. Amazon is hedging its bets by making its’ best-of-class ebook system available on the hottest mobile device on the market.

While one might question whether Amazon ever should have got into the hardware business, I hope this doesn’t mean the end for the Kindle hardware. It is a sweet device and offers ebook reading functionality superior to any mobile device (including ipods, Palms, etc.). I, for one, would really miss it in its current and possible future incarnations.

The post Interesting moves by Amazon appeared first on K12 Handhelds.

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Also, the Flip camera folks have a new model out the Mino. It is quite a bit smaller than the Ultra.

Creative has come out with their own pocket video camera, the Vado, which looks a lot like the popular Flip. I’m so happy with my Flip that I can’t imagine switching, though the Vado is a bit cheaper.

The post News on a couple of my favorite tech tools appeared first on K12 Handhelds.

The K12 Handhelds ebook library works with no changes at all (and they look beautiful — much more readable than on a handheld).

In addition to Mobipocket and Kindle ebooks, the Kindle will read Word docs, HTML, text files, JPGs, GIFS, BMPs, and PNGs. You can transfer files by USB, SD card, or the EVDO wireless. I think this always-available free wireless is one of the best features of this device.

Stay tuned for more on how “always-available” it is as I travel around.

The post Kids ebooks on the Kindle appeared first on K12 Handhelds.

I’ve structured this in a wiki, and it is intended to be used for either a face-to-face workshop or as an online self-guided learning experience.

This is licensed under a CC BY SA license, so you are free to use it for your own purposes as well.

This is my first attempt at using a wiki to facilitate both a F2F workshop and a self-guided experience. If you go through it, let me know what you think.

The post Free online workshop appeared first on K12 Handhelds.

In my on-going quest to differentiate instruction for teachers as a part of workshops I do, I’ve been experimenting with using blogs and wikis as PD tools.

The latest installment in this is a hands on workshop on using mobile technology to differentiate instruction (coincidentally) that I am outlining in a wiki. I’m hoping that this wiki will also be able to be used as a self-study tool for those who aren’t at the workshop (or for those who attend and want a refresher or more in-depth learning later on).

Here’s a preview of a section on using ebooks.

We’ll be using this at my “HANDS ON: Using Mobile Technology to Differentiate Instruction” at NCETC on Mon., Nov. 26. If you’ll be there, I’m really looking forward to this. (This is a bring-your-own-laptop-and-mobile-device workshop. Contact me for more info.)

If not, stay tuned for the final version of this. I’ll post a note when it’s done (or as near to done as wikis get :).

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There are versions for the desktop, various handhelds, iPods, and even a Mobipocket ebook version. (One of the not-fun things about creating video is all the format issues. I think we’ve put about everything up here, but let me know if anything’s been missed.)

If you haven’t ventured into the world of contributing to wikis, Wikijunior is a great place to start. (Try the Human Body book or Ancient Civilizations.) The more people who contribute to these free “copyleft” resources, the better they will be. If you’re not sure how to start, try something small like fixing an error or just adding a couple sentences. It’s a lot of fun!

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So….I created my own digital version of this session for folks to download:

Video version (streaming, for viewing in a browser; loads faster, but lower quality)

If anyone is interested in a higher resolution version to share with folks who weren’t able to attend, email me, and I’ll try to send you a CD.

For those who are interested, I audio recorded this with a very inexpensive Olympus WS-100 pocket recorder. I edited the audio in Audacity and brought it all into Windows Movie Maker for editing. The visuals included exported jpgs from my presentation slides and screen-capture videos made with Camstudio. I used HandShare to create the Palm movies (which is the same software I used to present). Creating the whole thing took about 4 hours.

It was a lot of fun making this and was a good way to reflect on my own style of presenting (and hopefully refine it for upcoming events).

I hope this is a useful resource for you all.

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