Kindles Replacing Textbooks at Tech Savvy High School
May 25, 2011 12:00 PM EDT
Kindles replacing textbooks at a tech savvy high school in Clearwater, Florida has been completed. In Florida textbooks are now considered old-fashioned with a new law waiting for Governor Rick Scott's signature.
The law would replace all old-fashioned textbooks in Florida by the 2015 school year and replace them with digital textbooks. Technology is now moving forward at blinding speed in just about every area of modern living.
Kindles Replacing Textbooks Well Received by Students and Teachers
Teachers at Clearwater High School say that the conversion to Kindles is already improving students grades. The students are already so immersed in the high-tech world of the Internet, smartphones, SMS texting, Facebook, Twitter, and the like that digital textbooks seem only a natural evolution. Students note that the Kindles replacing textbooks provides them with helpful features like instant access to a dictionary, required reading material, and the ability to research just about any subject. Students rapidly adapt to a technology that most are already familiar with.
In addition, students are quick to note that the convenience of carrying around only one light device instead of several pounds of heavy textbooks makes accepting the Kindle a pleasure. Besides that, the Kindle is considered way more cool than a backpack full of textbooks.
Students seem to be thrilled with the changeover. The following remarks are typical. "This is so light, you can read for hours," says Sabrina Shore, 17, a senior at Clearwater High School.
"It's better than carrying all those textbooks and remembering to go to my locker put it away carry my other textbook," adds Samantha Frank, 17, senior at Clearwater High School.
Students Take Care of Their Kindles
One other benefit that teachers and students have noted is that students take care of their technology far better than they took care of their textbooks. Students seem excited about having Kindles. Were they excited about carrying around heavy old-fashioned textbooks between home and the high school campus? The short answer is - not so much.
The cost of Kindles replacing textbooks is about $400,000. Clearwater High School received Federal technology fund and grant money to pay for the Kindles. So far it looks like those funds will be well spent and will produce better more involved students as well for teachers improve the teaching experience.
Wednesday, May 25, 2011
Thursday, April 7, 2011
Textbooks ditched at Clearwater High as students log on to Kindles
June 1, 2010
Textbooks ditched at Clearwater High as students log on to Kindles
By Rebecca Catalanello, Times Staff Writer
Forget books: Every student will get an e-reader next year.
Here's one way to lighten a student's backpack: say goodbye to textbooks.
Clearwater High School next year will replace traditional textbooks with e-readers. The gadgets will be fully loaded with all the textbooks students need, minus all the paper.
For rising junior Bennie Niles, 17, it could mean accessing English, math and physics texts via a handheld device more on par with the technology he and his peers use every day.
"It gives you the ability to be more fluent," Niles said as he held a Kindle reader. "It helps you have a better understanding and comprehension of the text."
Though the school hasn't settled on a vendor, school officials are negotiating with Amazon Kindle to try to equip all 2,100 students with the 10-ounce devices this fall.
Already, the school issued e-readers to all 100 of its teachers.
Clearwater could be the first high school attempting such a sweeping shift with the Kindle.
John Just, assistant superintendent for the district's management information systems, said Kindle officials told the district that no other high school had embarked on such an effort. Schools elsewhere have used e-readers, but mostly on a per class basis. A Massachusetts boarding school recently made waves by completely digitizing its library.
The St. Petersburg Times could not reach anyone at Amazon Kindle to comment on the uniqueness of Clearwater's e-reader foray.
Principal Keith Mastorides said he was inspired to make the switch earlier this school year after campus surveys revealed a desire to integrate more technology with classroom instruction.
"When you think about students today, three-quarters of their day is spent on some kind of electronic device," Mastorides said. "We're just looking at textbooks a little differently."
Kindles are listed on Amazon.com for $259 a piece. That price doesn't include the cost of purchasing the electronic texts, which are typically far less than hard copies.
Students won't have the ability to purchase texts that the district hasn't already approved and purchased itself. Should a student lose a device, Just said, the text can be retrieved by a replacement.
At first blush, the expense appears a savings over traditional textbooks. Books can cost between $70 and $90 each. A typical high school student would have about seven.
But Just said it's too soon to estimate cost savings. He said the school hopes to strike a deal to pay less per Kindle while bundling in the price of the texts, technical support, teacher training and insurance.
More than likely, he said, parents will be offered insurance to cover the cost of damage that might occur off school property.
Besides offering an electronic format to read books, newspapers and magazines, the Kindle allows users to get word definitions, bookmark pages, highlight text and type notes they might otherwise scribble in the margins of a hard-bound book.
It also offers limited Internet access via a free 3G network. Students will be required to sign an agreement stating they will not use it to access inappropriate websites. The Kindle boasts a rechargeable battery life of one week when the wireless is turned on, two weeks when it isn't. Additionally, it has the capability to convert text to voice so that users can listen to the books.
Clearwater is prepared to spend about $600,000, Just said. That's money allocated to the school for technology and classroom materials over six years. But the district has agreed to juggle grants to help the school borrow the money from the district in advance.
What about those people not ready to go high-tech? Every class will have hard copy textbooks on hand.
But even a self-described "dinosaur" such as Kathy Biddle, who has been teaching more than 31 years, said she's excited about how it might enhance her world history and sociology classes.
"I think it's the way kids are thinking today," Biddle said.
Times researcher Shirl Kennedy and photojournalist Douglas Clifford contributed to this report. Rebecca Catalanello can be reached at (727) 893-8707 or rcatalanello@sptimes.com.
Textbooks ditched at Clearwater High as students log on to Kindles
By Rebecca Catalanello, Times Staff Writer
Forget books: Every student will get an e-reader next year.
Here's one way to lighten a student's backpack: say goodbye to textbooks.
Clearwater High School next year will replace traditional textbooks with e-readers. The gadgets will be fully loaded with all the textbooks students need, minus all the paper.
For rising junior Bennie Niles, 17, it could mean accessing English, math and physics texts via a handheld device more on par with the technology he and his peers use every day.
"It gives you the ability to be more fluent," Niles said as he held a Kindle reader. "It helps you have a better understanding and comprehension of the text."
Though the school hasn't settled on a vendor, school officials are negotiating with Amazon Kindle to try to equip all 2,100 students with the 10-ounce devices this fall.
Already, the school issued e-readers to all 100 of its teachers.
Clearwater could be the first high school attempting such a sweeping shift with the Kindle.
John Just, assistant superintendent for the district's management information systems, said Kindle officials told the district that no other high school had embarked on such an effort. Schools elsewhere have used e-readers, but mostly on a per class basis. A Massachusetts boarding school recently made waves by completely digitizing its library.
The St. Petersburg Times could not reach anyone at Amazon Kindle to comment on the uniqueness of Clearwater's e-reader foray.
Principal Keith Mastorides said he was inspired to make the switch earlier this school year after campus surveys revealed a desire to integrate more technology with classroom instruction.
"When you think about students today, three-quarters of their day is spent on some kind of electronic device," Mastorides said. "We're just looking at textbooks a little differently."
Kindles are listed on Amazon.com for $259 a piece. That price doesn't include the cost of purchasing the electronic texts, which are typically far less than hard copies.
Students won't have the ability to purchase texts that the district hasn't already approved and purchased itself. Should a student lose a device, Just said, the text can be retrieved by a replacement.
At first blush, the expense appears a savings over traditional textbooks. Books can cost between $70 and $90 each. A typical high school student would have about seven.
But Just said it's too soon to estimate cost savings. He said the school hopes to strike a deal to pay less per Kindle while bundling in the price of the texts, technical support, teacher training and insurance.
More than likely, he said, parents will be offered insurance to cover the cost of damage that might occur off school property.
Besides offering an electronic format to read books, newspapers and magazines, the Kindle allows users to get word definitions, bookmark pages, highlight text and type notes they might otherwise scribble in the margins of a hard-bound book.
It also offers limited Internet access via a free 3G network. Students will be required to sign an agreement stating they will not use it to access inappropriate websites. The Kindle boasts a rechargeable battery life of one week when the wireless is turned on, two weeks when it isn't. Additionally, it has the capability to convert text to voice so that users can listen to the books.
Clearwater is prepared to spend about $600,000, Just said. That's money allocated to the school for technology and classroom materials over six years. But the district has agreed to juggle grants to help the school borrow the money from the district in advance.
What about those people not ready to go high-tech? Every class will have hard copy textbooks on hand.
But even a self-described "dinosaur" such as Kathy Biddle, who has been teaching more than 31 years, said she's excited about how it might enhance her world history and sociology classes.
"I think it's the way kids are thinking today," Biddle said.
Times researcher Shirl Kennedy and photojournalist Douglas Clifford contributed to this report. Rebecca Catalanello can be reached at (727) 893-8707 or rcatalanello@sptimes.com.
Thursday, February 10, 2011
Excerpts from Ron Davis' book "The Gift of Dyslexia".
They (a person with dyslexia) won't read for pleasure, because there is no pleasure in heavy concentration.
The inability to read and write often seems life-threatening to a dyslexic person.
They know only the song; the song knows the alphabet. So by using the song, they can appear to know the alphabet. Whenever they want to look up a name in the phone book or a word in the dictionary, the song will be used. It has become a compulsive behavior.
The gift of dyslexia is the gift of mastery
Some brilliant dyslexics become corporate executives because of their intuitive gifts for "seeing" the correct strategy and mobilizing the work force.
Attention vs. Concentration: It is natural and easy for dyslexic children to pay attention, but difficult for them to concentrate.
Boredom also plays a role, because boredom often happens to someone whose mind is working between 400 and 2,000 times faster than the minds of the people around them. A dyslexic child who is bored will do one of two things. Either the child will disorient into creative imagination (daydreaming), or will shift his attention to something that is interesting (distractibility or inattention).
Keep in mind that dyslexics have little or no internal monologue, so they do not hear what they are reading unless they are reading aloud. Instead, they are composing a mental picture by adding the meaning--or image of the meaning--of each new word as it is encountered.
Trigger words have abstract meanings, and often a number of different meanings. They trip up dyslexics because they do not represent visual objects or actions. They also happen to be the words that occur most frequently in everyday speech and writing.
"The brown horse jumped over the stone fence and ran through the pasture"
Once disorientations begin to cause mistakes, the dyslexic child becomes frustrated. Nobody likes to make mistakes, so around the age of nine, in about third grade, the dyslexic child begins to find, figure out and adopt solutions to the problem. Even though this may seem like a good thing, it is actually how the reading problem becomes a true learning disability.
There are at least 40 different variations of a three-letter word such as "cat," and only six of these are "logical" versions,
Dyslexic children often get tagged with the hyper label because of the physical effects of disorientation.
The inability to read and write often seems life-threatening to a dyslexic person.
They know only the song; the song knows the alphabet. So by using the song, they can appear to know the alphabet. Whenever they want to look up a name in the phone book or a word in the dictionary, the song will be used. It has become a compulsive behavior.
The gift of dyslexia is the gift of mastery
Some brilliant dyslexics become corporate executives because of their intuitive gifts for "seeing" the correct strategy and mobilizing the work force.
Attention vs. Concentration: It is natural and easy for dyslexic children to pay attention, but difficult for them to concentrate.
Boredom also plays a role, because boredom often happens to someone whose mind is working between 400 and 2,000 times faster than the minds of the people around them. A dyslexic child who is bored will do one of two things. Either the child will disorient into creative imagination (daydreaming), or will shift his attention to something that is interesting (distractibility or inattention).
Keep in mind that dyslexics have little or no internal monologue, so they do not hear what they are reading unless they are reading aloud. Instead, they are composing a mental picture by adding the meaning--or image of the meaning--of each new word as it is encountered.
Trigger words have abstract meanings, and often a number of different meanings. They trip up dyslexics because they do not represent visual objects or actions. They also happen to be the words that occur most frequently in everyday speech and writing.
"The brown horse jumped over the stone fence and ran through the pasture"
Once disorientations begin to cause mistakes, the dyslexic child becomes frustrated. Nobody likes to make mistakes, so around the age of nine, in about third grade, the dyslexic child begins to find, figure out and adopt solutions to the problem. Even though this may seem like a good thing, it is actually how the reading problem becomes a true learning disability.
There are at least 40 different variations of a three-letter word such as "cat," and only six of these are "logical" versions,
Dyslexic children often get tagged with the hyper label because of the physical effects of disorientation.
Thursday, January 27, 2011
New President and CEO of RFBD
Dear Andrew Friedman:
Congratulations and thank you for changing my life.
Why is RFBD still using readers to record for the Blind and Dyslexic? Synthetic voices are so much less expensive as is Optical Character Recognition tools.
In today's world we those person's with Disabilities are sitting on the edge of changing the whole education delivery system. Imagine a student reading a book and coming to a word they don't understand, or a place they don't know where it is or a person they don't know what they look like or a thing they don't know what it is, and with couple clicks of a mouse for a student with Dyslexia then has the answer. Well today it is possible, Read:Outloud and Bookshare.org has created such a solution.
Recently I was reading "The Forgotten Man: A New History of the Great Depression" and I came across the mention of the "Dust Bowl", with a couple of clicks I learned it affected 100,000,000 acres and displaced 2.5 million people the largest migration ever recorded in least amount of time, less than two years. Now this was not in the book but I wanted to know. so with the book on Read:Outloud from Bookshare.org I highlighted to words "Dust Bowl" and learned about the extent of the devastation of the "Dust Bowl". How many times do us; your readers, want to look something up and don't because it requires us to put the book down and go over the computer and look up the topic of interest.
Bookshare.org and RFBD I know work together, although both organizations maybe able to be more efficient, I don't know, it is worth taking a look for future growth.
With Bookshare.org coupled with RFBD and tools like Read:Outloud, we the person's with "disabilities" can change the Education Delivery System. How? Well pair up together and show our Nation and State Education Departments the unleashed power of the "virtual Book" which RFBD and Bookshare.org have already created. Show them how both organizations have transformed the Textbooks to a digital format and paired the book up with technology like Read:Outloud. This combination has allowed the students (with a "disability" in a free country) to ask a question; who is this person, place or thing, and find the answers which in turn broaden their educational experience.
We who have the "Gift of Dyslexia" have this capability so let us share it with the Nation and enable the Nation to grow as Bookshare has done for us with the "Gift of Dyslexia".
Visit my
My travels with the "gift of dyslexia: www.manateediagnostic.com/davisgraham.aspx
My blogs:
www.mygiftofdyslexia.blogspot.com with Youtube videos which I have made.
Call me with any questions.
Sincerely,
Davis W. Graham
Congratulations and thank you for changing my life.
Why is RFBD still using readers to record for the Blind and Dyslexic? Synthetic voices are so much less expensive as is Optical Character Recognition tools.
In today's world we those person's with Disabilities are sitting on the edge of changing the whole education delivery system. Imagine a student reading a book and coming to a word they don't understand, or a place they don't know where it is or a person they don't know what they look like or a thing they don't know what it is, and with couple clicks of a mouse for a student with Dyslexia then has the answer. Well today it is possible, Read:Outloud and Bookshare.org has created such a solution.
Recently I was reading "The Forgotten Man: A New History of the Great Depression" and I came across the mention of the "Dust Bowl", with a couple of clicks I learned it affected 100,000,000 acres and displaced 2.5 million people the largest migration ever recorded in least amount of time, less than two years. Now this was not in the book but I wanted to know. so with the book on Read:Outloud from Bookshare.org I highlighted to words "Dust Bowl" and learned about the extent of the devastation of the "Dust Bowl". How many times do us; your readers, want to look something up and don't because it requires us to put the book down and go over the computer and look up the topic of interest.
Bookshare.org and RFBD I know work together, although both organizations maybe able to be more efficient, I don't know, it is worth taking a look for future growth.
With Bookshare.org coupled with RFBD and tools like Read:Outloud, we the person's with "disabilities" can change the Education Delivery System. How? Well pair up together and show our Nation and State Education Departments the unleashed power of the "virtual Book" which RFBD and Bookshare.org have already created. Show them how both organizations have transformed the Textbooks to a digital format and paired the book up with technology like Read:Outloud. This combination has allowed the students (with a "disability" in a free country) to ask a question; who is this person, place or thing, and find the answers which in turn broaden their educational experience.
We who have the "Gift of Dyslexia" have this capability so let us share it with the Nation and enable the Nation to grow as Bookshare has done for us with the "Gift of Dyslexia".
Visit my
My travels with the "gift of dyslexia: www.manateediagnostic.com/davisgraham.aspx
My blogs:
www.mygiftofdyslexia.blogspot.com with Youtube videos which I have made.
Call me with any questions.
Sincerely,
Davis W. Graham
Thursday, January 13, 2011
Tuesday, December 28, 2010
Institute helps dyslexics make grade. (click here to view article)
Dear Felicia:
Thank you for your article on Dyslexia and the Wisconsin Institute for Learning Disabilities/Dyslexia. Great story.
Although in contrast to your article today, I consider dyslexia a Gift, today with Technology the hurdle of reading does not exist nor does it have to for those who struggle with the written word.
View "My travels with the Gift of Dyslexia" : www.manateediagnostic.com/davisgraham.aspx
Four programs which have empowered me and are available to help others are www.readplease.com, www.rfbd.org, www.bookshare.org and Balabolka.
Bookshare® is free for all U.S. students with qualifying disabilities, thanks to an award from the U.S. Department of Education Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP).
Read:OutLoud and Bookshare.org turn any book or text book into a virtual book. Bookshare therefore is excellent for the student and adult population. Newspapers from all over the country are available and Bookshare provide two text to speech software programs, Victor Soft reader and a Beta for Bookshare made by Read:OutLoud.
With Read:OutLoud if the reader comes to a person, place or thing they don't understand then all the reader has to do with a couple of clicks and connection to the internet click the dictionary and voila they have the meaning of the word, or picture of the person or a map of where the place is located.
In today's iPad world Read:OutLoud is volumes ahead as a tool for the student. The next step in education is for all textbooks to be on an iPad foundation with the ability to update the textbooks or access references or contributing resources to the textbook.
Green education, what a new idea, except it isn't, it has been brought to the system by the Learning Disabled, through BookShare.org.
Check out how the software works, by visiting my blog at: www.mygiftofdyslexia.blogspot.com
In summary those who have Dyslexia have a gift not a disability.
Sincerely Davis Graham
Thank you for your article on Dyslexia and the Wisconsin Institute for Learning Disabilities/Dyslexia. Great story.
Although in contrast to your article today, I consider dyslexia a Gift, today with Technology the hurdle of reading does not exist nor does it have to for those who struggle with the written word.
View "My travels with the Gift of Dyslexia" : www.manateediagnostic.com/davisgraham.aspx
Four programs which have empowered me and are available to help others are www.readplease.com, www.rfbd.org, www.bookshare.org and Balabolka.
Bookshare® is free for all U.S. students with qualifying disabilities, thanks to an award from the U.S. Department of Education Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP).
Read:OutLoud and Bookshare.org turn any book or text book into a virtual book. Bookshare therefore is excellent for the student and adult population. Newspapers from all over the country are available and Bookshare provide two text to speech software programs, Victor Soft reader and a Beta for Bookshare made by Read:OutLoud.
With Read:OutLoud if the reader comes to a person, place or thing they don't understand then all the reader has to do with a couple of clicks and connection to the internet click the dictionary and voila they have the meaning of the word, or picture of the person or a map of where the place is located.
In today's iPad world Read:OutLoud is volumes ahead as a tool for the student. The next step in education is for all textbooks to be on an iPad foundation with the ability to update the textbooks or access references or contributing resources to the textbook.
Green education, what a new idea, except it isn't, it has been brought to the system by the Learning Disabled, through BookShare.org.
Check out how the software works, by visiting my blog at: www.mygiftofdyslexia.blogspot.com
In summary those who have Dyslexia have a gift not a disability.
Sincerely Davis Graham
Saturday, December 4, 2010
US News encourging LD students, my comment
Dear Kim:
Thank you for your article encouraging those students who have a LD to attend college. One if not the best resource which was not mentioned was www.Bookshare.org. What a gift this is for those who have the gift of Dyslexia or other qualifying disabilities.
Bookshare.org has the combination of digital textbooks and software which has the potential to change the landscape of our education system. For those who do qualify it has already changed the landscape by taking a textbook and turning the book and software combination into a vitrual book. If you come to a person, place or thing you don't know then you just highlight the word and with the internet you are able to data mine the topic and incorporate the meaning into your book.
Check out "Dyslexia and technology" on Youtube for a demostration.
Our education system is good let's make it great by incorporating the technology which is available to learning disabled students and make it available to all who seek to learn.
Thank you for your article encouraging those students who have a LD to attend college. One if not the best resource which was not mentioned was www.Bookshare.org. What a gift this is for those who have the gift of Dyslexia or other qualifying disabilities.
Bookshare.org has the combination of digital textbooks and software which has the potential to change the landscape of our education system. For those who do qualify it has already changed the landscape by taking a textbook and turning the book and software combination into a vitrual book. If you come to a person, place or thing you don't know then you just highlight the word and with the internet you are able to data mine the topic and incorporate the meaning into your book.
Check out "Dyslexia and technology" on Youtube for a demostration.
Our education system is good let's make it great by incorporating the technology which is available to learning disabled students and make it available to all who seek to learn.
Mike Cohen with Google
Dear Mike:
I have the gift of dyslexia and I am and have been using text to speech for 9 years now. Check out my Youtube videos at my blog mygiftofdyslexia.blogspot.com we as a nation are on the edge a good educational system (?) to a great one with efforts like yours to incorporate text to speech and other technology in to the mainstream. Think of Google coming out with an "iPad" technology for textbooks. Where a student receives their books from 9th thru college in a digital format with data mining capability. (Dyslexia and technology, Youtube). The text books would be uploaded and updated 1/4 or every semester. Bookshare.org has done some amazing things and is offering these tools to the LD population already.
I have the gift of dyslexia and I am and have been using text to speech for 9 years now. Check out my Youtube videos at my blog mygiftofdyslexia.blogspot.com we as a nation are on the edge a good educational system (?) to a great one with efforts like yours to incorporate text to speech and other technology in to the mainstream. Think of Google coming out with an "iPad" technology for textbooks. Where a student receives their books from 9th thru college in a digital format with data mining capability. (Dyslexia and technology, Youtube). The text books would be uploaded and updated 1/4 or every semester. Bookshare.org has done some amazing things and is offering these tools to the LD population already.
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