| I was lucky enough to speak with some of the top library marketing gurus at Digipalooza. What I really wanted to know was what more can OverDrive do to help with your marketing efforts. We fell on the topic of library programming as great way to engage with all types of demographics in your community. So my takeaway from the conference was to create some ready-to-go programming kits. Each kit contains some brief instructions and appropriate marketing materials and handouts.
 Fun programming ideas now available on the Partner Portal. Take your promotion outside your library doors and engage with your community in a unique setting. We recommend crashing a local Happy Hour or popular restaurant at lunch hour (with the establishment's approval, of course) to promote your digital collection. Have a table set up with devices and handouts. Mingle and engage patrons with the service. Just make sure library staff is tapping more screens than kegs.
Educate your community on a wonderful reading app, OverDrive Media Console (OMC). Serve appetizers during the event (you can keep it simple with just cheese and crackers). Encourage folks to bring their own devices to download and learn about OMC and have a few devices pre-loaded with titles for folks to try out.
Dedicate a story hour using simultaneous use eBooks for children. Encourage folks to BYOD so they can follow along, or enlarge titles by using a projector. If you have questions about adding a simultaneous use plan to your digital collection, contact our Collection Development team.
Download pre-made kits of programming resources in the Programming & Events section of the Partner Portal.
Cassie is a Marketing Specialist with OverDrive  |
Thursday, September 26, 2013
Programming ideas to promote your digital collection
Wednesday, September 25, 2013
Amazon Kindle Prime Instant Video Offers Video Downloads
| Amazon just announced their new Kindle HDX tablets yesterday and its being really geared towards video. Numerous hardware elements will really enhance the overall experience, but Amazon is not stopping there. Subscribers to Amazon Prime that watch videos are in for a treat. Amazon will be offering off-line storage of videos by NBC, Viacom, Sony, Warner Bros. and CBS, with downloads ready for up to 30 days, and viewable for up to 48 hours after users start watching. The resolution on the Kindle HDX line of tablets trounces almost all of their competition on the market and Dolby Audio will be an added bonus. Amazon is really gearing their product line to give users more video options. Aside from the new Prime offline downloads, the company has developed the Second Screen experience. This will throw a movie on your television without the need for wires and still use the tablet for email and what have you. The ability to download movies to your tablet is ideal for people who travel and want to watch without needing to be connected to the internet. The big question is whether Netflix or Hulu will try and match this offer, or to developer offline video storage as well. Amazon Kindle Prime Instant Video Offers Video Downloads is a post from: E-Reader News |
Welcome Lance!
| As you’ve probably noticed, Raspberry Pi is a rather unusual organisation. We have two functions: we make and sell tiny computers, and we promote children’s education. These activities support each other (all the money we raise from selling Raspberry Pis is put straight back into our charitable activities), but are in many ways separate, and it’s a real juggling act directing the two together. Back at the start of the year, we split the engineering and trading activities of the Foundation into a separate, wholly owned trading subsidiary, Raspberry Pi (Trading) Ltd. The Raspberry Pi Foundation continues to run the charitable, educational side of things. Since then, I’ve been overseeing both organisations, but really, the two roles require two people doing them, and of necessity most of my attention has had to be devoted to the trading business.  Lance Howarth With that in mind, I’m very pleased to be able to announce that Lance Howarth has joined us as Foundation CEO, and will be taking the lead on the Foundation’s charitable activities. Lance spent a decade with ARM, latterly as EVP of Marketing and as a VP in the office of the CTO. He’ll be driving forward our educational mission, while I continue as CEO of Raspberry Pi (Trading) – you won’t see any big changes in my interactions with you here, at talks and so on. Hopefully we’ll be able to talk Lance into posting here on occasion too, to let you know what he and the board are up to. You’re seeing some of the results of those charitable activities I’ve been talking about already – Clive Beale, our most excellent Director of Educational Development, is heading up the work on a growing corpus of free educational materials, running workshops, working with teachers, and with other charities; we’ve committed to take on some more people to work on our educational function too. We’re funding development of projects like Sonic Pi, the music programming environment we blogged about yesterday. We’re putting money into open educational resources, like Scratch and Squeak. Lance will be growing our engagement with this sort of work, and I hope you’ll join me in welcoming him to the growing Raspberry Pi family. And if you want a lapel pin like his, you’ll find them in the Swag Store! |
Amazon Announces Pricey New Kindle Fire HDX Tablets and $139 Kindle Fire HD
| Today Amazon unveiled their new line tablets for 2013. Given all the leaks that have happened over the past couple of months, there really aren’t any surprises from a specs standpoint (I think Amazon likes to leak info on purpose to gauge and gain consumer interest). The most shocking surprise is the big price increase. […] |
Penguin eBooks are now available in OverDrive Marketplace
| OverDrive is excited to announce that more than 10,000 Penguin eBooks are now live and available for purchase in OverDrive Marketplace! Penguin's eBooks are available for public and college libraries, including consortium, in the U.S. in the one copy/one user lending model for a one year term. Availability of the Penguin eBooks to libraries outside the U.S. is coming soon. In the Penguin catalog libraries will find titles from numerous best-selling authors including: Tom Clancy, Lee Child, Nora Roberts, Charlaine Harris, Ken Follett, Junot Diaz, Khaled Hosseini, Maya Banks, Harlen Coben, W.E. B. Griffin and many others.
Individual public libraries and consortia can shop the Penguin eBook catalog now on the Marketplace homepage (if catalogs are merged), or the 'Metered Access' section in OverDrive Marketplace. You can also search for the content in Advanced Search under Publisher Account: Penguin Group (USA).
Popular new releases such as Clive Cussler's "Mirage" and Patricia Cornell's latest Kay Scarpetta novel "Dust" will be priced at $18.99. Backlist favorites will range from $5.99 -$9.99.
Penguin eBooks are available for Kindle (US) via USB side-loading only. You can find more information on the Kindle side-loading process in the OverDrive Help article.
OverDrive Collection Development Specialists are available to help create recommended lists of the Penguin catalog. Please email collectionteam@overdrive.com for more information.
Karen Estrovich is the Collection Development Manager with OverDrive.
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Nook Simple Touch Glowlight Now Costs Just £49 In The UK
| The Nook Simple Touch Glowlight has earned itself the distinction of being the first front lit e-reader to breach the £50 mark, thanks to a price cut that has made the device cost just £49. The front lit e-reader had seen its price downsized to £69 from £109 earlier in the year, though the latest round of price reshuffling introduces a new low in e-reader price war. The Nook Simple Touch already costs a miserly £29, down from the £79 it cost earlier in the year. Compared to similar offerings from Amazon, the Kindle Paperwhite and the standard Kindle e-reader costs £109 and £69 respectively. This highlights B&N's effort to gain as much market share as possible. The price is perhaps the lowest that it can be and is well in time to ensure the Nook e-readers make the maximum possible impact during the holiday shopping period. The Nook Simple Touch Glowlight offers all that the Nook Simple Touch stands for, which includes an e-ink based display and a long battery life that can last well over a month. In addition, the Nook Glowlight also comes with a series of LEDs aligned along the top of the display which brightens up the screen to ensure it is visible even in low light conditions. The light might not be as well distributed as on the Kindle Paperwhite, but it still allows for a comfortable read during low light conditions, something that is aided with its light and compact build. B&N maintained the price cuts are just an extension of their affordability drive to ensure digital reading is accessible to all. Needless to say, both Nook e-readers come backed by the Nook online library, one of the biggest in the world.
Nook Simple Touch Glowlight Now Costs Just £49 In The UK is a post from: E-Reader News |
Tuesday, September 24, 2013
PubSoft’s New Platform Stands to Revolutionize the Publishing Industry
| While so much about publishing has changed in just the last few years, one of the unfortunate truths about publishing is that so much has not changed. The traditional publishing model, as most authors, readers, and booksellers know it, has not changed much in the last few hundred years, in fact. With the advent of digital publishing, self-publishing, and ebook-0nly and digital-first publishing, traditional models are looking for ways to keep up with the changes coming at them. PubSoft, a new platform aimed at helping publishers brand themselves and reach out to a category of consumer called “influencer readers,” released some news today about what it has to offer to a wide variety of publishers, from major houses with several imprints, down to a handful-of-titles independent publisher. “Pubsoft's unique digital publishing engine is a game-changer in the publishing sector. With Pubsoft, publishers can quickly and easily create and manage a custom ebook store to enable direct-to-consumer ebook sales, including branded mobile publishing for iPad devices. The Pubsoft platform gives publishers the power to engage and manage authors with SEO-optimized author and book landing pages, social media marketing integration, distribution capabilities across multiple channels and online content sampling and multiple point of purchase options. “The platform streamlines backend workflow tasks, automating online marketing functions and administrative work and allowing publishers to capture and analyze author, reader and revenue data. Pubsoft delivers a dashboard that gives publishers the power to capture metadata and drill down into book, author and reader levels for insights that can supercharge marketing campaigns, inform key business decisions and drive broader product strategy.” Good e-Reader spoke with Kbuuk and PubSoft’s Dougal Cameron about what this platform has to offer everyone involved in the life of a book. “Publishers’ websites are increasingly being used by readers who want to know more about authors. The very fact that they're on that publisher's website suggests that they have a deeper level of connection with the publisher. Our aim is to capture that reader and allow the publisher to connect with that reader, helping publishers understand what readers want and refine their offering. The impact will be a direct sales platform for ebooks, a publisher-branded iPad app, a storefront that can be blended with the publishers look and feel, along with an author portal and publisher portal.” PubSoft’s publisher dashboard currently offers far too many features to identify, but highlights include a publisher-branded interface for the growing number of readers who are seeking out publisher websites for information on their favorite authors, a branded ebook store where their readers can purchase titles, real-time data on tracking book sales and royalties, and more. Essentially, PubSoft stands to bring traditional publishers into a model that more closely mimics that freedom and information that self-publishers are currently enjoying from their platforms, all while helping leverage much-needed promotion and book discovery for their authors. At the same time, it is the readers and authors who most stand to benefit from the interface.
PubSoft’s New Platform Stands to Revolutionize the Publishing Industry is a post from: E-Reader News |
Snugg Cover Review for Nexus 7 2
| Last month I posted a review of the official Asus travel cover for the Google Nexus 7 2. Because of its cheap, flimsy design I didn’t like it very much, and now it just sits on a shelf gathering dust. As I set out to find a better cover, the folks at TheSnugg.com offered to […] |
Simon&Schuster Opens Select eBook Titles to Public School Classroom Use
| Once the current digital revolution took hold, a future focused on digital reading seemed to be a possibility. The education sphere, to be sure, was eager to embrace the portability, the durability, and–perhaps above all–the cost effectiveness of ebooks. Unfortunately, buying digital editions for public school classrooms isn’t as streamlined as it is for the general public. Many teachers encountered a frustrating truth about ebooks: they weren’t books, and they weren’t software. The limbo of ebooks meant that many school systems were reluctant to spend money on ebooks, even as teachers unwrapped their shiny new iPads, Kindles, and other devices that were more than capable of supporting e-reading. Essentially, if a “property of” sticker couldn’t be placed on it, many schools wouldn’t allow state and federal funding to be used for the purchase. Now, Simon&Schuster has launched a pilot program that will help move forward the process of ebook buying for schools. The program makes several of its most popular children’s and middle grade titles available through ebook distributors Booksource, Follett, Mackin Educational Resources, and Perma-Bound, allowing classrooms to purchase a one-year license for the book as many schools already have systems in place to finance software licenses. "We're pleased to work with these four widely-respected and innovative educational distributors in this first important step toward bringing our catalog to students and teachers," said Michael Selleck, Executive Vice President, Sales and Marketing, Simon & Schuster, Inc, in a press release. "As more and more in-classroom and take-home reading takes place online and via eBook readers and tablets, publishers can help create future generations of readers and contribute to the health of our nation's educational system by providing books in the formats that schools need to help students learn." This agreement with the distributors will also mean that PC-based reading is more available to classrooms, especially those with limited access to tablet devices. Some of the titles included in the pilot are CLICK, CLACK, MOO: COWS THAT TYPE by Doreen Cronin and illustrated by Betsy Lewin, HATCHET by Gary Paulsen, OUT OF MY MIND by Sharon Draper, FAHRENHEIT 451 by Ray Bradbury, ANGELA'S ASHES by Frank McCourt and FOR WHOM THE BELL TOLLS by Ernest Hemingway.
Simon&Schuster Opens Select eBook Titles to Public School Classroom Use is a post from: E-Reader News |
Setting Up an e-Library in Nepal
| Nepal is the latest country to wake up to the significance of having in place an effective network of libraries for education. Thankfully, the country is pursuing the establishment of digital libraries, with the government already having outlined its intention of creating 1,053 e-libraries in the Himalayan kingdom. This is no doubt a timely move, as Nepal already holds the dubious distinction of having the worst access to education among its population. Towards this end, the government in Nepal has allocated one billion rupees from the current budget allocation to facilitating access to the internet from schools and libraries. The amount is to be spent by each school’s authorities for procuring five PCs, a printer, as well as establishing internet connections. An e-library has also been inaugurated recently in the Chitwan district, with the District Education Office calling on more schools from the region to avail themselves of the government grant for buying computers. However, as the President of the Nepal Library Foundation Naresh Koirala pointed out, there is some ambiguity in the entire process as the government has stated their grant is to be spent for buying computers in schools, while the Education Minister, Madhab Prashad Poudyal, has said their government is keen to set up e-libraries in the country with that funding. Nepal faces an acute shortage of school and educational institutions, let alone a proper network of libraries. This has left it to private players or NGOs to fill the vacuum, though the absence of a coherent national policy on this has ensured there are not enough libraries to cater to its citizens. NLF, a charity organization registered in Canada and a Non-Nepali Residents Association, contributed over 100 computers to a number of schools and community libraries in Nepal between 2007 and 2012, though obviously more of such efforts are needed to ensure that there is enough access to e-libraries in the country.
Setting Up an e-Library in Nepal is a post from: E-Reader News |
OverDrive Media Console app update for iOS users
| An app update for OverDrive Media Console for iOS users is now available in the Apple App Store. This new version addresses the issues that prevented users from opening eBooks in OMC for iOS v3.0.1 after upgrading to iOS 7.
After installing v3.0.2, users may be prompted to re-authorize the app with their Adobe ID when attempting to open an EPUB eBook. If a user has not re-authorized his or her Adobe ID after upgrading to iOS 7, they will be prompted to re-authorize. If a user has previously uninstalled and reinstalled the app after upgrading to iOS 7 and then re-authorized with their Adobe ID, the user will not be prompted to re-authorize.
This update also contains the following updates:
Thanks for your patience as we resolved this issue.
Adam Sockel is a Marketing Communications Specialist with OverDrive
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Sonic Pi – a free music and computing resource for teachers, and for the rest of us
| Carrie Anne Philbin, an absolutely inspirational CS teacher of the sort I wish had been around when I was a kid, has been doing a lot of work with the Pi in her lessons over the last year or so. She’s creator of the Geek Gurl Diaries YouTube web series, a Computer Science and ICT teacher, recipient of TalkTalk’s London 2013 Digital Heroes award, and somebody that all of us at Raspberry Pi think very, very highly of. Most recently, Carrie Anne has spent much of the summer working with Dr Sam Aaron at the University of Cambridge on a Key Stage 3 scheme of work for schools, tailored for England’s new programme of study, based around a little something of Sam’s called Sonic Pi. Sonic Pi is a programming environment that allows you to make sounds. Which is a very dull way of saying that it’s a way to build your own synthesiser from scratch. Sonic Pi, and the associated teaching and learning materials, are open and free. Dr Sam Aaron is a researcher at the University of Cambridge Computer Lab. He’s also a musician, and he’s one of the most interesting people I know, with a breadth of knowledge and enthusiasms that makes for some very late nights of conversation when he visits Pi Towers. Sam’s been working on Sonic Pi since 2012, and we are delighted to see his work being used so successfully in schools. Sam’s (rather brilliant) realisation is that you can engineer a situation whereby kids accidentally learn fundamental concepts of computing, programming and programmatic thinking, by being asked to do something creative: in this case, making music with a tool they’ve built themselves. The set of lessons will take kids from a starting point of no familiarity at all with computing. Sonic Pi, with the lesson plans and materials provided by Carrie Anne, gives teachers with little or no programming background plenty of support; those lesson plans offer a guided route through using Sonic Pi in the classroom.  Sam gives a seminar Carrie Anne says: I get asked by teachers all the time: how can Raspberry Pi be used in the classroom? And how can it help us meet the aims of the new Computing programme of study? These were questions I had, until I met Sam and started to develop lessons using his music Pi synthesizer software. For me, gender neutrality, creativity, imagination and tinker time are the basis for learning computer science in my classroom. When Sam suggested teaching computing concepts with music, I knew he was onto a winner, and that it would tick all the boxes. After a month or so of planning and preparing in Jan 2013, we started to teach our Sonic Pi lessons to my Year 8 classes, and I was astounded. Firstly, by just how engaged they were by this little computer. Getting students away from the ‘internet boxes’ in the room got them thinking about what a computer really is, wherein lies the power of the Pi. Secondly, by the positive reactions of both genders, and of students with learning difficulties, who in the past had been quite negative about the subject. In fact my most memorable occasion was when a member of the senior leadership team came into the room. He spotted my learning objectives on the board and then asked a normally uninterested 13-year-old girl what she was doing. In a few sentences she explained logic, sequencing, iteration and conditionals in a way that made it all sound so matter-of-fact. With a little structured creativity and freedom, students in both classes progressed massively with a text-based programming language. Their achievement was not only being able to program and make decisions about their code for themselves, but also in the memorable musical masterpieces they made. I’m very excited to roll this scheme of work out across the whole of Year 8 this academic year to see what more fun we can have in class. This video is an example of work prepared by a pair of girls in Year 8 (kids in Year 8 in the UK are aged 12 and 13) who are part-way through the Sonic Pi set of lessons. We’ve been so impressed by what we’ve seen so far from Sam and Carrie Anne; we look forward to seeing what comes next. Kids we’ve spoken to have been really excited and enthused by Sonic Pi, and have been hard to drag away from the class Raspberry Pis at the end of sessions. This is a program of lessons that gives kids the freedom of action to take their own Sonic Pi project in any direction they want to, moving away from the sort of lesson where everybody works on the same piece of software, and giving students the agency to develop their work in an individual way, while almost accidentally becoming familiar with an important set of fundamentals. Carrie Anne and Sam are running trials of the project in a number of different schools with very different demographics, and so far, the results look great.  Sonic Pi lesson in progress If you’d like to use Sonic Pi and the scheme of work Sam and Carrie Anne have created in your own classroom, you can download everything for free at the Sonic Pi website. You’ll find other teachers in the forums here at Raspberry Pi, especially in the education section. Non-teachers are also encouraged to check out the software and the scheme of work for themselves. Please join in, both there and in the comments here – we, and Sam and Carrie Anne, would love to know what you think. |
Sony PRS-T2 VS Sony PRS-T3
| There used to be a time not too long ago, where Sony would release three different e-Reader models a year. The Japanese company has shifted their priorities to tablets and now only does one e-ink release a year. Last week Sony released their 3rd generation T3 reader and we compare it against last years model. How exactly do the two stack up against each other in a side by side comparison? Both of these devices are very much the same, in terms of hardware. The CPU speed is 1 GHZ, while RAM sits at 512 MB. You have 1.2 GB of internal memory available and can easily expand it up to 32 GB via the Micro SD. The main difference is the resolution, with 1024×758 on the T3 vs the 800×600 on the T2. They also give you around two months of battery life and have the exact same firmware, so you will have a similar experience on the newer model. The main difference between the two units is the built in case on the Sony PRS-T3. Sony has taken the gambit of a mandatory carrying case that comes for free with the e-Reader. If you remove it, the back is very jagged and if you get it wet, you could destroy it. If you want to read in the dark, you have to buy a carrying case with a light, that costs around $60.00. Sony PRS-T2 VS Sony PRS-T3 is a post from: E-Reader News |
Monday, September 23, 2013
Sony PRS-T3 Case with Reading Light Review
| The Sony PRS-T3 e-Reader has officially been released in a number of countries. This new model has a built in case that ships that ships with it and its important to note this unit was designed with the intention of always using the case. If you want to read in the dark, you must purchase the Sony PRS-T3 Case with built in reading light. It retails for around $50.00 and can be purchased from Sony Online or other retailers. Is this case a good investment? Today, we evaluate it in our official review. The Sony PRS-T3 Case with Reading Light is a bit more bulky than the case that ships with the unit by default. It feels a little bit more unwieldy because there is extra girth to accommodate the reading light and the wires that bind them. The front of the case is a nice leather and the side that faces your e-Reader screen is made of suede. This case is fairly useful because it automatically wakes up the screen from standby mode when you open it up, so you can jump right into the book. The Reading Light itself is much akin to previous Sony offerings. The LCD light has two LED’s and doesn’t really provide enough illumination to evenly distribute the light across the screen. You will find yourself in the common situation of the top half of the screen looking really good, but the bottom half is cloaked in darkness. The LCD light is not malleable, so you can’t position it the way you want, you are basically just stuck with the default positioning. In the following video review we do a proper unboxing of the case to show you how it looks and attach it to the e-Reader for the first time. In our full video review we show you how it looks in complete darkness and in low-light conditions. You can get a sense on the real world conditions and if this is the right investment for you. Sony PRS-T3 Case with Reading Light Review is a post from: E-Reader News |
Judge Dredd Case Files Comes to iOS
| Rebellion, the folks behind the British sci-fi comics anthology 2000AD, have been pretty aggressive about marketing their weekly comic digitally, with both an iOS app and direct downloads via their website. This week’s issue of 2000AD, Prog 1850 (issues are called “progs” in their world), is a good jumping-on point for new readers, with four new story arcs launching at once. Richard Bruton observes in his review at the Forbidden Planet blog that three of the “new” stories are the beginnings of new story arcs in existing series, but the Table of Contents includes a bit of backstory and heck, there’s always Wikipedia. There’s more, though. A few months ago Rebellion started offering 2000AD’s companion monthly, Judge Dredd Megazine, digitally as well, and now they are filling in the backstory with 20 volumes of The Judge Dredd Case Files, available via their iOS app. (You can find them on Kindle as well, at what looks like a slightly lower price of $9.99 per volume.) These 20 volumes (with vol. 21 due out next month) collect every Judge Dredd story from 2000AD and Judge Dredd Megazine, in order of publication. Each volume is priced at £9.99 to $13.99, or whatever that translates to in dollars, pesos, or your own local currency, for over 300 pages of work by creators such as John Wagner, Grant Morrison, Garth Ennis, Dave Gibbons, Mark Millar, Brian Bolland, and Carlos Ezquerra. Check out the preview at Robot 6 for a sample of what’s inside. Judge Dredd Case Files Comes to iOS is a post from: E-Reader News |
Blackberry Enters an Agreement to take Company Private
| Blackberry has announced that have entered into an agreement with Fairfax financial, their largest shareholder, to take the company private. Trading of the companies shares were suspended today and the evaluation on the deal is $4.7 billion. Pending due diligence that’s expected to be completed by November 4th, the deal would see BlackBerry go private, with shareholders each receiving $9 per share in cash. In a statement, Fairfax Chairman and CEO Prem Watsa said, “we believe this transaction will open an exciting new private chapter for BlackBerry, its customers, carriers and employees,” adding, “we can deliver immediate value to shareholders, while we continue the execution of a long-term strategy in a private company with a focus on delivering superior and secure enterprise solutions to BlackBerry customers around the world.” If the sale goes through, you can expect Blackberry to focus once more on the business and enterprise segment. Appealing to the corporate and government sectors as always been their bread and butter. They have lost sight of this market in trying to have a broad commercial appeal with their latest generation Blackberry 10 devices. Blackberry Enters an Agreement to take Company Private is a post from: E-Reader News |
Kobo’s Backwards Sales Tactics at Work Again
| At times, Kobo is one of the most mind-boggling companies when it comes to selling their products. It’s make you wonder how they can keep up with the likes of Amazon at all. Last week I noticed that the Kobo Aura, Kobo’s latest ebook reader that just started shipping a couple weeks ago, has disappeared […] |
Nooks On Sale Again – Up to $30 Off
| Barnes and Noble is running another sale on Nook ereaders and the Nook HD tablet this week (the HD+ is left out of this round of deals). The pricing breaks down as follows: Nook Touch – $59 ($20 off) Nook Touch with Glowlight – $79 ($20 off) Nook HD 8GB – $109 ($20 off) Nook […] |
2013 UK Beaver Computing Competition
| Chris Roffey, creator of the most excellent Coding Club books, got in touch to tell us about the 2013 UK Beaver Computing Competition. He says: “This November there is the chance for all school students to enter the UK’s first Beaver Competition for FREE! I think it is a great opportunity for all groups of students to find out, in an enjoyable way, whether they have an aptitude in Computational Thinking. I would like to see at least as many girls entered as boys. Wouldn’t it be great if 15 girls discovered they were in the top 25 students in the UK and thus considered a career they had not thought was for them? I also would like to see students entered from all age groups. Again it would be great to see a Maths A level group entered and for them to discover that they might like to take CompSci at Uni when they had not thought of this as an option. France had 90 000 students sit their first year doing this competition last year – it would be good to beat them!” Registration closes on 27 October and the competition itself is 45 minute during the week of November 11th. There are four categories and the competition is open to students of all abilities. Chris points out that, "entry is only through a school and as such any individual wishing to enter would need to nag their ICT/Computing teacher." So if that’s you then get nagging! If you are that teacher then this is a great opportunity to do something a bit different and to introduce your students to computational thinking. The competition is all about using your grey stuff to solve problems — there is no programming and no preparation. The solutions show how the problem is related to Computer Science so could even be used for future lessons. Chris has also set up an event page on the Computing at School forum where teachers might want to meditate on the tricky question, "Want an easy teaching week?" |
Reach Out and Read Earns LOC Prize, Receives One Million Books from Scholastic
| At this weekend’s National Book Festival, hosted by the Library of Congress, book distribution and reading awareness organization Reach Out and Read was presented with the David M. Rubenstein Prize for the charity’s work to combat illiteracy, especially among low-income and underserved demographics of children. In addition the $150,000 prize, Reach Out and Read had a new surprise today: a donation of one million books from the world’s largest children’s publisher, Scholastic. "We believe that literacy is the birthright of every child and the pathway to success in school, and it starts by creating a home library from which children can access and choose books that will set them up for a lifetime of independent reading," said Richard Robinson, Chairman and CEO of Scholastic, in a press release today. "Scholastic has been a longtime supporter of the work Reach Out and Read does to promote early-childhood literacy, and their proven model continues to successfully prescribe reading for all children and their families during their visit to the doctor." "We know that books build better brains – and a million young brains will be shaped for the future through this incredible donation from Scholastic," continued Reach Out and Read’s Executive Director Anne-Marie Fitzgerald. "Scholastic is our oldest and most generous partner, and without their continued commitment, we would not be able to help children grow up to become readers and support parents as their children's first and most important teachers. As Reach Out and Read is poised to begin its 25th year, these books, along with the award from the Library of Congress, will be instrumental in creating a new generation of readers. On behalf of our 12,000 pediatricians and the millions of children we serve nationwide, I thank Scholastic for this tremendous gift." Reach Out and Read distributes over 6.5 million books each year to low-income families in order to build home libraries of books. The organization also works with health care providers who specialize in children’s health to distribute materials and to encourage reading in the home, especially oral reading in order to build word recognition, reading fluency, and to foster family time. The organization has already been proven to be quite effective, as children served by the program typically score several months ahead of their non-served peers in reading.
Reach Out and Read Earns LOC Prize, Receives One Million Books from Scholastic is a post from: E-Reader News |
