Tech Edge, Mobile Learning In The Classroom - Episode 14, Summer Reading
Trainin
Author
05/16/2016
Added
159
Plays
Description
Technology Information: Summer Reading
Searchable Transcript
Toggle between list and paragraph view.
- [00:00:00.101]Coming up on Mobile Learning in the Classroom
- [00:00:02.387]Summer Reading.
- [00:00:04.331](upbeat music)
- [00:00:12.227](upbeat music)
- [00:00:16.714]Hi, I'm Guy Trainin.
- [00:00:18.480]And I'm Zoe Falls.
- [00:00:19.891]And this is Mobile Learning in the Classroom
- [00:00:21.940]from Tech Edge and today we're talking about summer reading
- [00:00:24.204]so as your students are leaving your class
- [00:00:26.107]or if you're parents and you have kids at home
- [00:00:28.677]and they're getting ready for their summer vacation,
- [00:00:31.233]we want to talk about the few opportunities
- [00:00:33.172]where kids can use devices and they don't have
- [00:00:35.588]to use only devices, but to use devices to read
- [00:00:38.733]over the summer and they can do that if you're traveling
- [00:00:41.312]or if you're staying home and the kids are bored
- [00:00:43.595]or whatever else is going on, reading is great
- [00:00:46.321]and we do know actually from research that kids
- [00:00:48.744]that don't do reading over the summer
- [00:00:50.251]have a dip in their reading ability
- [00:00:52.075]and that means they start the following year with less.
- [00:00:55.696]So we want kids to read over the summer
- [00:00:57.415]and selection is really important,
- [00:00:59.156]things they are excited about.
- [00:01:00.488]So we're gonna talk about a few apps
- [00:01:02.048]that really give you a stream of possible reading.
- [00:01:05.148]Some for pay, some not, so for your choice.
- [00:01:08.607]And let's go.
- [00:01:09.768]So Google Play is a great app to get students reading
- [00:01:14.400]and one of the things that I really like about Google Play
- [00:01:17.417]is the availability of free books that they have
- [00:01:21.751]and you can type in kind of like anything
- [00:01:24.990]and it works like a Google search.
- [00:01:26.384]So you can do a broader term,
- [00:01:29.323]so I'm just gonna go ahead and do summer reading
- [00:01:31.190]and see what it gives me.
- [00:01:34.459]Let's see here, reading.
- [00:01:39.784]And it'll tell you right away if it's a free sample
- [00:01:43.106]or if the whole book is free.
- [00:01:44.673]So if you're on a budget or like my parents
- [00:01:47.785]would give me a book budget for the summer.
- [00:01:51.021]So I could go to the library, but like book budget
- [00:01:54.085]for the summer.
- [00:01:55.838]And so they can go through
- [00:01:57.080]and the nice thing about the sample
- [00:01:58.265]is you can have your student or your child read it
- [00:02:01.342]and see if they like it.
- [00:02:02.626]And then if they like it, go ahead and do
- [00:02:04.325]an in app purchase.
- [00:02:05.582]Or go to the library and borrow it
- [00:02:07.564]or as we will see use OverDrive and borrow it electronically
- [00:02:11.001]from the library.
- [00:02:11.918]So the sample is a fantastic way to just get a taste.
- [00:02:14.957]Do I like that style?
- [00:02:16.027]Is it something I want to do?
- [00:02:17.607]Exactly and it's a nice time saver
- [00:02:19.047]because if you're running to the library
- [00:02:21.341]on your way to somewhere else,
- [00:02:23.273]which was usually our household.
- [00:02:24.719]We'd run to the library on our way out of town
- [00:02:26.117]to see grandma, you know,
- [00:02:27.881]your kids can have this time at home
- [00:02:30.007]to go through the sample and then like yes,
- [00:02:32.967]I want these three books and then they're not spending
- [00:02:35.149]all that time.
- [00:02:37.344]And what I do love about the Play Books
- [00:02:41.407]is that they are available across all devices.
- [00:02:44.472]So if you have a Chromebook or any actually computer
- [00:02:49.242]with Chrome on it, you can put it as an app
- [00:02:52.551]and then through Google Play I get exactly
- [00:02:55.352]the same selection that I get on my iPad
- [00:02:57.904]and definitely if you have an Android device, I don't,
- [00:03:00.910]but if you do, that'll work as well.
- [00:03:03.733]I do, it works on my Android device too.
- [00:03:07.256]One of the things I like about it,
- [00:03:08.469]is you can save the books in your own library.
- [00:03:10.592]So you can set aside, so if you have multiple kids,
- [00:03:12.671]you can have a separate library for each kid
- [00:03:14.843]and they can just go in and find their books.
- [00:03:17.176]You can add ones, they can add them,
- [00:03:19.265]and it's all synced through your Google,
- [00:03:21.497]which again, is one of the nice features
- [00:03:23.445]that Google has 'cause they're always there.
- [00:03:25.500]So if your at grandma's house
- [00:03:26.882]and you get on grandma's computer,
- [00:03:28.124]you can still access your books through your Google account.
- [00:03:32.438]And the great thing about this,
- [00:03:36.189]and this is something we note, just as we talked about
- [00:03:39.146]different ways because yes there is Google Play Books,
- [00:03:42.832]but then there's Kindle and iBooks and each one of these
- [00:03:46.153]have a somewhat different list of free books,
- [00:03:48.922]so sometimes it's worth browsing in multiple apps like that
- [00:03:53.467]to make sure that you're getting books
- [00:03:55.838]that are available.
- [00:03:57.367]Most of the classics are available
- [00:03:58.972]because of the different projects.
- [00:04:00.942]Most of the classics are available in one format or another
- [00:04:03.997]on these books.
- [00:04:04.819]So Treasure Island is a great example that I like using,
- [00:04:07.679]but there's lots of other books that you can get that way
- [00:04:10.976]and have access to without having to pay for them
- [00:04:14.843]so you can really read the classics over the summer.
- [00:04:18.047]Exactly.
- [00:04:18.744]So I just pulled up Pride and Prejudice
- [00:04:20.184]'cause that's one of my default classics to go to.
- [00:04:23.548]And again, it's free, which is lovely
- [00:04:26.238]and so they can just go through and read it
- [00:04:28.595]and even if they don't end up liking it
- [00:04:30.162]and they want to switch to Treasure Island,
- [00:04:33.599]they can do that.
- [00:04:34.942]It flips like a book, which is really nice
- [00:04:38.456]'cause I know when I've seen kids use an app
- [00:04:40.825]they kind of get excited at the animation aspect
- [00:04:43.565]in seeing that page actually move.
- [00:04:47.327]So this is a great way to get some access to books
- [00:04:51.090]and to really read full books
- [00:04:55.999]that are available and now we're talking
- [00:04:58.429]from about mid elementary up, this is a really good choice.
- [00:05:01.845]But if you've got some younger kids,
- [00:05:04.161]Epic is a really great app where you can get access
- [00:05:07.354]to a lot of shorter stories that are aimed
- [00:05:10.279]at the somewhat younger audience.
- [00:05:12.601]And Epic is coming up.
- [00:05:15.722]So what you can do in Epic,
- [00:05:18.058]as Zoe is kind of scrolling through this,
- [00:05:20.980]you can see that you have a selection.
- [00:05:23.619]You talk about what you like as you set it up.
- [00:05:27.663]And you can choose the age of your child,
- [00:05:29.993]which is a really nice feature because then
- [00:05:32.095]it's going to target where the child is at.
- [00:05:35.461]So we're gonna go with seven.
- [00:05:36.913]And one of the differences is, of course,
- [00:05:39.061]with the younger, younger kids, from four to about seven,
- [00:05:42.961]what you really are getting is books you're going to read
- [00:05:46.674]with and to them and as kids get older
- [00:05:49.257]these are expected to be the things
- [00:05:51.277]that you're going to actually
- [00:05:55.008]have them read on their own or read back to you,
- [00:05:58.313]which is very, very different and as a result
- [00:06:01.098]it's a little bit of a different complexity
- [00:06:02.713]and it's not just a straight line of getting simpler.
- [00:06:05.800]And they do have a selection in Spanish as well,
- [00:06:08.320]which is great.
- [00:06:09.354]So we select our--
- [00:06:10.619]Living things 'cause we're going to the zoo.
- [00:06:15.040]Let's do wild things.
- [00:06:20.369]And now we do need to create an account.
- [00:06:22.310]So while Zoe is trying to quickly create an account,
- [00:06:26.649]we can talk about what does Epic do.
- [00:06:28.949]So Epic provides lots of free books.
- [00:06:31.975]You can get a subscription on the Chromebook
- [00:06:37.052]or on Chrome in general.
- [00:06:39.239]So really on any device,
- [00:06:42.000]although those actually have a cost per month,
- [00:06:45.520]but it's $5 per month and you get unlimited reading.
- [00:06:48.782]So if you think about I'm gonna do this only for the summer,
- [00:06:51.556]you're talking about $15, which is three ice creams,
- [00:06:54.737]give or take.
- [00:06:55.956]Totally worth it
- [00:06:57.837]as a way to make sure that kids have access to really
- [00:07:02.098]age-appropriate books that are things
- [00:07:05.016]that they would like to read that are illustrated,
- [00:07:07.837]high quality vetted.
- [00:07:09.500]They've got the combination of a narrative text
- [00:07:12.486]and expository text so you get more of that science,
- [00:07:15.875]social studies kind of text
- [00:07:18.087]and not just narrative.
- [00:07:20.537]Narrative is great, but kids need to be exposed to both
- [00:07:23.035]and we know that and it's a great way
- [00:07:25.817]to work on reading stamina, just reading more,
- [00:07:28.658]getting new vocabulary and really getting
- [00:07:32.817]background knowledge.
- [00:07:34.057]What can you learn from books
- [00:07:35.977]and the joy of reading from books.
- [00:07:38.762]And one thing about summer is,
- [00:07:40.431]these are not things you have to do.
- [00:07:42.578]So if you're enjoying them, great.
- [00:07:45.056]If you don't like that book, try a different one,
- [00:07:47.870]not a problem.
- [00:07:51.002]Zoe showed us how to log in and to select everything,
- [00:07:53.933]but I'm using my account to actually
- [00:07:57.079]look at the selection of books
- [00:07:58.460]and the first thing that you can see
- [00:07:59.738]is that these are real books and what I mean by that
- [00:08:02.977]is these are things that were actually published.
- [00:08:04.835]Some of them are original to Epic,
- [00:08:06.268]but many of them are not.
- [00:08:08.459]That means that you are getting quality books
- [00:08:10.198]and not just something, because some of these sites
- [00:08:12.880]have some stories that they kind of throw together.
- [00:08:15.795]Oh yes.
- [00:08:17.131]And the text are like not my favorite,
- [00:08:20.218]but this one has lots of good quality.
- [00:08:22.912]You can see a range.
- [00:08:24.132]So we talked about going to the zoo.
- [00:08:26.678]And what I love about these books is at the beginning
- [00:08:29.098]it says what ages they're for, about how long
- [00:08:31.433]it's gonna take to read them
- [00:08:33.198]and so you can actually flip through, and again,
- [00:08:36.530]you get that sense of progress up there.
- [00:08:38.663]You can read it offline, which is great.
- [00:08:40.431]So if you're going in the car
- [00:08:41.589]and you don't have access online,
- [00:08:44.494]you can say I want to read it offline
- [00:08:46.758]and then it's added to your collection of books
- [00:08:49.092]to read offline.
- [00:08:50.078]So if your kids have their favorite book ever,
- [00:08:52.760]it's a way to save it and you always have access to it
- [00:08:55.627]and that allows you to do that.
- [00:08:59.112]And of course, you can make it a little bit bigger
- [00:09:00.818]so you can see everything.
- [00:09:02.316]And it tells you how many pages are left.
- [00:09:04.092]I know that's kind of silly, but most people like knowing
- [00:09:07.220]more or less where they are in the books
- [00:09:08.771]and kids love knowing that they're getting closer to the end
- [00:09:11.940]and you can zoom in though if you want the text
- [00:09:14.170]a little bit larger, if you want to look at the pictures
- [00:09:16.654]and all of that, and again, you can see
- [00:09:18.500]this is really high quality.
- [00:09:19.857]It's got really nice art and it's a way
- [00:09:23.132]to really consume a book in a delightful way.
- [00:09:29.411]The other thing that I like about this
- [00:09:31.201]is that in general,
- [00:09:35.372]the interface is very simple.
- [00:09:37.032]So there aren't too many games.
- [00:09:38.971]There aren't features that are not directly relevant
- [00:09:41.734]to reading the book.
- [00:09:43.575]And that personally for me always works
- [00:09:45.751]when there are too many things that jump up and down.
- [00:09:47.678]And the kids would get distracted from the reading
- [00:09:50.012]and it would be more about the app than about reading.
- [00:09:54.410]So if that's what you want, they can favorite it
- [00:09:57.074]and there is the chance to create a community,
- [00:09:58.955]so if you've got a class of kids going for the summer
- [00:10:01.277]and you want them to still connect, as a teacher
- [00:10:03.994]you can create that community that they can relate to.
- [00:10:07.059]As parents, you can decide whether you want your kids
- [00:10:09.311]to communicate, but that's a very limited community,
- [00:10:12.132]so it's not just out there.
- [00:10:14.155]But what a way to get kids excited about it
- [00:10:15.987]because then they're reading what their friends are reading
- [00:10:18.054]and they can have a dialogue when they go back to school.
- [00:10:21.606]So lots of opportunities, and again,
- [00:10:23.614]you can see huge selections.
- [00:10:25.948]There are some educational videos even
- [00:10:27.666]that talk about this.
- [00:10:28.932]There are articles and there are books
- [00:10:30.917]that are more basic, so you can really
- [00:10:35.294]work with the levels and adjust everything.
- [00:10:37.930]Preferences allow you to change the age
- [00:10:41.006]and the kind of books that are available through it.
- [00:10:45.557]So you can change it in the middle as well as
- [00:10:48.367]at the beginning.
- [00:10:49.586]And again, there is an educator account
- [00:10:52.048]that you can get for free, so that allows you to browse
- [00:10:55.693]and to suggest and to really see what's available
- [00:10:57.875]so you can recommend it for kids if you have kids
- [00:11:00.068]that have access at home for this.
- [00:11:02.327]So this one is Epic.
- [00:11:03.778]And the last one I wanted to talk about
- [00:11:05.276]and this is an app I talk often about,
- [00:11:07.379]but I will rave about it for many years.
- [00:11:10.547]I have a few of those that I do that
- [00:11:12.709]on a fairly regular basis.
- [00:11:15.445]This is OverDrive and OverDrive allows you to have access
- [00:11:18.640]to public libraries and to school libraries,
- [00:11:20.954]so at least in our city in Lincoln,
- [00:11:24.406]the public schools have an OverDrive account.
- [00:11:26.663]So my kids go to school, they have obviously
- [00:11:28.729]a library account at the school and they can
- [00:11:31.121]borrow books electronically throughout the year
- [00:11:34.663]and in the summer and it's a great way
- [00:11:36.508]for them to get access to books,
- [00:11:39.057]but you can also use the public library.
- [00:11:42.301]And so they have actually two accounts,
- [00:11:44.043]one in the public library, one in the public schools
- [00:11:47.259]and they get access to different books through each one.
- [00:11:50.324]And just like working with Google Play,
- [00:11:54.848]they get to have a sample if they want
- [00:11:58.962]and if they want to borrow the book, if it's available,
- [00:12:01.395]they can actually borrow it electronically immediately
- [00:12:05.068]if it's available and if not, they can reserve it.
- [00:12:07.565]So you can reserve the book.
- [00:12:09.086]This is new for Zoe.
- [00:12:10.003]This is new, I'm very excited (laughs).
- [00:12:12.762]And you can borrow the book, you can read it.
- [00:12:15.819]It goes back automatically.
- [00:12:17.561]And you have both audio books available
- [00:12:19.556]and just digital books.
- [00:12:22.088]So this opens up so many opportunities.
- [00:12:24.898]And again, going to the library is great,
- [00:12:27.148]but borrowing this way is really fun,
- [00:12:30.506]especially if you just finished the book
- [00:12:32.004]you borrowed physically from the library
- [00:12:33.992]and you want the next one or you want something else
- [00:12:36.281]because you're just done and you want another book,
- [00:12:38.307]this really gives you that ability for access.
- [00:12:41.860]So today on Mobile Learning in the Classroom,
- [00:12:44.299]we've talked about summer reading and ways to engage kids
- [00:12:47.121]throughout the summer through devices
- [00:12:49.287]and we'll see you next time
- [00:12:50.522]on Mobile Learning in the Classroom.
- [00:12:53.426](upbeat music)
The screen size you are trying to search captions on is too small!
You can always jump over to MediaHub and check it out there.
Log in to post comments
Embed
Copy the following code into your page
HTML
<div style="padding-top: 56.25%; overflow: hidden; position:relative; -webkit-box-flex: 1; flex-grow: 1;"> <iframe style="bottom: 0; left: 0; position: absolute; right: 0; top: 0; border: 0; height: 100%; width: 100%;" src="https://mediahub.unl.edu/media/5657?format=iframe&autoplay=0" title="Video Player: Tech Edge, Mobile Learning In The Classroom - Episode 14, Summer Reading " allowfullscreen ></iframe> </div>
Comments
0 Comments