Thing 20

Until this course, I didn't realize the extent of available eBooks. With the latest edition of our middle school math textbook, students have access to the eBook at home. Students who have used this have stated that it's great to have since they don't have to take a book home. Of course, math books are different than other texts. I'm not sure how students feel about the eBook of their social studies text. The other experience I have had is with a Kindle. A few friends have purchased Kindles, so I felt the need to try them. I have to say that I did not enjoy reading as much on a Kindle as much as reading from an actual book. When pleasure reading, there is nothing better than turning pages. I found that I couldn't focus as much with the eBook. As for professional readings, I have to first print anything from the internet so that I can mark it up while reading.

In viewing many of the listed sites for eBooks, I have to say that I struggled to find books or authors that I was truly familiar with. However, I was amazed at the amount of books available. The World Public Library site was at first confusing to navigate through. Once I saw that you could search by collection, it made it easier. Again when I think of books relating to my work, I think of children's literature (in which I couldn't find any recent titles) and math texts (which there were none). I liked the look of ManyBooks.net. The site was easy to navigate by title, keyword or author. However, again, I wasn't able to find any titles or authors I was familiar with.

I was very impressed with the collections within the NHS Library. Here, I was able to find books available that I did recognize. I also noticed that there were many resources available online. Based on what I found, many of these titles and resources are free when students log in from school. I did have trouble logging in to the site. (I'm assuming much of this has to do with all of the changes to our system.)

As for eBooks with my students, I'm not sure how I would use them with students other than with eTextbooks. As for my blog, I can envision listing the links to the sites for the eBooks so that parents can have access to their children's textbooks.