Comic book lovers and educators got on stage for two different panels at New York Comic Con yesterday to talk both about how comic books can ignite classroom discussion and how librarians can digitally bring those beloved books into schools.
Common Core, a new set of national curriculum standards that teachers nationwide are advised to follow, accepts graphic novels as a medium that instructors can use to teach students. But Nathan Tubbs, a sixth grade science teacher in Brooklyn, is excited by how comic books can turn kids who would otherwise never pick up a book into avid readers, even if that reading isn’t directly associated with class.
Read the full story: Digital Comic Books Offer Students New Ways of Learning | Mashable.
The Fall is full of opportunities for learning new skills and techniques. Here are 35 free professional development sessions that will be held live online this month.
On my list:
See: 35 Free Live Webinars for Librarians in October | Ellyssa Kroski – OEDB.org.
Socratic Is Creating a Textbook for the World, One Teacher Video at a Time | AllThingsD
Socratic today announced that it has raised $1.5 million from Spark Capital, Betaworks, John Maloney, Terrapin Bale, Chris Dixon and David Tisch. The company (formerly known as Vespr) aggregates and organizes video lessons (first, high school and college content; today, just chemistry and physics) so teachers and students can use them as resources.
Sir Tim Berners-Lee and Google lead coalition for cheaper internet [to the developing world] | The Bookseller
Cross-industry coalition aims to provide cheaper access in developing world, but analysts say service lacks support from ISPs.
Scribd Founder Envisions Google Glass-like Wearables For E-reading
“If we’re going to build hardware, the thing we want to do is build reading goggles, so you can do hands-free reading,” Adler says. “It’s a little bit of a crazy idea, and I think it’s a long way away for us, but there is already a number of e-readers out there, and I don’t think people need yet another device.”
An Oregon middle school educator tries to paint his mocking students as hackers in order to bring an action against them under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act.
Read: Principal sues students over parody Facebook, Twitter accounts | CNET News.
Teachers have a strong desire to teach reading for pleasure but feel frustrated by a restrictive curriculum, a lack of support from parents and a drop-off in school librarian numbers, according to publisher Egmont.
In the latest instalment of Egmont’s Reading Street study into children’s reading habits, the publisher’s consumer insight team surveyed 250 teachers about their pupils’ reading. The majority were classroom teachers, with 77% teaching children at primary stage and 66% having been in the profession for more than a decade.
Over half the teachers surveyed said there had been a decline in the number of children who read for pleasure over the course of their career, with the majority observing this trend over the past decade.
Read the full story: Teachers ‘frustrated’ over Reading for Pleasure | The Bookseller.
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