Tuesday, August 28, 2007

Week #9, Thing #22 eBooks & audiobooks

I was completely unaware of the Gutenberg Project and it seems like such a useful resources for schools! There are so many items available and it could be such a support to people to have constant access to the book of their choice, in print or in audio versions. The downside is that even though there are many books to choose from, many of the books currently considered "required reading" by English departements in public schools are not yet available. Still, this is a great (and very affordable) option. I listened to a bit of Jane Austen from a LibriVox recording as part of this exercise. I also liked the "best places to get free books" list under the Discovery Resources.

The World eBook Fair was another site I had no idea was out there, but could be so useful to the staff and students of my school. Many students at my school like to purchase their own copies of books inprint but don't like waiting for the books to arrive. This would be a great help to them, to have the eBook available as an inexpensive download immediately. $8.95 a year??? What a bargain!! Especially when you compare that to what we pay for oue NetFlix subscriptions, right? The exercise is encouraging to me; I want to buy headphones to loan out to students who may not have them and advertise these links on my web page. I just need some time to get all of this done; this year I will try my best to find that time!

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