Ereading Strategies

Two articles pertaining to teaching careful reading on electronic devices from the May issue of Education Week:

1. Research Around Digital Reading Points to Potential Learning Gaps: Screen Reading Poses Learning ChallengesStrategies and helpful apps for aiding student comprehension and interaction with the printed text. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=aph&AN=95943884&site=ehost-live
   
2. Pa. District Trains Staff on E-Reading Strategies
   How do we help students transfer print-based reading strategies when reading digitally?  Teacher training at a school district in PA emphasizes that student eReading instruction needs to be explicit - that we shouldn't assume that students (or teachers) transfer print skills to electronic devices.  Read the article here: http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=aph&AN=95943913&site=ehost-live

The New Google Drive, Docs and Sheets Apps!

If any of you were, like me, utterly disappointed and incredulous at the absurdly expensive offering by Microsoft of Word, Excel and PowerPoint on the iPad, Google this week announced some interesting upgrades:

1. New Google Docs and Sheets apps!  From the Release Notes:

"With Google Docs you can:

-Create new documents or open and edit any that you started on the web or another device. 

-Share documents and work together with others in the same document at the same time

-Get stuff done anytime–even without an internet connection

-Add and respond to comments

-Never worry about losing your work–everything is automatically saved as you type

With Google Sheets you can:

- Create new spreadsheets or open and edit any that you started on the web or another device. 

- Share spreadsheets and work together with others in the same spreadsheet at the same time

- Get stuff done anytime–even without an internet connection

- Format cells, enter/sort data, perform various sheet operations, and more

- Never worry about losing your work–everything is automatically saved as you type"

So, for our students, they now have two FREE options next year for document and spreadsheet creation: Google and Apple's suite of Pages and Numbers (if they purchased a new iPad - but a one time $9.99 is better than at best the $45/year we'd pay for Microsoft Office).

For presentations, Keynote, Prezi, Haiku Deck, and SlideShark are the free options students have. However, Google now has the expectation and opportunity for a new Google Sheets app - which has been promised.

2. Updated GoogleDrive app.  This latest update allows you to password protect your files with a simple 4 digit security code.  The update itself also brings the GoogleDrive app more in line with how you may use DropBox or OneDrive.