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We ran a course on Kindles and iPads and eBooks last week - some observations: 1. Over half the teachers on the course owned a Kindle. 2. A teacher from a Primary unit for pupils with visual impairment has 6 Kindles and she says she's almost stopped using paper large print completely - she emails the materials to the Kindles and the pupils use large font sizes on the devices instead. It saves a lot of paper, printing and therefore money, and the pupils prefer the Kindles to most (not all) of the paper large print books (books with large colour diagrams might not be that good on the Kindle screen). It's also a lot quicker - printing out 800 pages of 36 pt text takes a long time, whereas emailing the file to the Kindles takes seconds. 3. Another teacher on the course has a son who is dyslexic. He used to need coloured overlays to read books and was never a great reader, but he can see the Kindle screen display: she says he now spends hours reading books on the Kindle whereas before he never read for pleasure. 4. Participants generally felt that the Kindle, iPad, iPod etc have a considerable 'cool' factor, which is of course a big issue. And because they are mainstream devices, you don't look that different if you use one to read books. 5. The eBook formats and readers are definitely becoming more accessible - bigger range of fonts, options to change colours and font sizes, better access with text-to-speech software. 6. Some public libraries (Edinburgh, Dundee and South Ayrshire, at least) are now offering eBooks on loan. You can borrow a book and read it on your computer, iPod, iPad, Android device etc. 7. The most exciting thing, for me, is the huge increase in the availability of books and materials - as well as Kindle, we have iBooks, WH Smith, Google Book store. Although the commercial eBook formats and readers may not give us everything we want in terms of accessibility (yet), they are getting there, and we are already seeing how the technology can give print disabled pupils access to learning materials in a way that is quicker, cheaper, easier and more independent than what we had before. However, there a re still a lot of management issues re registering to accounts, buying content etc with both Kindles and iPods because they are basically designed for individual use, not use in schools or colleges etc. Paul _______________________________________________ Paul D. Nisbet Senior Research Fellow Communication, Access, Literacy and Learning (CALL) Scotland Moray House School of Education University of Edinburgh Paterson's Land, Holyrood Road Edinburgh EH8 8AQ Tel. 0131 651 6236 Fax 0131 651 6234 email [log in to unmask] CALL Scotland: http://www.callscotland.org.uk SQA Digital Exam Papers: http://www.AdaptedDigitalExams.org.uk The Scottish Computer Voice: http://www.theScottishVoice.org.uk Books for All: http://www.booksforall.org.uk WordTalk reader for Word: http://www.wordtalk.org.uk ________________________________________________ -- The University of Edinburgh is a charitable body, registered in Scotland, with registration number SC005336. -----Original Message----- From: A discussion list for Assistive Technology professionals. [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of E.A. Draffan Sent: 27 January 2012 13:56 To: [log in to unmask] Subject: Re: kindle I agree with Sal about the need to investigate the mainstreaming of AT in general, as there is such hype around in particular iPads and other tablets and smart phones. Plus there are lots of small projects going on that really need to be brought together to see what evidence there is in relation to strategies used, skills gained and communication improved etc. It is exciting, but as David Banes tweeted from ATIA yesterday " Warning, a little knowledge about consumer AT a dangerous thing" Best wishes E.A. Mrs E.A. Draffan ECS, University of Southampton, Tel +44 (0)23 8059 7246 http://access.ecs.soton.ac.uk http://www.emptech.info -----Original Message----- From: A discussion list for Assistive Technology professionals. [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Sal Cooke Sent: 27 January 2012 11:51 To: [log in to unmask] Subject: Re: kindle Interesting question - I would be interested in the debate (growing stronger by the day) that Kindles and other such devices will now have to be factored into the provision of AT. All the best Sal Cooke -----Original Message----- From: A discussion list for Assistive Technology professionals. [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Taylor, Barry Sent: 27 January 2012 11:19 To: [log in to unmask] Subject: kindle Dear all Not strictly AT, but close. As someone who has not made physical contact with a kindle, I can't find out for certain whether all "Kindle Keyboards" have both wifi & 3g, or is 3g an optional extra? Kindle's user friendliness meant that on our recent pagebot setup, the kindle latched on to the client's wifi without asking questions. (Although it was actually set up registered to the purchasing authority, not the user!) I'm just a little uncomfortable when recommending which Kindle to buy. Barry Barry Taylor, Clinical Scientist Medical Physics Service Tulley Medical Physics Building, Hull Royal Infirmary Anlaby Road, Hull HU3 2JZ Tel: 01482 608971, Fax: 01482 608951 Internal extension HRI 608971 [log in to unmask] [log in to unmask] Web page http://www.hey.nhs.uk/content/services/rehabEngineering.aspx Hull and East Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust Great Staff - Great Care - Great Future Visit our website: http://www.hey.nhs.uk Please consider the environment before printing this email. The content of this email and any attachment is private and confidential. If you are not the intended recipient, any use, disclosure, copying or forwarding of this email and/or its attachments is unauthorised. If you have received this email in error please notify the sender by email and delete this message and any attachments immediately. 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