Catch of the Day - EPUBReader - Jul 15, 2010

During the past few days, I've been experimenting with a number of different methods for reading e-books (Barnes&Noble desktop ereader, iBook on iPhone, Adobe Digital Editions desktop, Stanza for desktop and iPhone, both Windows and Mac). I have found the best e-book desktop reader solution, in my opinion, is EPUBReader.

EPUBReader is a Firefox add-on which lets you read e-books in the popular ePub format right in your browser. You don't need to install any additional software.

With EPUBReader installed, when you click on a link to an ePub file, the file is downloaded, processed, and displayed in a Firefox tab ready to read. Open and read previously downloaded ePub files using File-Open File… from the Firefox menu.

I have been testing the various readers with the CK12 Foundation's Geometry e-textbook. Click the thumbnail below to see an example of how well the special mathematical content is rendered by EPUBReader. I found this far superior to any of the other free e-book readers I tested.

A shortcoming of EPUBReader is the inability to annotate the e-text with highlighting and notes. You can add bookmarks, however.

EPUBReader is available in 23 different languages including English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Portuguese, Russian, Chinese, and Spanish.

On a personal note, I no longer use Firefox as my browser of first choice. Unfortunately, I was not able to find a similar extension for either Safari or Chrome.

DISCLOSURE OF MATERIAL CONNECTION: http://cmp.ly/0

Catch of the Day - Bookworm - Jul 14, 2010

 

Bookworm allows readers to add ebooks in the popular ePub format to an online library. You can then read them in your computer's web browser or on your mobile device.

Simply upload any ePub formatted ebook to your Bookworm library. Read it by clicking its title on the main library screen. You can choose either a serif or sans-serif font, make the font larger or smaller, and navigate with keyboard shortcuts. (Note that Bookworm does not support books that include DRM).

If you have a portable e-reader device that supports the ePub format, you can download your books to your device. The Bookworm mobile site has been optimized for use with the iPhone and can export your books directly to the Stanza e-reader with just one-click.

As well as English, Bookworm is available in German, Spanish, Italian, Danish, Finnish, and Japanese.

Check out the Bookworm and ePub tour

Bookworm is free to use and there's nothing to download.

Note: I uploaded an etextbook with images and specially formatted text, but the images and special text were not included.

DISCLOSURE OF MATERIAL CONNECTION: http://cmp.ly/0

 

Differentiated Instruction LiveBinder

I have made a number of recent updates to my Differentiated Instruction LiveBinder

Differentiated Instruction

This LiveBinder has been viewed more than 4400 times.

Catch of the Day - Science Buddies - Jul 13, 2010

Science Buddies provides a free venue where K-12 students, teachers, and parents can find project ideas as well as help in all science topics.

Science Buddies provides fun, intellectually-stimulating, cutting-edge science education resources such as …

• An online library of nearly a thousand detailed, scientist-authored outlines of project ideas
• The Project Guide, an online how-to guide for science research and science fair projects
• The Topic Selection Wizard helps students find a project idea
• Ask an Expert, an advice forum where scientists and engineers guide students who are doing science and engineering projects
• Career Profiles to inform students about science, technology, engineering, and math careers

If your goal is to find a fun science activity for your kids or to win the state science fair, Science Buddies quickly and easily gives you access to an abundance of tools, tips, and techniques.

Among Science Buddies' rich collection of Teacher Resources you'll find …

• Teacher's Guide to Science Projects
• A Guide to Planning a Science Fair
• Science Fair Schedule Worksheet
• Science Fair Project Grading Rubrics
• Science Project Enrichment Tools

It's free to join Science Buddies. With membership, you will receive new project ideas, news about science competitions, science fair tips, and other science-related information.

DISCLOSURE OF MATERIAL CONNECTION: http://cmp.ly/0

Catch of the Day - Lessonopoly - Jul 12, 2010

Lessonopoly is a free website designed to facilitate teachers organization of activities both in and out of the classroom, creation and sharing of lesson plans, and connecting to other teachers in online communities.

Started in 2007, Lessonopoly was developed by the Silicon Valley Education Foundation which works across all 33 school districts in Santa Clara County (CA) to ensure public schools have the resources and expertise they need.

Lessonopoly was created and refined with input from teachers and strives to deliver a set of effective and easy-to-use, easy-to-learn tools for teachers.

 

Classroom tools available to registered teachers are a planning calendar, a personal lesson plan library, and a blogging tool. Resources to connect with other teachers include groups and a wiki tool.

Browse or search the thousands of available lesson plans by subject or grade level. You can even submit your own lesson plans to the Lessonopoly library.

DISCLOSURE OF MATERIAL CONNECTION: http://cmp.ly/0