MobileRead Forums - View Single Post - Using eBooks to educate underprivileged kids

fjtorres · 01-05-2013, 07:43 AM

Have you checked the children's section at Munseys.com?
They list 2300 books in that category, for free download in most any ebook format:
http://www.munseys.com/detail/mode/cat/20/Children
You'll likely find kid friendly titles in other categories, too.

At that point, instead of reading with the cloud reader, you can use offline reading apps.

Also, you migt want to get a bit creative:
A lot of the cheapest generic media players come with text viewers. So they can be used for reading ebooks that way. I think you might be able to get 4 or 5 of those for the price of an ebook reader.
Another possibility is to convert ebooks into folders of jpeg images and use slideshow viewers or digital photoframes; this can be done with MS Powerpoint and with Adobe Acrobat as well as some freeware applications (some web trolling might be required; I don't recall the name of any right now, but I remember the tactic was very popular for getting ebooks into the Sony Playstation portable).
Finally, has your NGO talked to Amazon? I'm pretty sure they've donated a fair amount of ebook readers to the african trials. They may be willing to offer up some help.

I'm sure that if you have any kind of equipment lying around with a screen, a way can be found to put ebooks on them; TVs, portable DVD players, cellphones, media players, anything.

Also, be aware that there are several sites that offer up free public domain audiobooks in MP3 format.
Here's one:
http://librivox.org/

There are others.
On a PC you could combine the audio book and the ebook for what amazon calls immersive reading.

Again, pretty much anything with a speaker can be adapted that way. There is also software available, some free, that converts text files to mp3s. The voices range from good to robotic but kids can have fun and learn from even the latter, right?

Hope some of it helps.

01-05-2013, 07:43 AM	#2
fjtorres Grand Sorcerer Posts: 11,732 Karma: 128354696 Join Date: May 2009 Location: 26 kly from Sgr A* Device: T100TA,PW2,PRS-T1,KT,FireHD 8.9,K2, PB360,BeBook One,Axim51v,TC1000	Have you checked the children's section at Munseys.com? They list 2300 books in that category, for free download in most any ebook format: http://www.munseys.com/detail/mode/cat/20/Children You'll likely find kid friendly titles in other categories, too. At that point, instead of reading with the cloud reader, you can use offline reading apps. Also, you migt want to get a bit creative: A lot of the cheapest generic media players come with text viewers. So they can be used for reading ebooks that way. I think you might be able to get 4 or 5 of those for the price of an ebook reader. Another possibility is to convert ebooks into folders of jpeg images and use slideshow viewers or digital photoframes; this can be done with MS Powerpoint and with Adobe Acrobat as well as some freeware applications (some web trolling might be required; I don't recall the name of any right now, but I remember the tactic was very popular for getting ebooks into the Sony Playstation portable). Finally, has your NGO talked to Amazon? I'm pretty sure they've donated a fair amount of ebook readers to the african trials. They may be willing to offer up some help. I'm sure that if you have any kind of equipment lying around with a screen, a way can be found to put ebooks on them; TVs, portable DVD players, cellphones, media players, anything. Also, be aware that there are several sites that offer up free public domain audiobooks in MP3 format. Here's one: http://librivox.org/ There are others. On a PC you could combine the audio book and the ebook for what amazon calls immersive reading. Again, pretty much anything with a speaker can be adapted that way. There is also software available, some free, that converts text files to mp3s. The voices range from good to robotic but kids can have fun and learn from even the latter, right? Hope some of it helps.