Consumers Not Convinced they Need Ereader

[purl4peace]

Originally Posted by K-Thom

Especially when no one finds out it's actually a comics book they're reading during lessons.

I'd rather go for "use eInk and save the whales, reduce forest fires and lower the income tax in Upper Manhattan", anyway.

My son actually got in trouble for taking "his" (read MINE) ereader to school. First it generated too much interest from the other kids causing a rucus in class. Then, he had the audacity to be reading it during class after he had already finished his work...

We wouldn't want our children to be reading in schools, now would we!

I do agree with the backpack issue, though. I have actually taken to buying copies of my son's textbooks so that he doesn't have to lug those cinder blocks from home!

[Lilly]

Originally Posted by purl4peace

My son actually got in trouble for taking "his" (read MINE) ereader to school. First it generated too much interest from the other kids causing a rucus in class. Then, he had the audacity to be reading it during class after he had already finished his work...

We wouldn't want our children to be reading in schools, now would we!

I do agree with the backpack issue, though. I have actually taken to buying copies of my son's textbooks so that he doesn't have to lug those cinder blocks from home!

Wow, that's crazy. It's a book not a toy, the teacher needs to get a clue!

[HansTWN]

Originally Posted by LDBoblo

If I only read linearly without any intratextual navigation, it'd be fine, low quality screen aside.

I sound like a hater, but I don't mind my device that much. I try to remember that I'm reading books, sometimes decent ones, and that lets me tolerate the reader. They remain more of a future possibility than a present solution though.

There we have the real reason for your problems -- you do not read linearly, you are jumping back and forth, but not to previously set bookmarks. That makes sense for scientific research works or books with plenty of footnotes, or with references in the back. Such books are indeed unsuitable for the readers. My guess is we are about 2-3 years from that point and from great color displays.

Some shortcomings (and pbooks have plenty, too) do not take away from their great usefulness for many purposes.

[Sonist]

Originally Posted by Lilly

Wow, that's crazy. It's a book not a toy, the teacher needs to get a clue!

It being "a book" is irrelevant, during class....

[Lilly]

Originally Posted by Sonist

It being "a book" is irrelevant, during class....

No it's not. If you finish your work, it's encourage to pull out a book. I remember, I always had a romance novel with me throughout junior and high school just in case I finished early. Most of the kids used to draw or write in their notebooks if they finished early, me and a few others used to read. The teacher just has to get the concept that it's a book and move on!

[brecklundin]

Originally Posted by Sonist

It being "a book" is irrelevant, during class....

yeah, nothing like an affirmative action hire with tenure punishing a kid for being smart and finishing the "work" assigned under the "no student allowed to advance" program we have in schools today.

[purl4peace]

Originally Posted by brecklundin

yeah, nothing like an affirmative action hire with tenure punishing a kid for being smart and finishing the "work" assigned under the "no student allowed to advance" program we have in schools today.

Or in the case of my other son with Asperger's "no child left behind even if they have to be dragged kicking, screaming, bloody, and bruised"...

The stupid thing is what would they have a kid do if he is done with his work? Is he just supposed to sit there staring into space. Yeah... that works really well with a 6th grade boy full of energy and imagination.

But I digress!

[LDBoblo]

Originally Posted by purl4peace

Or in the case of my other son with Asperger's "no child left behind even if they have to be dragged kicking, screaming, bloody, and bruised"...

The stupid thing is what would they have a kid do if he is done with his work? Is he just supposed to sit there staring into space. Yeah... that works really well with a 6th grade boy full of energy and imagination.

But I digress!

A lot of education systems in the world have some serious, serious problems, and the field of education in North America has become a bit polarizing in its teacher/administrator output.

Much concern has come from the lack of fundamental reassessment of systemwide problems. Everything has been treated as a superficial blame game, whether it's parents, teachers, students, administrators, lawmakers, or anyone else who wants to join in.

Although from another country altogether, let me give you an example from Asia (which is fallaciously associated with good education systems because of high test scores). A friend of mine was an English teacher who was one of the rare foreign teachers in Asia with pretty honest intentions (I don't want to get started on a rant complaining about foreign teachers). Anyway, the business he was working for collapsed and left him without employment, so he found a job with a "cram school" designed as a glorified daycare for 7-12 year old children. Once the testing session was done, he received a phone call and was given a rather strong warning from his manager. As it turned out, many of the students had received scores of barely passing, and some noticeably below. The manager said that was not acceptable and that the teacher needs to ensure that students all get above 85%, since the schools often use these high test scores as advertising and competition for customers.

They didn't fire him then, since he didn't know the policy, but the next test session, he came to me complaining about how the school made him give the students all the answers to the test the day before so that they could go home and study, and the day of the test, he was supposed to walk around and check and make sure they were answering the questions correctly, and make them fix answers that he saw weren't right. He would have been fired had he not done that.

My advice to him was to just quit. He stuck with it for another few months, and then left the country behind, relatively bitter about the experience. Another thing he was told was he could not use verbal discipline or do anything else that might cause the children to complain to their parents. If a parent complains, they'll often demand that the teacher be fired, and schools will frequently oblige, afraid to lose their customers. Teachers come and go, but a student is business. Getting fired for such things could mean getting blacklisted from a lot of other schools as well.

Now of course, these were in a *somewhat* aberrant (but not uncommon) branch of a nationwide chain private school, and not a public elementary school or junior high school. I don't want to lead anyone into thinking that these issues are in all the public sectors, because they're not really. Those schools have completely different sets of serious problems.

Sometimes it makes me wonder if the foreign teachers were drinkers and stoners before working in Asia, or if working in Asia drove them to it.

As far as having an ebook reader in class, it's difficult to gauge the situation without being there. I don't teach or work with children, but I can easily imagine a dozen situations where it would be feasible to temporarily deprive a child of a book in class. I've met too many incompetent teachers to dismiss the possibility of asshattery, but I've never cared for ignorant blaming of any party involved in a dispute (usually substantiated by another example "and there was this one time..."). It's unfortunate that such a situation occurred, but it's surely not the first time, and surely not the last time it's happened.

[pshrynk]

Originally Posted by purl4peace

Or in the case of my other son with Asperger's "no child left behind even if they have to be dragged kicking, screaming, bloody, and bruised"...

The stupid thing is what would they have a kid do if he is done with his work? Is he just supposed to sit there staring into space. Yeah... that works really well with a 6th grade boy full of energy and imagination.

But I digress!

I once got to stand in a corner of the hallway in fifth grade becasue, when I finished my math assignment about half an hour ahead of everyone else, I started drawing a picture. Guess I should have been disruptive, eh?

[Sonist]

Originally Posted by purl4peace

... The stupid thing is what would they have a kid do if he is done with his work? Is he just supposed to sit there staring into space. Yeah... that works really well with a 6th grade boy full of energy and imagination.
...

Uhm, perhaps check over what he's done, and possibly improve on it..., because I'd guess that he could. Or, if he is really "full of imagination," stare in space and imagine.

I don't know the particulars of the case, but I do know, that a classroom is a place where not only knowledge is imparted, but other things as well.

It would make sense, if a math teacher sees it as disruptive, if during class, one kid pulls out Proust volume, another a science magazine, another a comic book, and yet another a Kindle.

I don't normally find myself defending teachers, but there are occasions, when one must wonder, how any of them can continue to care....

[Jadon]

If the teacher knew from experience that the kid who finished early did good work, there's nothing to be gained from preventing him from reading quietly. To do otherwise is to essentially to punish him for being smart and fast. I know one of the best teachers I had was the one who would let me read in class, since I inevitably finished stuff early and got A's.

[fugazied]

Originally Posted by Sonist

Quote:

"Among the 37% who were either "very" or "somewhat" interested in obtaining an e-reader, one of the main factors was the ability to buy and store multiple books, magazines, and newspapers."

For these, you need color, as well as a more robust format than EPUB. Something like PDF, maybe....

Yes. For glossy magazines you MUST have color. Most ebook readers are so far behind in terms of technology. This is where the supposed apple tablet may pick up customers - people who want a reader that can open Cosmo magazine and look like a real magazine.

[doreenjoy]

Originally Posted by Sonist

Uhm, perhaps check over what he's done, and possibly improve on it..., because I'd guess that he could. Or, if he is really "full of imagination," stare in space and imagine.

I don't know the particulars of the case, but I do know, that a classroom is a place where not only knowledge is imparted, but other things as well.

It would make sense, if a math teacher sees it as disruptive, if during class, one kid pulls out Proust volume, another a science magazine, another a comic book, and yet another a Kindle.

I don't normally find myself defending teachers, but there are occasions, when one must wonder, how any of them can continue to care....

I completely agree. Some parents can't tolerate even the mildest criticism or correction of their children, and they don't want to know any of the extenuating circumstances. It's the "stupid teacher" who must be blamed, not their little angels who are perfect and studious at all times.

[purl4peace]

Originally Posted by doreenjoy

I completely agree. Some parents can't tolerate even the mildest criticism or correction of their children, and they don't want to know any of the extenuating circumstances. It's the "stupid teacher" who must be blamed, not their little angels who are perfect and studious at all times.

With all due respect, I never called the teacher "stupid". I suffer NO delusions that my children are perfect. However, they aren't hellions either and I have worked hard to to teach them to respect adults, teachers (and everyone else for that matter -- of course, that whole respect for their brother thing hasn't gone so well yet but hope springs eternal!)

I guess I would prefer my child read quietly in class rather than being disruptive. Personally, I know my son -- when he is bored, he gets "creative" and disruptive.

And for what it is worth, I have a great deal of respect for my kids teachers. I have a special needs son who has a personal 1-on-1 and has had the same set of teachers for the last 3 years and they are like part of the family.

So please don't paint me with such a broad brush, thank you very much.

[Sonist]

Originally Posted by purl4peace

... I have worked hard to to teach them to respect adults, teachers....

Great. Then, respect is due to the teacher, who has certain not unreasonable rules in his/her classroom.