Tuesday, March 11, 2014

23 Mobile Things: 12. Books, Books, & More Books

There are 12 months in a year, and thank goodness, we're finally moving into the ones that don't make you worry about freezing to death (which, of course, my fellow Minnesotans can relate to!).

In other positive news, we're also moving on to Thing 12 of 23 Mobile Things...Books, Books, & More Books. In other words, this one is all about books. Could you tell!?

The focus of Thing 12 is all about apps that give you access to free books and audiobooks on your mobile device. I'm a reader through and through. I've got an oversized book shelf full of hundreds of bargain bin finds and trades amongst friends. My Kindle and iBooks apps are similarly overflowing, but with a slightly less cumbersome physical consequence.

I can still very much appreciate the experience of holding a physical book, but I also love eBooks for their convenience and mobility. Either way, I love a great read.

This Thing suggests several apps that give you access to free eBooks and Audiobooks. Among these are Wattpad, Free Books, and Audiobooks. I've downloaded all at one point or another, but truthfully, find the majority of my books through Kindle and iBooks. Sometimes I pay, and other times I take a chance on something that's gone free. These work great for my individual purposes.

I'm all for access to literature and texts, and truthfully, my BIGGEST concern with the whole eBook mobile access industry is the lack of a viable, simple and affordable solution for classroom sets of books. I have lamented over the struggles our district Media Specialist, Learning Technology Coordinator, and Learning & Teaching Coordinator have gone through trying to find a simple and affordable way to get digital copies of multiple fiction and nonfiction texts to our kids who have 1:1 mobile technologt. It's so silly! What you would think would be rather evolved industry knowing the need exists, companies are admittedly rather behind the curve at this point.

I have no doubts companies will catch up, but in the mean time we do what we can to give our kids access to classroom and personal texts through their devices. I'm psyched for the time when this becomes a seamless and cumulative process, giving kids access to loads of digital books and all the accessibility features that come along with them.


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