Hi James, I have just skimmed so far. Looks great!
One of the issues schools have is students who can not read text well, either from a vision problem or a reading problem. A great deal of what is taught is taught through text, especially science and social studies. It is important that children who cannot understand the text can still learn the content. In addition, reading books for pleasure is a vital way for children to learn about the world and expand their horizons and thinking. One of the wonderful things about technology is that students who can't read text can still listen to text and learn. Sugar is for all children, and not all children can see or decode text, so listening to text should have equal standing as a way to read. I think it would be useful in the section that goes over the different formats and programs to explicitly say which can support text to speech and which can't. It would also be great if you could write a section on how teachers can create documents that can be read to the students. I'm almost certain that for a teacher to retype or scan in a text book and then let a student read/listen to it, is fair use. Certainly that is something that the special ed teacher at the GPA was interested in doing. I'm sure other teachers with students who can't read text at grade level will also be interested in doing that. Consider adding sections about where to get free audiobooks to your wonderful coverage of where to get free books. On a separate note, would it work to put the section on book formats towards the end of the chapter. I think the sections on how you read the books on Sugar to be more interesting. I'm worried that people won't make it through the drier, more confusing, reference materials on book formats, until they are motivated and excited by seeing all the things they can do with the books. Thanks! Caroline On Thu, May 6, 2010 at 3:53 PM, James Simmons <nices...@gmail.com> wrote: > I've started work on another FLOSS Manual, this one about how to get > the most out of Sugar as an e-book platform. It will cover what > Activities are used for e-books, where to get books, pros and cons of > the various e-book formats, and will conclude with instructions on > creating your own e-books in the supported formats and options for > getting the books distributed. The last part has not been written > yet, but I've got some people interested in helping me put it > together. I plan to scan in some old books from my own collection and > get them in shape to donate to the Internet Archive and Project > Gutenberg. The book will document the whole process. > > In the meantime the Sugar-y chapters are pretty much complete and > could use a review. Any suggestions or feedback would be welcome. > The book is at: > > http://en.flossmanuals.net/ReadingandSugar/Introduction > > Thanks, > > James Simmons > _______________________________________________ > IAEP -- It's An Education Project (not a laptop project!) > IAEP@lists.sugarlabs.org > http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/iaep > -- Caroline Meeks Solution Grove carol...@solutiongrove.com 617-500-3488 - Office 505-213-3268 - Fax
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