Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
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Hi. In learning about how to help students using eReaders, we must first understand the connection to UDL. UDL stands for
Universal Design for Learning. It is a way to remove barriers and offer all individuals opportunities to learn.
With the explosion of technology in recent years, eReaders have become popular. Each eReader can hold thousands of books. They
are lightweight, portable, and offer many enhancements including connecting to online booksellers, dictionaries, lighted displays,
and some have text to speech capabilities.
I am going to demonstrate some of the neat things eReaders can do by showing you the Kindle PC and iPad apps,
the Barnes and Noble Nook PC app, and iBooks.
Here, we have a book on solar power in the Kindle PC app. As you can see, I can highlight a word and define it.
I can then add a highlight to a word or group of words and then make a notation.
If the font is too small, I can increase the font size. I can also change the font and the background color.
I can also change the background color.
If I bookmark the page here, it will also sync to all of my devices that I have a Kindle app on. So if I am reading on my PC and then go to
my phone, it will sync to the last page read on the PC and also import my bookmarks.
The kindle app allows you to look up definitions, search the book, and report errors. In addition, you can look up text on
Google, Wikipedia, and use Shelfari. Shelfari is a social cataloging website for books. Shelfari users build virtual bookshelves of the
titles they own or have read, and can rate, review, tag, and discuss their books.
On the iPad, the features are similar I can define words and I have a choice of highlight colors along with creating annotations.
I can do a variety of things to improve readability including changing text size, theme color, and the number of columns.
The Nook app for PC has fewer features than the Kindle app. Here, we have Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice. In the Nook app, you can
highlight and annotate the text.
You can change the font size and margins.
You can look up text in the dictionary or on Wikipedia.
The Nook also syncs across apps, so when I stop in one place in the book, it will start from that place on my other devices.
The iBook app has many features, and is comparable to the Kindle app.
It includes readability options for font, font size, and themes.
Thank you for taking the time to look at this and I hope it helps you chose a proper eReader for your student. Thank you.