I've moved pretty much 100% of my reading to the Kindle or iBook format. There are a few holdout publishers out there - Teachers College Press is the most notable one that I can think of. Odd that they publish all these books from the Games + Learning + Society folks and none of them are offered outside of pulp products. That's also the reason why I haven't read Finnish Lessons yet - although I see its made it to Audible (and I have one credit left for it!).
Of late, I've been having problems getting through any books efficiently. I'm a fairly responsible guy - my kids get fed and clothed, I pay my bills on time - but I'm having a hard time staying off of the Safari and in the Kindle or iBooks app. It dawned on me, it must be REALLY hard for a teenager or younger to do that - focus on the task at hand when Angry Birds is a few taps away. I believe this only reinforces the need to put devices in the hands of kids for educational uses. Some may think this is a perfect reason to yank electronic devices out of kids hands and toss them a paperback, but this is about teaching appropriate use. Being able to focus in a world full of distractions is definitely, as we in Wisconsin are told to focus on - a College and Career ready skill.
Three years ago at a conference I heard a principal who rolled out BYOD to his school talk about how one of the the biggest lesson to be taught to students is appropriate use. One example he gave was a board member stopping in to rail on his ideas and then stopping the conversation to take a call on his cellphone. That board member wasn't cognizant of it, but he was making the principal's point.
My question is how am I going to start forcing myself to focus better on the task at hand, not wander around. Those ideas are going to help me to work with teachers down the road when we find $$$ for a wireless upgrade to make BYOD a possibility. Time to look up and think up some strategies. I need to give myself and intervention!
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