FREE technology right under your nose!

Posted on 27. Aug, 2010 by Joan Azarva in Articles

If your teen finds reading laborious, don’t sweat it! Thank goodness, reading ability is not a sign of intelligence. Students with print disabilities, however, who rely solely on the written word to obtain information are destined to see their fount of knowledge suffer.

That’s why we’re so lucky to live in the 21st century. There are so many opportunities to level the playing field with technology, yet most high school students remain unaware of them.

Did you know there are scads of free books online (many of them assigned in school) that can be downloaded in different formats? In a perfect world, your teen would follow along with the book to increase sight word vocabulary. However, if that’s not practical, these books can be listened to while driving, exercising, or just relaxing.

Parents – be careful NOT to put your teen down for reading poorly. At the end of the day, it doesn’t matter HOW we acquire information–just that we do. It’s time students with learning disabilities stopped feeling inferior and developed an enthusiasm for books. In this age of technology, books can be listened to or watched instead of read; in the end, the outcome is the same.

Downloadable books open a whole new world that may have previously been closed off to your child. How exciting is that??

Here are some great sites where you can download books in a variety of formats, even some customizable!

Books Should Be Free http://www.booksshouldbefree.com Your source for free audio books in mp3, iPod, or iTunes format

Thought Audio http://www.thoughtaudio.com Their journey has always been one of making classic literature available to anyone willing to listen, and now in their next phase, they will expand their scope to include more thinkers, writers, and essayists.

LibriVox http://librivox.org LibriVox volunteers record chapters of books in the public domain and release the audio files back onto the net. Our goal is to make all public domain books available as free audio books.

Open Culture http://www.openculture.com Open Culture scours the web for the best educational medial. They find free courses and audio books, language lessons and movies, and all sorts of enlightenment for the listener.

Learn Outloud- http://www.learnoutloud.com/ Learn Out loud is your one-stop destination for audio and video learning. Browse over 20,000 educational audio books, MP3 downloads, podcasts, and videos.

Planet Ebook http://www.planetebook.com Classic literature available for download as free ebooks

Librophile http://librophile.com 4,300 free audio books, 33,037 free ebooks, 108,532 books in total.

Well, people, what are you waiting for? Start your…………… DOWNLOADS!

Tags: downloadable books, ebooks, technology