week 3, thing 7 (technology)

A few weeks ago, I attended the ALA conference in DC. In the exhibition hall, I attended a demo of a new service from Scholastic called Bookflix. Bookflix offers storybook videos and non-fiction e-books for pre-K to 2nd grade. Parents and children can view a storybook video of books such as Click, Clack Moo: Cows that Type and then read or listen to a non-fiction title such as Let's Visit a Dairy Farm. This service offers a great selection of classic books paired with non-fiction titles. The read along function highlights the words as the children reads and also allows the child to read definitions of words along the way. In addition to reading and listening to the books, Bookflix offers educational games that reinforce reading comprehension and internet resources for learning more about the subject (when using the internet resources the child never leaves Bookflix). This program is available via subscription similar to a database and can also be accessed remotely. I think Bookflix would be great tool to promote early literacy and great for older children to improve their reading. Parents are always asking for ways to improve their children's reading and Bookflix would be a great tool and also an activity that parents and children can do together.