Books have a big future. Readmill’s tagline.
Readmill are a startup, that popped up on the BBC’s Click programme, who where showcase the Berlin startup scene. Their idea is simple, social reading or ‘breathing, right now book club.’ My first thoughts were to comparative platforms such as GoodReads and Shelfari but it is more than that.
Basically Readmill tracks your progress through a book, and lets your friends know where you’re at, whilst at the same time allowing you to share and comment on passages of a book with friends on Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr. Discussing highlights with other Readmill users is all part of the experience. Getting students to read, think, converse and explore their English texts is just what I have been trying to do through my English classes, connecting the texts to forums and tasks (albeit somewhat successful, it has hardly proven a resounding success). Readmill certainly seems to offer a degree is immediacy that I believe our students would like, however as yet, the only place you can use Readmill is on the iOS platform.
Which lead me to Copia. Given you can highlight passages, make notes and share notes. Track your reading progress. 7 free digital books (does that mean you will need a credit card to sign up?) takes care of the curriculum and it is cross platform.
Given that I am a relatively inexperienced English teacher, I think it is important that students see me reading (working), learning and exploring the text, indeed preparing and working for class. Most of all I am looking forward to seeing how students read and explore the texts, as revealed by Copia. Of course these mechanism are ususally difficult to discipher until formal assessment, and that is often too late.
I wonder if any other English teachers would like to develop resources this way (between teachers that is, and not as teachers with students)? Well I have six weeks to explore Copia – and downloading the desktop software now.
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