The ability for teachers and students to embed their own content into digital texts, write notes, and get feedback on student reading—classroom reading just got a lot more dynamic. SLJ columnist Jeff Hastings test driives Gobstopper and Subtext.
SLJ Reviews Gobstopper and Subtext: Apps that Enable Interactive Classroom Reading
By on April 15, 2013 Leave a Comment
SLJ Reviews the WiFi Smartpen Sky by Livescribe | Test Drive
By on March 11, 2013 4 Comments
Beyond the bells and whistles, “where the Sky smartpen really shines—like the Echo and Pulse models before it—is its capacity to record and post audio-enhanced notes called “pencasts,” writes School Library Journal gadget columnist Jeff Hastings.
Ebook Toolkit: Rosen Interactive Ebooks
By on October 3, 2012 Leave a Comment
Screenshot from Rosen Interactive Ebooks. Rosen Digital has introduced a free, interactive ebook platform that customers can populate, à la carte, with unlimited, simultaneous access licensed, nonfiction titles for $34.95 each or $209.70 for a set of six.Sixty titles are currently available and an additional 60 will be released in January 2013. The ebooks feature [...]
SLJ Reviews | Multimedia Storytelling Platform Meograph
By on September 13, 2012 Leave a Comment
New storytelling application Meograph helps users create uniquely dynamic, interactive projects, incorporating Google Maps and Google Earth to generate a story time line, which can be enhanced with images, video, text, audio, and links for more information. SLJ columnist Jeff Hastings walks us through the platform in his video review.
Ebook toolkit: Storia
By on July 9, 2012 Leave a Comment
You might want to check out Storia, says SLJ columnist Jeff Hastings. Scholastic’s slick and promising ereader platform is in soft launch, and they’re preparing to go big with it this fall.
Ebook toolkit: SLJ Reviews Follett’s Ereader Suite
By on May 14, 2012 4 Comments
Jeff Hastings considers building a Follett ebook collection now that the company has released apps that let patrons read from among their 132,000 K–12 titles, online or off, on iPads and Android 3.0+ tablets.
SLJ Reviews Casio’s Short-Throw, Lampless Projector
By on March 12, 2012 1 Comment
As anyone who works with digital projectors knows, replacing those metal-halide projection lamps can get way pricey. So Jeff Hastings tried out the alternative, Casio’s lampless model, the XJ-ST155.
SLJ Reviews the Lenovo IdeaPad U300s Ultrabook
By on December 12, 2011 Leave a Comment
Make way for the Ultrabooks. Jeff Hastings, School Library Journal’s Test Drive columnist, examines one iteration of the next category of computer, the Lenovo IdeaPad U300s.
School Library Journal Reviews the Nook Simple Touch and the Kobo eReader Touch
By on November 2, 2011 1 Comment
SLJ’s take on the Nook Simple Touch and the Kobo eReader Touch. The touchscreen ereaders are much simpler, sleeker, and just plain better than their predecessors, writes Jeff Hastings.
SLJ Reviews the Toshiba Thrive
By on October 14, 2011 1 Comment
It’s estimated that about 80 percent of tablet computers sold to date have been iPads. But have you noticed how many non-Apple tablets are suddenly out there competing for a piece of the action? Take the Toshiba Thrive, for example. It’s a 10-inch (10.1″ diagonal measure) tablet with a 1280 x 800 WXGA widescreen, multitouch [...]
