<div class="gmail_quote">On Mon, May 10, 2010 at 10:46 AM, James Simmons <<a href="mailto:nicestep@gmail.com">nicestep@gmail.com</a>> wrote: <blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex;"> Caroline, Thanks for your feedback. Only one Activity supports Text To Speech at the moment: my own Read Etexts. You need a Plain Text file to use that, and I will have a chapter on creating those. In fact, I will have chapters on creating books in every format we support, plus I will have a detailed chapter on how to scan books and how to make your own home book scanner from common household items. I don't have any text in the scanning chapter yet but I do have a couple of illustrations (with many more to come): <a href="http://en.flossmanuals.net/bin/view/ReadingandSugar/ScanningBookPages" target="_blank">http://en.flossmanuals.net/bin/view/ReadingandSugar/ScanningBookPages</a> I agree with everything you've said, mostly. As far as the presentation of contents goes, I'd like to get all the content I have to present in the book in a sequence that seems logical to me, then get feedback on the ordering of topics. It may be that I move the chapter on book formats after the one on e-book Activities. It may also be that I remove references to Sugar from many chapters so those chapters can be shared with another book just about e-books (proposed title "Everything You Always Wanted To Know About E-Books But Were Afraid To Ask"). Audiobooks *might* be in scope. Project Gutenberg has them, but most are just read by a text to speech program, so the student would be better off downloading the e-text and using Read Etexts to get speech and highlighting. I think they have some read by humans too, but there's no way short of downloading them and listening to know which ones they are. I worked on scanning a whole book this weekend, plus I wrote most of a chapter on how you can easily make PDF's: <a href="http://en.flossmanuals.net/bin/view/ReadingandSugar/MakingPDFs" target="_blank">http://en.flossmanuals.net/bin/view/ReadingandSugar/MakingPDFs</a> In the end, I think everything you want will be in the book, plus some stuff on copyrights and Creative Commons licensing, plus some other stuff I haven't thought of yet. Thanks again, </blockquote><div> </div><div>Thank you for this important work! </div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex;"> James Simmons <div><div></div><div class="h5"> On Mon, May 10, 2010 at 9:12 AM, Caroline Meeks <<a href="mailto:caroline@meekshome.com">caroline@meekshome.com</a>> wrote: > Hi James, > I have just skimmed so far. Looks great! > One of the issues schools have is students who can not read text well, > either from a vision problem or a reading problem. A great deal of what is > taught is taught through text, especially science and social studies. It is > important that children who cannot understand the text can still learn the > content. In addition, reading books for pleasure is a vital way for children > to learn about the world and expand their horizons and thinking. One of the > wonderful things about technology is that students who can't read text can > still listen to text and learn. Sugar is for all children, and not all > children can see or decode text, so listening to text should have equal > standing as a way to read. > I think it would be useful in the section that goes over the different > formats and programs to explicitly say which can support text to speech and > which can't. > It would also be great if you could write a section on how teachers can > create documents that can be read to the students. I'm almost certain that > for a teacher to retype or scan in a text book and then let a student > read/listen to it, is fair use. Certainly that is something that the > special ed teacher at the GPA was interested in doing. I'm sure other > teachers with students who can't read text at grade level will also be > interested in doing that. > Consider adding sections about where to get free audiobooks to your > wonderful coverage of where to get free books. > On a separate note, would it work to put the section on book formats towards > the end of the chapter. I think the sections on how you read the books on > Sugar to be more interesting. I'm worried that people won't make it through > the drier, more confusing, reference materials on book formats, until they > are motivated and excited by seeing all the things they can do with the > books. > Thanks! > Caroline > > On Thu, May 6, 2010 at 3:53 PM, James Simmons <<a href="mailto:nicestep@gmail.com">nicestep@gmail.com</a>> wrote: >> >> I've started work on another FLOSS Manual, this one about how to get >> the most out of Sugar as an e-book platform. It will cover what >> Activities are used for e-books, where to get books, pros and cons of >> the various e-book formats, and will conclude with instructions on >> creating your own e-books in the supported formats and options for >> getting the books distributed. The last part has not been written >> yet, but I've got some people interested in helping me put it >> together. I plan to scan in some old books from my own collection and >> get them in shape to donate to the Internet Archive and Project >> Gutenberg. The book will document the whole process. >> >> In the meantime the Sugar-y chapters are pretty much complete and >> could use a review. Any suggestions or feedback would be welcome. >> The book is at: >> >> <a href="http://en.flossmanuals.net/ReadingandSugar/Introduction" target="_blank">http://en.flossmanuals.net/ReadingandSugar/Introduction</a> >> >> Thanks, >> >> James Simmons >> _______________________________________________ >> IAEP -- It's An Education Project (not a laptop project!) >> <a href="mailto:IAEP@lists.sugarlabs.org">IAEP@lists.sugarlabs.org</a> >> <a href="http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/iaep" target="_blank">http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/iaep</a> > > > > -- > Caroline Meeks > Solution Grove > Caroline@SolutionGrove.com > > 617-500-3488 - Office > 505-213-3268 - Fax > </div></div></blockquote></div> -- Caroline Meeks Solution Grove Caroline@SolutionGrove.com 617-500-3488 - Office 505-213-3268 - Fax