TumbleBooks Library, a collection of e-books suitable for children in pre-kindergarten to grade twelve, has recently released a Facebook app. From @TumbleBooks:

As of February 25, 2011, you can access TumbleBooks via their classic browser-based model, by purchasing and downloading mobile apps and now through Facebook. A quick look at this free app reveals:

• Access eText in the following formats: Audiobooks, EBooks, Read Alongs and TumbleBooks.
• Sort by Title and Author.
• Preloaded library of a variety of eBooks.
• Ability to SHOP and add new titles to the MY SHELF section of the app.
• Post reviews, comments and recommends to your Facebook wall.
• Invite your Facebook friends to the app.

Read the rest of this post at EdReach.us

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e-Books will likely be a part of future early childhood classrooms, and in light of the thin evidence base on their role in curriculum and instruction, we undertook a formative study to investigate what e-book pedagogy for early literacy might look like in the early childhood classroom [1]. We approached our research from a design perspective—much like an engineer—creating a prototype model for implementation in the classroom and testing it to begin a winnowing process that informs the educational design (e-books in preschool for purposes of early literacy instruction) and identifies design features that are feasible and preferable in an instructional model [2, 3].

At this early stage of prototype creation, we conceptualized an e-book instructional model that was purposefully under-specified to allow a wide-angle view of what it takes and what happens when e-book technology is inserted into the preschool classroom. The model consists of four components grounded in e-book studies [4] and the knowledge base on early literacy instruction for young children [5]:

• The e-book as a technology-mediated environment
• The physical place of e-book reading in the classroom
• Engagement in e-book reading for small groups and individuals
• Explicit instruction using e-books

Our research objectives were to observe, define the salient attributes and rate the functioning of each component in situ toward the goal of framing a model for replication and further testing. To this purpose we employed a qualitative approach that focused on sorting, clustering and aggregating observational data to derive quality indicators and design features.

The following is a brief overview of some of the data collected during Phase 2 of our 2010-2011 study.

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