A great free site that offers fun and education for families is Bitstrips.com. The site is designed so you can make your own comic strips. You can type text into speech bubbles with several font options. There’s plenty here for beginning writers to explore.
Bitstrips is simple to navigate. Children can become familiar with the click-tools in 10 minutes or less. Adults can let kids use the site on their own, and ask the youngsters for a tutorial later.
Whether you’re a teacher, a home schooling parent, a tutor, or even a babysitter, you can integrate bitstrips into a literacy lesson that lets everyone publish a final result.
For music students or music lovers, there’s a new iPhone or iPod touch application called Etude.
The app allows you to see piano keys pressed at the same time the note is highlighted and played. And you can download hundreds of tunes free.
The top download this week is Fur Elise by Beethoven.
This is a fairly new product with few consumer reviews. If you’d like to review it, leave a comment to be shared.
How long does it take to learn English? Maybe not as long as it used to. Textbook learning is now being supplemented by free podcasts.
Betteratenglish has podcasts in English. Better yet, they’re topic specific. Learners can listen to conversations on subjects they need to be able to converse about.
These conversations can be used by home schoolers, tutors, or individuals who need a more convenient way to learn than via textbook.
If you’d like to maximize your reading time, take a gander at this nifty website: Spreeder. It’s a software program that allows you to upload text of your choice and learn to speed read.
If you’ve ever been hesitant to read aloud, because you’re embarrassed by a lack of speed, this might be just the gizmo to get you going.
It will show you how fast you currently read, while training you to read faster. It’s a great free resource!
Worldreader has launched a One Kindle Per Child campaign. They’re giving away Kindles free. The catch? Only in Africa. Their goal is to advance literacy by distributing books without paper, productions runs, bookstores, or any of the competing items in the reader’s market. It definitely promotes Kindles, but does it promote literacy?
Some economists are wondering how feasible it is to distribute Kindles without repair centers, batteries, electricity and the support structure that electronic devices require. 
Devices and advertising aside, the way to teach someone to read is to open a book and begin a dialogue.
The photo on the right is of school children in Ghana showing off the new Kindles.
What’s your opinion? Is this a way to advertise Kindles to a burgeoning economy, or a better way to teach reading?
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