Rosen Online Publishing offers interactive books
Posted by: Sue Polanka
I had a great time testing out the new Rosen Online Publishing interface, Rosen Learning Center. This center currently features 12 titles that spotlight Texas. History, government, land, resources, and missions are just a few of the topics covered in the 12 titles, which are designed for 3rd grade reading levels. The books meet the TEKS Standards (Texas Essential Knowledge & Skills Standards). The interactive books offer a wonderful variety of options including:
- Full color, easy to turn pages
- view full screen option
- visual time line of historic events in Texas and the US. Slide to the date desired and roll over the pinpoint on the timeline for a pop-up of content
- map that adjusts according to content being viewed, highlighting the appropriate geographic area in Texas
- embedded primary sources, like maps
- option to listen to the content with a very high quality reading, not computer generated
- embedded audio and/or video clips with appropriate content
- activities to test comprehension, the one I tried was a picture match of Native Americans
- vocabulary – definitions for difficult words on the page viewed
- instructional support – for teachers, a variety of worksheets and assignments to review the material
- index with internal links to content
A couple of caveats: printing should be accomplished using the built in browser option; I was unable to cut/paste; and the product is flash based and therefore is non-compatible with certain mobile devices, iPhone and iPad in particular. Overall, the experience was engaging and fun. I’m anxious to see other titles added to this great interface. According to Rosen, the Spotlight on New York series should be available in spring 2011.
August 11th, 2010 at 9:46 am
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