FollowWoe to the sad commuter with so much to do and so little time. Whether your commute is 20 minutes or over an hour, the time spent behind the wheel of a car can add up over the course of a week or two. When deadlines haunt your dreams they can definitely haunt your commute. For the student who has mass amounts of reading, Blackstone Audio has come up with the perfect solution.
My only hang up about audio textbooks stemed from the obvious. Textbooks are often, if not most of the time complete with graphs, charts, pictures, and the like and audio books are well, audio. But Blackstone has come up with the perfect solution to this particular student’s commuting troubles, the audio textbook with accompanying ebook.
Sit at home and study on a computer, nook, kindle, ipad, ipod, iphone, or android powered device and when it’s time to leave, plug in said device to your car sound system and let the book continue to read to you while on your way. All of the illustrations will be there for you to examine when you aren’t keeping your eyes carefully on the road.
The future is big for this kind of program. The audio track can be sped up or slowed down and the words highlighted as it’s being read so you can follow along. Retention is higher, and slow readers may find themselves being able to get through the text faster than before. Elementary school teachers who have students with reading difficulties may find this program helpful.
There are concerns. I’m not entirely sure how many students have parents who are willing to purchase some sort of portable reading device or set their children up on a computer in the evening, so they can be read to. Children may find it easier, while their parents aren’t looking, to simply be read to rather than following along. And what about bedtime stories? Will this beautiful bedtime ritual disappear? I’m also not sure how many responsible commuters there are out there who will keep their eyes off their portable device and on the road, but for this commuter Blackstone Audio’s anticipated release of the program in July or August of this year cannot come soon enough.
