Voices in Reading--Narrators and eAudiobooks

eAudiobooks are especially tied to the voices of the narrator(s).  Some are recorded by a full cast and are almost an audio play.  Others are read by one narrator who often modifies his or her voice for the different characters in the book.

Jim Dale is the narrator of the Harry Potter audiobooks.   He has a distinctive voice and makes the stories very interesting.  Scholastic is the publisher of the Harry Potter books and, in the past year, has been developing another idea for more best selling books for the youth market. 

The new idea is the Thirty-Nine Clues series.  David Pittu is the narrator for all of the audiobooks in this series.  They are written by several award-winning authors.  The first book in the series is The Maze of Bones by Rick Riordan.

BARD Makes Listening Easier for Hard-of-Hearing Seniors

BARD provides selector buttons for tone and speed on their digital audio players.  My 95-year-old mother needs to have the speed of the voice slowed a bit.  The analog audio players allowed this, though it distorts the audio.  The digital audio players really allow the speed to match the needs of the listeners.  Voices of Vision provides digital eAudiobooks and we download the books we like to USB drives that the digital audio players read.

For more information about BARD, please follow the link.

Keeping Current with Technology Changes--Challenges to Communication

Creating web sites to share information becomes a challenge when the software used to post the information changes without notice.  For example, I used Adobe Presenter to share a presentation on my website in May and the software has changed (improved).  The old presentation no longer worked and I needed to recreate it and to post a revised copy on the website--done today (http://www.joelmonty.net/information_links/information_links.htm).

We need to keep revisiting what we have created to make sure that it is still accessible, especially as people are using a variety of web browsers.  As I begin to build more and more presentations, webinars, podcasts, and teleconferences, I will be using all sorts of new technology to make these accessible to as many people as possible.

It is always a challenge to keep things current and active, both in terms of content and in terms of the technology used to access the content.  Books were recorded and became audiobooks.  Audiobooks have been digitized and become eAudiobooks available for download.  Along the way the players and the software keep changing--much more rapidly that the transition of home-based audio from vinyl record to  cassette tape and CD to digital fines available on MP3 players, iPods, computers, etc.

Another dimension is to keep the content interesting with interesting graphics.  "Black and white" are boring.  Oops, I'll have to change the format of this blog pretty soon.

What do I really want to be doing now and five years from now?

What do I really want to be doing now and five years from now?  For the last 40+ years I have been doing the same thing--though for different people and organizations and in ways that have continued to evolve and change and improve.  (See the stories pages on the title link.)

I make a difference in the world by helping people and organizations learn to change to improve their quality of (business) life now and for the future.

I did that while working in the U.S. Army for ten years, then as a management consultant, then as a college professor and teacher, and as an organizational change consultant in my own businesses and while working for consulting firms.  Along the way I learned to reflect on what I am doing and to capture it in writing so that I can share best practice and research.

I enjoy doing that for businesses and for individuals, for adults  and for children, for entire communities and for school systems and colleges and universities.  After 40+ years, I am very, very good at it.

Along the way I have earned a doctorate and two masters degrees and have worked with more than 100 organizations in more than 16 separate industries throughout North and South America, Europe, Asia, and Australia.

I have worked with thousands of individuals ranging in age from 6 months (babies learning to swim) to more than 90 years (adult learners learning to do new things for themselves).  I have done this work in English, Spanish, Italian, and French.  In some cases English was the only common language the students had in my sessions.

I have done this in one-on-one settings as a performance coach, in small group workships, in large group workshops, and in classes ranging in size from six or eight students to more than 300.

I like what I do and am always looking for more opportunities to do it with new people.  I plan to be doing this five years from now as well.

Reading Challenge--Step "Outside the Box" and Make a Difference with Me in K-12 Education

"The Economy in 2009"‐‐at a time when students are graduating from high school reading at a third or fourth grade level, when employees need symbols on keys to enter sales at fast‐food restaurants, when beginning employees and students entering community colleges cannot read the textbooks, manuals, or follow written instructions well enough to be successful at their jobs, teachers are laid off in droves.

Many teachers who are not yet tenured and who chose to come to teaching as a second (or later career) to make a difference for students often command higher salaries due to education and, in districts already operating "in the red" are let go by some school districts and not hired by other school districts.

Beyond that challenge, many interventions designed to help struggling readers improve reading skills are not proving successful enough to produce a quality change in students' abilities to read. Research indicates that many students who have problems reading often engage in off‐task behavior and bring others off‐task with them so not to have to compete in academics. Schools invest money in "positive behavior intervention and support" (variations of discipline and rewards) rather than in helping students build solid social‐emotional skills appropriate to their grade levels and use "off the shelf" interventions to build reading scores (not necessarily skills or habits). (See http://joelmonty.wikispaces.com/research
for several research articles which support these claims.)

For the last six years I have been one of those multiple‐career teachers, working with English language learners (ELLs) in K‐12 school districts in Kane County Illinois. I have gone back to school to meet state requirements for teaching and completed a post‐doctoral Master of Arts in Teaching in May, 2008, then
took 15 graduate hours during the summer of 2008 to obtain state approval as a bilingual (Spanish) teacher and as a Teacher of English as a Second Language. I earned my doctorate degree in 1992 in adult education and human resources development. Before stepping into the K‐12 classroom, I had been a teacher of adults since 1968 (starting as a volunteer with the American Red Cross). I had designed innovative programs provided to employees of businesses and corporations in North and South America, Asia, Europe, and Australia. I had also been an organizational change consultant for organizations around the world for more than 40 years.

Most recently I have been focusing on the ongoing problem of below‐grade –level reading among middle school students and beyond. While prevalent among ELLs and students whose families are in the lower economic categories (receiving free or reduced lunches), it is more widespread than that. My research and practice have led me to explore a technology‐enhanced approach which had established a good track record in the 1990s and has even greater application today, leveraging the new technology. I am referring to the use of audiobooks and eAudiobooks (which can be downloaded to iPods and MP3 players) to encourage reading and improved academic performance. (See http://joelmonty.wikispaces.com/research for an article and a presentation on this subject.)


Today, at the beginning of the 2009‐2010 school year, I am looking for school districts who would like to partner with me to introduce this approach with small groups of students, teachers, and librarians at the middle school level and above.

This is a time to step “outside the box” and to find a way to support something new that has the potential to make a real difference for K‐12 students and employers and future families in this country.

If you are ready "step outside of the box" to work with me to meet this challenge, please let me know. The website linked to the title of this blog entry takes you to the project page for DrM‐Resources and this is the “Providing Access to eAudiobooks and Audiobooks to Improve Reading and Academic Performance” project.