Share Reading Electronically

What if you could exchange comments instantly with classmates while reading your assignment—at home!?

The internet has made it possible for people to connect with one another—and their documents—almost instantly. No one has to be in the same room anymore! But for some companies at Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, this isn’t enough. They want to make collaboration even easier—and some of their solutions are great for kids in school. Here are two of the cooler solutions I noticed.

Microsoft Office 2010

Okay, Microsoft Office isn’t exactly the coolest product on the show floor this year, but during his keynote address, Steve Ballmer, the CEO of Microsoft, showed off one cool feature in the upcoming version.

While Ryan Asdourian, part of the Windows team, focused on getting the pictures for a PowerPoint presentation on one computer, Ballmer fleshed out some important bullet points on another slide. As soon as one of them saved, the other could quickly retrieve the changes made. This not only works in PowerPoint—it’s available in other Office programs, including Word. It’s a cool feature that ought to make putting together team projects really easy, although unfortunately it only works if everyone has the latest version of Office.

Copia

Copia is one eReaders in the long line of eReaders on display at CES. But Copia Readers have a unique aspect that really sets them apart: “social reading.”

Just like many of the social networking sites on the Internet, you can friend people and share notes and comments about the books you are reading. This could be really helpful in English class, especially when you’re reading a difficult book.

It also synchronizes with Facebook and Twitter, two very popular social networking sites. And although there are six eReaders that all work with the network, you don’t need one to access the service. When it launches, you’ll be able to access it from all kinds of devices—even cell phones and computers.

—Aaron Broder

PHOTOS: (TOP) Microsoft Office 2010 gives you the power to easily collaborate with other users.(BOTTOM) The Copia platform lets you talk about thousands of books with your friends using social networking. (Photos Courtesy Aaron Broder)

Comments

[Miranda]

Very cool! This would be extremely useful for my class. In the future, I'm assuming my school would probably get these since we're a Math/Science/Technology Magnet.