CLEVELAND, December 3, 2015 – These days, technology and classroom are two words that go hand in hand. More schools and educators have an increased focus on engaging students by leveraging eBook and audiobook technology to support instruction in the classroom.

Nearly 13,000 schools and districts work with OverDrive, the leading eBook and audiobook platform for schools, to complement their existing K-12 content. Most OverDrive-powered schools utilize eBooks for required text and leisure reading, but audiobooks are gaining in popularity and offer students numerous advantages including the ability to multi-task and help with comprehension. Increasingly, thousands of teachers and librarians worldwide have recognized the value of audiobooks and now support the ability to read through listening.

Here are seven reasons why schools are using audiobooks with students:

  1. Efficiency– Students are busy with homework, sports and extracurricular activities. Audiobooks enable students to read the books assigned while doing chores, working out, on the bus or before they fall asleep. They can also increase the speed of the playback to get through the audiobook faster.
  2. High-Low readers– Some readers struggle to read at their age level or get discouraged from reading at all. Audiobooks are a great solution to allow these readers to follow the story and get comfortable again with literature.
  3. ESL students– There are many schools across the country who have English as a Second Language students. Audiobooks are wonderful for teaching these students English grammar and overall language and sentence structure.
  4. Classroom story time– A great way to break up lectures is by having story time with a class. Traditionally, teachers and librarians read while students listen or students read short sections. Use an audiobook instead and teachers can pause in between chapters to discuss what the students think is happening to work on comprehension.
  5. Critical Listening– Critical listening is essential in all walks of life and audiobooks force students to hear important information and process it properly.
  6. Introduce new vocabulary– Audiobooks help students learn pronunciation of words they may not know when reading. Hearing these words spoken properly in a sentence, students can comprehend what these words mean.
  7. Convenience– One of the reasons many schools don’t offer traditional audiobooks is because they often come with multiple CDs that can be damaged or lost. Digital audiobooks make this a thing of the past. Titles are enjoyed and then automatically returned.

Audiobooks are an effective way to help students fall in love with reading, regain their confidence and offer privacy about their reading choices. Students who use audiobooks can usually tackle titles at higher reading levels and get through reading assignments even with a busy schedule. OverDrive offers more than two million digital titles from over 5,000 publishers, easily accessible via the industry’s highest-rated app and on all major eReading devices, computers, tablets and smartphones, including iPad®, Chromebook™ and Kindle® (U.S. only).

For more information about the OverDrive service for schools, visit www.overdrive.com/schools.

 

About OverDrive
OverDrive is the leading digital distribution platform, supplying the industry’s largest catalog of eBooks, audiobooks, streaming video and periodicals to 34,000 libraries, schools and retailers worldwide. We support all major computers and devices, including iOS®, Android™, Chromebook™ and Kindle® (U.S. only). OverDrive delivers all digital media on a single platform, and offers innovations such as OverDrive Read, the breakthrough EPUB and HTML5 browser-based reading experience, and narrated eBooks (Read-Alongs).  Founded in 1986, OverDrive is based in Cleveland, Ohio USA and is owned by Tokyo-based Rakuten. For more information, visit www.overdrive.com or follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and our blog.

Contact:

David Burleigh

Director of Marketing & Communications

dburleigh@overdrive.com

216-573-6886 ext. 218

 

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