At FETC, educators to share how they use Sora to improve reading engagement with ebooks and audiobooks

 

 

CLEVELAND – January 14, 2020 –  OverDrive Education’s K-12 student reading app Sora has completed a record-breaking year, achieving highs in both school adoptions and student reading. Sora is now available in over 23,000 schools worldwide – a 28% increase over 2018, and schools using Sora saw student reading time nearly double throughout the 2018-19 school year. This exceptional impact on student reading plus the app’s original design were among the reasons Sora was named one of TIME’s 100 Best Inventions of 2019. With Sora, students have 24/7 access to ebooks and audiobooks from not just their school’s digital collection but also their local public library.

Sessions at this week’s Future of Education Technology Conference (FETC) at the Miami Beach Convention Center in Miami (Booth #2213) will demonstrate how Sora and digital books increase student reading by providing the flexibility to meet the ever-changing needs of the 21st-century classroom (complete schedule here). OverDrive Education, the leading ebook and audiobook service for schools, will also share best practices and highlights, such as the year-end lists below.

Based on data from 23,000 schools worldwide, the following lists represent the most popular titles during the 2018-19 school year.

The top five ebooks for K-12 students in 2019:
1. Wonder by R. J. Palacio

2. Diary of a Wimpy Kid series by Jeff Kinney

3. Big Nate Makes a Splash by Lincoln Peirce

4. Pray for a Fire Drill by Lincoln Peirce

5. The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas

The top five audiobooks for K-12 students in 2019:
1. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone by J. K. Rowling

2. A Wrinkle In Time by Madeleine L’engle

3. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets by J. K. Rowling

4. The Wild Robot by Peter Brown

5. The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan

Sora increases student reading

Comparing the beginning of the 2018-19 school year to the end, educators found that students using Sora nearly doubled the amount of time they spent reading per month. Sora’s ease-of-use and gamification inspires students by making reading more accessible, engaging and interactive. Another key factor contributing to this increase is an innovation unique to Sora: the option for students to add access to their local public library’s digital collection, expanding their selection of age- and grade-appropriate popular ebooks and audiobooks. Students who added public library access in Sora increased the number of books read by nearly 50%.

 

Sora, which is now compatible with Google Classroom, can also show educators a variety of insights, such as an aggregate view by school of the number of books students have opened daily, plus the average reading time per session.

Visit FETC Booth #2213 from January 15-17 to hear educators from around the country share how they are using Sora to improve reading engagement and education:

  • Start with reading: Engaging your youngest students – Wednesday at 12:30pm
  • Read more with the Sora app
    • Wednesday at 2:30pm
    • Thursday at 1pm
    • Friday at 9:30am
  • Reading by choice: How ebooks empower students and educators – Wednesday at 4:30pm
  • Give student voices a platform with digital reading – Thursday at 2:30pm
  • Press play on promoting ebooks and audiobooks in the school – Thursday at 3:30pm

For more information about OverDrive’s service for schools, visit company.overdrive.com/education/k-12-schools/ and FETC Booth #2213.

 

About OverDrive Education – a division of OverDrive

OverDrive Education is the leading global digital reading platform for K-12, offering the industry’s largest catalog of ebooks, audiobooks and streaming video. As a 100% digital company serving 43,000 libraries and schools worldwide, OverDrive combines technology with content to support learning and reading in the classroom, library and home on all major devices, including iOS®, Android™, Chromebook™, and Kindle® (US only). Sora, the student reading app, was named one of TIME’s Best Inventions of 2019. Founded in 1986, OverDrive and OverDrive Education are based in Cleveland, Ohio USA, and owned by Tokyo-based Rakuten. company.overdrive.com/education/

 

Contact:
David Burleigh
Director of Brand Marketing & Communications
dburleigh@rakuten.overdrive.com

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