Biblionasium has created a Goodreads-like "virtual reading village" for young learners. Providing a platform for organizing, tracking, and sharing experiences around reading, the site ultimately sets the stage for increased engagement with children's and young adult literature.

Students, teachers, and parents all have dedicated logins and experiences on the site, which range from setting reading goals to rating books to making recommendations. Thousands of books are categorized on the site by their Lexile scores and are displayable in virtual bookshelves; reading metrics are shareable in automated reading logs. Teachers and parents are then able to track reading metrics, including time spent during each reading session, and tailor suggested readings and assignments to student ability and interest rather than just, as is typical, a learner's grade level.

Pros:
Deep, easy-to-understand metrics that engage BOTH educators and parents. This dedicated portal for parents to track and engage with their child's reading material seems like a valuable point-of-difference that will encourage greater parental involvement and provide a more meaningful reading experience that transcends the classroom.

Cons:
The class page for teachers to input student info (see screenshot below) seems a bit more complicated than necessary. As an educator I would want an interface that allows me to upload a class list (from Excel or an LMS) and not have to input each student and correspondent password uniquely. I know that the site is especially mindful of COPPA requirements— so perhaps this stop-gap is tied to specific privacy requirements?

EdLab Relevance:
With our recent seminar from Readmill, the virtual and social reading experience is fresh in the EdLab's minds-eye. What is unique here is the focus on both user experience and easily accessible metrics. Both of these foci feel like they have relevance to ALL projects and apps we are working on here at the EdLab, in particular, DataDashboard.

Our Takeaway:
Fresh, fun approach to sharing, assessing, and discovering reading for children.

Class input portal: