Is it still King Lear? English teachers and the e-reader phenomenon

E-reading devices such as the Kindle have rapidly secured a significant place in a number of societies as at least one major platform for reading.To some extent they are part of the overarching move towards a fully digitised world, but they have a distinctiveness in being deliberately‘book-like’. Teachers generally have some suspicion towards ‘New Media’, especially when it challenges their established practice. This chapter reports on a survey of English teachers in England to gauge their reactions to e-readers, both personally and professionally, and describes their speculations about the place of e-readers in schools in the future. There is a mixed reaction with some teachers concerned about the demise of the book and the potential negative impact on reading. However, the majority welcome e-readers as a dynamic element within the reading environment with particular potential to enthuse reluctant readers and those with special or linguistic needs. They also, some grudgingly, view the fact that reading using this form of technology appeals to the ‘egeneration’ and may succeed in making reading ‘cool’. This form of technology is, ironically [given that it appears to threaten traditional books], likely to be rapidly adopted in classrooms.

A manual of the philosophy of voice and speech, especially in relation to the English language and the art of public speaking /

Mode of access: Internet.

An English and Tamil dictionary; or, Manual lexicon for schools. Giving in Tamil all important English words, and the use of many in phrases.

Mode of access: Internet.

The brothers Ricci's opera Crispino e la comare = The cobbler and the fairy : containing the Italian text, with an English translation, and the music of all the principal airs.

The principal airs are unaccompanied.

Il barbiere di Siviglia = The barber of Seville : opera buffa in two acts ; containing the Italian text, with an English translation and the music of all the principal airs /

Libretto by Sterbini.

Mozart's opera Don Giovanni : containing the Italian text with an English translation and the music of all the principal airs.

Libretto by Lorenzo Da Ponte.

Mozart's opera Il flauto magico. Containing the Italian text, with an English translation, and the music of all the principal airs.

The text is by Schikaneder and Giesecke.

Uniting the nation? Disability, stem cells, and the Australian media

In this article, the 2002 Australian debate regarding embryonic stem cells is examined. This shows the importance of an analysis of the media to understanding how disability is constructed in discourses of nationhood and biotechnology. Media representation of disability-for instance, signifying disability as catastrophe-is seen as crucial in securing access to a variety of biotechnologies, such as embryonic stem cells. Analysis of such media moments shows a structure of privileged and excluded voices in debates regarding disability and biotechnology. The diversity of voices in the Australian community regarding disability is not represented in a range of media, nor are people with disability quoted as experts on disability. A recognition of the media's construction of disability must be matched by a commitment to disability as part of a truly civil society. It is only in this way that we will have biotechnologies, and diverse cultural and media representations that meet the requirements of the international disability rights movement motto of 'nothing about us without us', recently emphasized in the Disabled Peoples' International Europe's 2000 statement on biotechnology.