Overview
Where is your first port of call when looking for the right book? Amazon? iTunes? Even an actual brick-and-mortar library??? All good options, but there is one delightfully simple place you should be trying first. Google Books. Not only can you preview a large portion of one of the books for teachers to try before you buy, you may even strike it lucky and get the whole thing for free! Here are five completely free eBooks to get you started, but make sure to take some time and explore, who knows what gems you might find.
Name: Google BooksPricing: Free
Compatibility: Browser
Access: No signup required
Privacy: Customizable (privacy policy)
In Practice
1. Measuring Innovation in Education
Do teachers innovate? Do they try different pedagogical approaches? Are practices within classrooms and educational organisations changing? And to what extent can change be linked to improvements? A measurement agenda is essential to an innovation and improvement strategy in education. Measuring Innovation in Education offers new perspectives on addressing the need for such measurement.
2. Control in the Classroom
Have you ever wondered how learning happens? Control in the Classroom introduces the main ideas of a profound explanation of human behavior and then applies these ideas to the issue of curriculum delivery. This illuminating explanation, known as Perceptual Control Theory, shows that control is the fundamental phenomenon at the core of the business of living. Control is critical in the classroom – both for teachers and for students.
3. e-Learning Cookbook
This book is based on the notion that a lecturer who uses ICT in teaching must learn how to apply his or her knowledge about content, pedagogy and technology in an integrated manner. The idea of integrating these three types of knowledge is based on the TPACK model, which stands for Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge model.
4. Education at a Glance 2014 – Highlights
‘Education at a Glance 2014: Highlights’ summarises the OECD’s flagship compendium of education statistics, Education at a Glance. It covers a range of topics, including educational technology books. It provides easily accessible data on key topics in education today, including: education levels and student numbers, higher education and work, economic and social benefits of education, paying for education, and the school environment.
5. 50 Leveled Math Problems
OK, ’50 Leveled Math Problems’ may not be of great value if you aren’t a Math teacher, but it does give a pretty good taste of the types of texts and resources that can be found on Google Books. Try searching on a specific keyword relevant to your discipline or class. There are a heap of books containing problems, lesson plans, exercises and more that can help save you time and money!
Links and Next Steps
- Google Book Advanced Search – Select ‘Full view only’ for free books
- Google eBookstore – Most Popular Free Books on Google Play
- Project Gutenberg – Over 46,000 free ebooks: epub, kindle, download or read online
- Open Library – Over a million free ebook titles available
- bookboon.com – Download free eBooks and textbooks
- ManyBooks.net – More than 29,000 eBooks available for Kindle, Nook, iPad
- Free-Ebooks.net – Discover all-new, rising authors
- LibriVox – Free public domain audiobooks
Feature image courtesy of Flickr, CCAC North Library.