E-READING FOR ALL: On April 30, President Obama announced a plan to give low-income students access to 10,000 e-books, in partnership with publishers including the five major houses. He hopes that the free e-books, worth around $250 million, will help close the digital divide, alongside the ConnectED initiative, which works to connect 99% of American students to high-speed broadband by 2018. Technology can be “not just a tool for connecting with your friends, but also for learning,” he explained.
The president also participated in a live interview at the Anacostia Neighborhood Library in Washington, DC with Osman Yahya, a sixth grader at Bennett Middle School in Salisbury, MD. Students from around the country joined the “virtual field trip” to ask Obama questions about his favorite childhood reads, including Dr. Seuss and The Great Gatsby, and how he overcomes writer’s block. Check out the conversation at #OfThePeople to get some book recommendations from POTUS—although Obama confessed to Yahya that with his current job, he doesn’t get much time to read for pleasure anymore.
