Alex Thayer, CSC Lab member, recently gave two presentations on the Lab’s study of students’ use of e-readers. For World Usability Day at Microsoft, Alex presented “Supporting Students’ Reading Practice through E-reader Interfaces,” which focuses on how people build cognitive maps of the texts we read. You can view a photo of the presentation here.  Over 100 people were in attendance for the talk, and a number of excellent follow-up conversations occurred as a result of this presentation.

Later that night, Alex presented for the 150+ HCDE alumni who work for Microsoft. That presentation, “Digital Reading Technology and the Academic Potential of E-readers,” provided a broader focus on the Lab’s e-reader study results.

Both presentations went over quite well and definitely energized audience members who are considering how to create digital content for the wave of new devices and platforms currently available.  In particular, questions about how students read on slate computing devices dominated the post-presentation discussions.