Times Argus: Barcomb's eighth-grade classmates at Barre Town Middle and Elementary School have been discussing career ideas, everything from nursing to playing professional basketball to flying a jet. Guidance counselor Ry Hoffman has held class with the eighth-grade students for an hour each week this semester. They talk about the transition to high school, their career interests and courses at Spaulding High School that can help them achieve their goals.

This year, Hoffman has been working with Hannah Hurlburt from the Vermont Student Assistance Corp., using a new program called Start Where You Are. The program is designed to increase the "aspiration rate" for potential first-generation college students – 8th- to 10th-graders who have not been thinking about pursuing training beyond high school, and who are important for filling Vermont's future job needs.

"We're finding that earlier and earlier students are closing doors on themselves in terms of what they want to do," Hurlburt explained. VSAC's 2005 survey of high school seniors revealed that 43 percent of male students had decided in their sophomore year or earlier not to continue their education.

The career awareness program's most notable features are its interactive Web site, with funny, Vermont-y graphics accompanied by quacking, mooing and lapping of waves, and Hurlburt, a.k.a. the "opportunista."

The Web site carries on a "virtual dialogue" with students, asking them questions that help them identify what they like to do and what they're good at. Hoffman says his students play around with the Web site because they find it "user-friendly" and "cool."

New program helps kids explore career and job ideas [Times Argus]

boston.com: The paper version of "Psychology," a popular college textbook by David G. Myers, weighs nearly 5 pounds and costs roughly $90 new and $70 used. The digital version is easy on a backpack and costs $55. Which would you choose?

CourseSmart LLC, a new company backed by the nation's biggest textbook publishers, is betting that many tech-savvy students looking to save some money will select the e-textbook.

The Belmont, Calif., company is still in beta, refining its digital-book format and its business model. It offers about 2,000 e-textbooks now and hopes to have far more by next fall. But already CourseSmart is attracting considerable attention, particularly from college bookstores, which earn most of their revenue selling new and used textbooks and fear the publishers will sell directly to students and elbow them aside.

Frank Lyman, executive vice president for marketing and business development at CourseSmart, said bookstores will continue to play a vital role in the textbook market, but he acknowledged the relationship between publishers and bookstores is changing.

Publishers are "not looking to cut out the bookstores, but certainly there's some shaking out of their relationship that's going to happen as we migrate to digital," he said.

That migration is still in its infancy, but there is a growing belief in publishing circles that electronic textbooks have a real chance of catching on because of the savings, the convenience, and the features they have to offer.

A textbook ending? [boston.com]

Iconoculture: WittFitt wants to harness kids' propensity for movement and improve their fitness and focus by replacing classroom chairs with bouncy stability balls. The program educates students and teachers on benefits of a healthy spine and core muscles, and how to safely sit on stability balls.

Teachers using the WittFitt program report that ball-based students are more attentive than when sitting in chairs because they can fidget without being disruptive. WittFitt is being used in classrooms in nine states. Similar programs are in use in European classrooms.

Evolutionaries like a better mousetrap — and sometimes you don't have to look far to find innovative solutions to common problems. Getting kids to change the way they interact with a classroom can help them change their minds.

WittFitt rolls out Active Sitting 101 [Iconoculture]

EARTHtimes.org: Mathew Knowles' Music World Entertainment has partnered with Planet Toys to launch the first ever hip-hop/rhythm inspired preschool toy line promoting creativity, learning and movement through music. Mr. Knowles, who has made it a top priority to create and release "child-friendly" music content over the past year with his Kid's Rap Radio series, has brought to fruition this groundbreaking line of innovative, educational and musically stimulating toys. The line, Baby Jamz, will be available exclusively at Wal-Mart stores beginning July 26, 2007.

"Baby Jamz allows children to have toys that they can identify with and enjoy. Many children love music and dancing to hip-hop, so we have creatively combined great toys with the hip-hop versions of popular nursery rhymes. My grandson Juelz was the inspiration for this idea and I am especially excited that most of the Nursery Rhymes are sung by my daughter, Solange Knowles," says Mathew Knowles, president and CEO of Music World Entertainment.

Mathew Knowles Partners With Planet Toys to Co-Create and Launch the First Ever Hip-Hop/Rhythm Inspired Toy Line for Babies and Preschoolers [EARTHtimes.org]

Iconoculture: Good news for manga-loving teens: Reading Warcraft can help you pass the SATs. Kaplan Publishing has partnered with TokyoPop on a manga series designed to give kids a leg up on the verbal part of the dreaded test.

Psy-Comm, Von Van Hunter and other full-length graphic novels in the series are studded with highlighted words commonly used in SAT/ACT tests.

Kids have been reading comics to go to the head of the class since the Classics Illustrated of yore. Ditching the dictionary for manga makes test prep more effective as well as a lot more fun.

Need more proof that manga's gone mainstream? Prepping kids for the SATs is about as all-American as it gets.

Manga makes you smarter. No, really [Iconoculture]

The StarPhoenix: The Fly PenTop Computer is the latest LeapFrog Enterprises product for 8 -13 year-olds. This is the same company that brought us the Leapster hand-held gaming and learning tool.

However, this is no simple pen -- or paper. The pen, slightly larger than an ordinary Bic, is also a talking computer.

The paper is, well, almost magic.

Get this. Take the Fly Pen, draw the numbers zero through 9 plus the appropriate symbols, and presto -- a calculator. Way cool! The creators of this product have made interactive teaching fun.

To underline the point, let's talk about the Spelling module. This comes with grade-specific words for the user. In this case, we're looking at the Grade 4 level. We'll pick a selection of words, use the Fly Pen and write them on the paper provided. This is done by using the pen as a basic writing tool, but also as a computer-generated teacher. Tap the paper with the ink end and it tells you the instructions to follow.

Learning was never this 'cool' [The StarPhoenix]

Iconoculture: DailyCandy with content that's totally green? That would be Ideal Bite, a daily publishing website with an eco-friendly hue that intends to be "a good source of advice for real people leading busy lives."

Like the Lazy Environmentalist radio show and other down-to-earth approaches, Ideal Bite recognizes that people don't turn green overnight, they do it one shade at a time.

Everyday information for being a more conscientious consumer resonates with people who don't have time, energy or money to do the research themselves.

Ideal Bite points your mouse to the latest green news and views [Iconoculture]

Westchester.com: Eighty-nine percent of parents believe that it is important for their child to be involved in hands-on activities outside of the classroom. To help parents meet these needs, The Scholastic Store, located in SoHo and Scarsdale, has created Cool-riculum, a series of fun and enrichment workshops for kids.

Cool-riculum was designed to provide children with enrichment in their daily skills such as literacy, creativity, and independent thinking. It is also a great way for kids and parents to participate in group activities and socialize with friends.

Cool-riculum Workshops at The Scholastic Store include:

- Express Yourself! - A hands-on crafting activity that allows any child to be creative, build skills, and make a mess in a safe, fun environment (that isn’t your house!) Each session includes an arts-and-crafts project, story-time, and a group drawing. (Ages 4-5)

- ABC Language Exchange - Learning French or Spanish is one of the most rewarding challenges for a young mind - it’s also a lot of fun! These lively workshops are filled with songs and stories, from the top N.Y. language school. (Ages 4-9)

- RoboFUN with LEGO® Robotics - Aspiring inventors can design and build whatever they dream up! Kids develop mechanical skills and creativity using LEGOs, motors, sensors, and a special mini-computer. (Vision Education & Media, Ages 7-13)

- Klutz Build-A-Book™ - Kids can build their very own three-dimensional book using words, pictures, objects, and maybe even the kitchen sink! (Ages 4+)

- Stretch Out and Read - Hop, skip, and jump into fun stories with creative movement and imagination. Perfect for tots and moms! (Central Park Dance Studio, Ages 3-4)

- Mad Science© - Hands-on experiments bring the mysteries of science to a real-world level that kids can understand - and enjoy! Budding Einsteins will learn about the science behind everything from sports to nature to secrets codes to outer space! (Ages 3-7)

- Little Maestros - New York City’s #1 music experience helps kids develop essential language abilities, express their creativity and rock out! Every session is a unique musical event with puppet shows, pretend and real instrument play, a musical story-time, and much more! (Ages 3 months - 3 years)

The Scholastic Store™ Launches New Cool-Riculum Workshops [Westchester.com]