Distance Learning

Bush Library To Host Reading Discovery Program

• By Michael Hart
• 01/25/16

The George Bush Presidential Library at Texas A&M University in College Station, TX, will host its ninth annual Reading Discovery Program this week. It is the second year in a row that the university is partnering with Discovery Education for the event, which will be available for livestreaming to classrooms around the world.

The event will feature Former First Lady Barbara Bush, live via video feed, speaking about the program's theme — freedom's importance — and "a 'new breeze of freedom' that began during her husband’s presidency with the fall of the Berlin Wall, which symbolized the end of the Cold War," according to information released by the school.

The videoconference will also feature a question and answer session for students in the United States and Germany featuring Annett Kresser, a former resident of East Germany who escaped during the Cold War, and Discovery Education's Hall Davidson.

The event will also mark the formal launch of a new educational game from the library, Cold War Dare. The strategy game will be available for free from the Apple Store, Google Play and the Bush Presidential Library. Students can act as the United States president themselves and make decisions based on real events in history, specifically during the period before and when the Berlin Wall fell.

Augmented reality technology will allow students to overlay information, such as videos, audio and graphics, on an image that is viewed through almost any device.

Students from the College Station and Houston independent school districts have created content with images and text concerning the Cold War and the Berlin Wall using augmented reality that will be incorporated into the app.

"Dynamic digital content, professional development and resources give us the chance to reach every kind of reader and every kind of learner," Davidson said. "Educational technology has the power to bring excitement and discovery to the traditional printed word."