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Lisa Heaton

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  • What’s New at Scholastic?

    By Lisa Heaton - July 20, 2012 | Tickers: AAPL, SCHL | Editor's Choice

    When I was a kid I waited with anticipation each year for the annual Scholastic (NASDAQ: SCHL) Book Fair held in my school’s library. Dozens of books would be on sale for reasonable prices. I enjoyed books like the Encyclopedia Brown series by Donald J. Sobol (I’m sorry to say he passed away this month, July 11, 2012). A search of the Scholastic website gave me 122 items related to Encyclopedia Brown which seems to illustrate its longevity and popularity for others as well. As a kid I also loved receiving my Weekly Reader, and as I was researching for this article I was excited to see that Scholastic still offers this product line at a reasonable price; a 32 issue subscription for a second grader is currently only $4.29. When I was a middle school teacher my students also benefitted from Scholastic’s Book Clubs which allowed us to compile book orders and earn rewards in the form of free books and materials for our classroom. As I shifted to my role as instructional technologist I valued the quality software offered by Tom Snyder Productions which was acquired by Scholastic during FY 2002. While I’ve illustrated several sentimental reasons for liking Scholastic as a company, I recall a blog titled The Perils of Nostalgic Investing by William Bias that tells me that research is required to determine whether I like Scholastic as an investment. So, let’s take a closer look… more >>

  • Surface or iPad: An Educator’s Opinion

    By Lisa Heaton - July 10, 2012 | Tickers: AAPL, MSFT

    First and foremost I am an educator. My background is in instructional technology and I work in teacher education. My consideration of the pending release of Microsoft’s (NASDAQ: MSFT) Surface tablet compared to Apple’s (NASDAQ: AAPL) iPad is from that perspective. Granted I’m short on a hands-on experience with Surface, but I have seen and read enough to start developing some ideas. more>>

  • Does Anyone Remember Palm?

    By Lisa Heaton - July 7, 2012 | Tickers: AAPL, GOOG, HPQ, MSFT

    Today’s front page of USA Today (July 6, 2012) features an article titled, “Tablet wars heat up with mini iPad.” Just last week Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) presented the Nexus shortly after Microsoft revealed Surface. According to the article, Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) OS devices already have 62.5% of the tablet market. With all of the other options already available it would seem that both Google and Microsoft are more than a little late for the show. more>>