Random House Is Calling

This story originally appeared in the SLJ.com E-Mail Alert on Wednesday, March 9, 2005

Meg McCaffrey -- School Library Journal, 3/9/2005

The answer for kids loathe to crack a book just may lie in their cellphones. Starting this summer, publishing giant Random House will begin offering educational content via cellular devices.

Subscribers to the service will be able to check their cellphone display screens and find daily text-based lessons sent by Living Language, a foreign language self-study resource and subsidiary of Random House. Users can learn words, phrases, and grammar from a variety of languages. They can even hear the correct pronunciations of words, thanks to an audio stream transmitted to their cellphones.

Random House recently announced the service after signing a licensing agreement with Vocel, a San Diego–based publisher of mobile phone “push” technology, which involves delivering or “pushing” information directly to a user.

Living Language subscribers can receive content on the fly or at preset times. For example, kids can schedule their daily batch of lessons for 3:45 p.m. each day when they’re on the school bus.

Richard Sarnoff, president of Random House Ventures, says it’s just the beginning of content the company will offer via wireless handheld devices.

Sarnoff says that Vocel’s successful partnership with the Princeton Review got Random House excited about providing additional content to cellphones. Under that deal struck last year, content from Princeton Review’s SAT test-preparation materials is sent to cellphones for $5.75 a month. Vocel’s interactive technology allows subscribers to submit answers to five to 10 questions and receive feedback on their performance, including error explanations and flash cards.

Improvements in cellular networks and handset quality added to Random House’s enthusiasm for using mobile phones as a delivery platform. “We thought a quality product could be provided,” Sarnoff says.

“Librarians will want to be aware that more content from Random House, Oxford Press, and McGraw-Hill will be coming out via Vocel, says Bill Hammill, vice president of business development for the technology company.