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Years ago, David Risher, a former Amazon executive, came up with the unlikely plan of distributing Kindles to children in the developing world to help increase literacy. Why take a fragile piece of technology that requires charging and Internet connections to places where infrastructure can be sparse, especially when there’s an inexpensive, low-tech alternative in print books? But Risher has gradually found acceptance for the nonprofit he founded to take e-books to Africa, Worldreader. Now he’s getting a significant boost from book publishers that could help expand its reach. Simon & Schuster, HarperCollins, Egmont UK, Rosetta Books, Hardie Grant Egmont and Ripley Publishing have all agreed to donate e-books to Worldreader, allowing the nonprofit to triple the size of its digital library to more than 900 books. About 500 of those titles are African textbooks and storybooks, while another 425 originate from publishers in the United States, Britain and elsewhere. All of them are free for the roughly 1,000 children in Ghana and Kenya to whom Worldreader has handed out Kindles. Worldreader says it has distributed more than 200,000 e-books into the hands of children in its program.

Never mind the fact that nearly 40 percent of mobile ad clicks are either accidental or fraudulent — the folks from eMarketer say that mobile ad revenues in the U.S. will grow from $1.45 billion in 2011 to $6.62 billion in 2014.

The New York-based research group projects that by 2016, the U.S. mobile advertising market will be close to $12 billion. It should not come as a surprise that search-and-advertising giant Google, which also owns Android OS, will continue to dominate the industry and will grow at a monster speed. However, Pandora and Twitter stand out for their mobile ad revenues. While Twitter is beating Facebook as of now, it won’t be long before Facebook makes a comeback and takes about 9.5 percent of the market in 2014. Apple’s (a AAPL) iAd continues to struggle and perhaps it is time for Apple to rethink its ad foray and instead go back to its knitting.

In this report, I examine the potential for improved research, evaluation, and accountability through data mining, data analytics, and web dashboards. So-called “big data” make it possible to mine learning information for insights regarding student performance and learning approaches. Rather than rely on periodic test performance, instructors can analyze what students know and what techniques are most effective for each pupil. By focusing on data analytics, teachers can study learning in far more nuanced ways. Online tools enable evaluation of a much wider range of student actions, such as how long they devote to readings, where they get electronic resources, and how quickly they master key concepts.

Frontier Communications recently deployed advanced broadband technology to provide faster Internet speeds in sections of 28 communities in Appalachian Ohio. Using ADSL 2+ Bonding technology, the company now provides customers with speeds nearly double what was previously available, enabling speeds up to 12 MEG download/2 MEG upload for residential customers and 15 MEG download/2 MEG upload for small business customers.

The communities where Frontier recently deployed technology for increased broadband speeds in Appalachian Ohio include:

• Central Ohio -- Logan
• Eastern Ohio -- Bowerston, Byesville, Cambridge, Cooperdale, Flushing, Freeport, Knoxville, Lowell, Lower Salem, North Georgetown, New Philadelphia
• Southern Ohio -- Albany, Athens, Portsmouth, Guysville, Wellston, Idaho, Jackson, Lucasville, New Marshfield, Otway, Pomeroy, Shade, Piketon, Wellston
• Southwest Ohio -- Felicity, Manchester