eBook News

I think that schools will (at least for the most part) be going digital with their textbooks, if only for the costs. A big meeting was held about digital textbooks into U.S. classrooms by the FCC and the Department of Education, included everyone from Apple to Intel to McGraw-Hill was in attendance.  Their finding were that doing so could save about $60 per student per year - something that could be a nice summative savings. I equate this to how Pres. J. Carter "found" so much oil, by having us use less such as by increased gas mileage.  I know that 60$ doesn't sound like much, although trying to get a 60$/student increase today would seem impossible, but remember how many students that there are and then start adding the years. In my district if we could that would mean: 60 $/student 200,000 students in my school district =12,000,000 $saving/year At a school were the state just told us we had to cut 6 million dollars, a 12 million savings in a year, would be...

Continuing the ebooks in classic art series. Today I'm adding Matthias Stomer's Annunciazione (1700) with a Sony Reader and Pierre Auguste Renior's Two Girls Reading (1890) a Nook Touch. Revisionist?

I was just reading a couple of articles about how people seem to be having a harder time remembering content when reading from an ebook device. Some of the anecdotal and other research seems shows it is hard to retain facts and information when reading an e-book – there were issues of remembering elements such as characters from the stories. One scientist put this down as being an issue of screen size - that it is easier to remember from large than small - that this would have a notable impact when reading from a cell phone. Another reason put forth was that the effect may be associated by how ebooks provide fewer spatial landmarks than print.  I do think that the spatial element could be impactful along with the screen size. I do wonder though about some of the other “studys” – if students are learning the device as well as learning content you have to contend with cognitive load.  For many it will take a good amount of time to become as familiar with etext reading as they...

Recently I misplaced my Kindle with its keyboard. This had the textbook that I'm using with the class that I'm teaching and I had been highlighting points to use in class, making "margin" notes, etc. and then I couldnt find my device - if this had been a regular book this would have ment me starting over again. Instead, I just opened it up on my iPad and used that with my class instead of my Kindle. Lesson saved! This experience exemplifies some of the big changes available through digital book access as compaired to printed paper. I now regularly carry an entire book collection with me, and I have access to my notes and other annotations that I make with all my devices -as long as I remember to sync them. How will school change if you have access to any class' textbook for the rest of your life. Can't remember a fact, there it is, can't remember a rule - just pull it up. Left your book at home, just pull it up on your smart phone. Now, if they would...

It is that time of year again, ebook week. If you read my work then you are most likely already an ebook reader. So this week take some time to share your experiences and encourage others to remember that digital reading is still reading. Some points that I always like to share include: *No difference in how your brain sees digital ink as compared to paper print. *Over 5 million books available online for free. *Younger kids prefer reading on a device over paper.

The U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan and Federal Communications Chairman Julius Genachowski have released the "Digital Textbook Playbook" on transitioning to digital texts. The Playbook is organized into four sections that are designed to follow the timeline/issues that schools need to address when making a transition from primarily paper print to mostly digital resources: Making the Transition to Digital Learning School districts need dedicated and shared leadership, careful planning, and teacher and community engagement to create a successful digital learning environment. Connectivity at School The key to delivering sufficient connectivity is estimating current and future demand at the district, school, and classroom level. This will ensure that schools have enough bandwidth to serve their student body, faculty, and staff. Connectivity Beyond the School Gates To accomplish truly ubiquitous digital learning, students mu...

In mid-January PEW for the last few years has been running a survey to find out about people having an ereader or a tablet. To me it always looks like geometric growth, in other words, we have moved out of Chris Anderson's long tail concept and are now in the "mainstream," with ebooks and tablets. Over the last three years, each year the number of tablets in use have just about doubled, from 5% in 2010, to 10% in 2011, and now 19% in 2012. And ereaders are pretty much the same (10% in 2011 and 19% in 2012). I also think that when you put readers and tablets together it becomes even more impressive, as of January 2012 it is estimated at 29% of adults have either a tablet or a reader. Then of course there are people like me, who have multiples of each that we work and experiment with (although PEW never calls me). I know to many when they read numbers like 5%, they thought it was no big deal, it's a rarity, but that is hard to continue to say when numbers become somethi...