Indiana University tries to drive down textbook costs with eBooks — from eCampusNews.com by Dennis Carter
Online textbooks initiative comes as student activists clamor for more affordable options nationwide

 

Video: Hands-on with Inkling 2.0, the iPad textbook — from gigaom.com by Colleen Taylor; my thanks go out to Mr. Johnny Ansari for this resource

 

A screenshot from GigaOM’s video demo of Inkling 2.0

Excerpt:

This week, digital publishing startup Inkling debuted the 2.0 version of its software, which provides interactive, digital versions of college textbooks for the iPad.

The San Francisco-based startup is just down the street from GigaOM’s office, so I headed on over to Inkling headquarters on Thursday to get an in-person demo from the company’s Founder and CEO Matt MacInnis. In short: It’s so awesome it actually makes me want to buy college textbooks again, just to play with the app some more.

 

 

From DSC:
Why can’t these materials from publishers come right into an  8′ x 6′  “interactive whiteboard” (for lack of a better term) so that the professor can annotate/manipulate them in front of the classroom?

See:

Daniel Christian: The Chalkboard of the Future

and here

 

From Daniel Christian: Fasten your seatbelts! An accelerated ride through some ed-tech landscapes.


From DSC:
Immediately below is a presentation that I did for the Title II Conference at Calvin College back on August 11, 2011
It is aimed at K-12 audiences.


 

Daniel S. Christian presentation -- Fasten your seatbelts! An accelerated ride through some ed-tech landscapes (for a K-12 audience)

 


From DSC:
Immediately below is a presentation that I did today for the Calvin College Fall 2011 Conference.
It is aimed at higher education audiences.


 

 Daniel S. Christian presentation -- Fasten your seatbelts! An accelerated ride through some ed-tech landscapes (for a higher ed audience)

 


Note from DSC:

There is a great deal of overlap here, as many of the same technologies are (or will be) hitting the K-12 and higher ed spaces at the same time. However, there are some differences in the two presentations and what I stressed depended upon my audience.

Pending time, I may put some audio to accompany these presentations so that folks can hear a bit more about what I was trying to relay within these two presentations.


Tagged with:  

A very interesting concept — game-like reading on tablet devices — from Walrus Epub:
Walrus Epub Demo#3 – Kadath— my thanks to Mr. Steven Chevalia for this resource

Very interesting concept -- game-like reading!

Excerpt:

  • The new video demo made by the Walrus studio, involving ePub3 with a huge use of HTML5, CSS3 and Javascript.

From DSC:
A good example of how books are moving to ebooks which are then moving to applications.

 

Khan Academy integrates with digital textbooks — from Mashable.com by Sarah Kessler

Excerpt:

E-textbook maker Kno announced Monday that it will integrate thousands of tutorial videos from Khan Academy into its books.

 

Also see:

Intel predicts Smart TV is the device of the future — from nyxiotechnologies.com’s blog
Chipmaker Intel believes that the Smart TV is the electronic device of the future, in the living room anyway.

Excerpt:

The Smart TV is already upon us, in its various forms from various manufacturers. It has arrived with 3D capabilities, web browsing and social networking and applications. Currently Samsung and LG seem to be two of the big players pushing the Smart TV to consumers.

Also see:

 

Teaching secrets: Teaching students how to learn — from Edweek.org by Cossondra George

Excerpt:

Awareness of common pitfalls and effective strategies can support your efforts to help students “learn to learn” throughout the school year…

 

From DSC:
I sure wish instructional designers, subject matter experts, professors and teachers could annotate their “books” to give concrete, practical ideas and strategies that would help students to better study, understand, and remember the relevant materials.  My early take on this might be achieved via a multi-layered, digital textbook approach that would hopefully address metacognition and help students learn how to learn:

 

 

What the Kindle textbook rental program portends for higher education — from xplana.com by Rob Reynolds

Excerpt:

Almost as soon as the press release hit the Internet yesterday, I began fielding questions about Amazon’s new Kindle textbook rental program. What does this mean for publishers? How will this affect textbook prices? What impact will it have on institutions and their students?

While the general answer to all of these questions is “We don’t know yet,” there are a number of projections I think we can make based on current market trends. Before launching into those projections, however, let’s take a quick look at what the Kindle textbook rental program actually offers.

Borders forced to liquidate, close all stores — from the WSJ by Mike Spector and Jeff Trachtenberg

Also see:

 

From DSC:
Another example — like Blockbuster — of a company who underestimated the disruptive power of technology.

© 2024 | Daniel Christian