Learning Ecosystems

Nine important trends in the evolution of digital textbooks and e-learning content — from xplana.com by Rob Reynolds

Per Rob Reynolds:
I gave a presentation last week in which I talked about nine trends that we’re currently tracing with regards to digital content in Higher Education. These are the critical trends that we believe will determine both growth and innovation in this market. Here are the nine trends along with a brief comment on each.

1. The increased disaggregation of content and the breaking up of the traditional textbook model
2. A proliferation of e-content and e-learning apps that support content disaggregation and new product models
3. A merging of the current rental market and the e-textbook market
4. A wide range of license/subscription models designed to respond to consumer demands around price and ownership
5. The growth of Open Education Resource (OER) repositories
6. The development of a common XML format for e-textbooks, shared by all publishers and educational technology players
7. The importance of devices and branded devices
8. The development of e-commerce and new product ecosystems that challenge the traditional college bookstore
9. A move from evolution to innovation and revolution

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Also see:
The vanishing line between books and Internet — from Forbes.com by Hugh McGuire 
The inevitability of truly connected books and why publishers need APIs.

But everything exists within the EPUB spec already to make the next obvious but frightening step: Let books live properly within the Internet, along with websites, databases, blogs, Twitter, map systems, and applications.

From DSC:
I’m about to take a class on the future of teaching and learning…and I have to tell you that I was very disappointed to be presented with a syllabus “featuring” a textbook from 2004…geez.