Inside Higher Ed has an article on e-books. It’s relevant to me for two reasons.
1. I am on the committee to find e-books usable for the English department at my CC.
2. I have been offered as a resource person to the class which was given iPads.
However, the e-book market has seen some auspicious developments in recent months. In July, Blackboard announced changes to its popular learning-management platform that would allow professors to assign electronic texts more easily — a potential coup for e-books, since Blackboard boasts by far the most popular learning-management platform in the industry and is well-positioned to influence how professors provide course materials to students.
But the most buzzed-about development with implications for e-books has been the unveiling of the iPad, which, among many other functions, is popular as a reading device. The last version of Amazon’s Kindle e-reader was ill-suited for academic reading, according to a handful of institutions that tried it out. But the iPad is touted as a more hip, versatile breed of e-reader — one that college kids are apt to buy for general purposes. And once they own e-readers, they will be more likely to buy e-books, suggested Eric Weil, managing director of Student Monitor, in a July interview with Inside Higher Ed.
Picture from Wired.com
I recently read that people generally read more slowly on e-readers than with printed books. Unfortunately, I can’t remember where I read this or if it’s scientifically true, but I do know it’s about right for me. Still, this might make students more likely to read their textbooks.