Ebooks at Liberal Arts Colleges

"As the e-reader and tablet wars heat up, Amazon.com Inc. is launching a digital-book lending library that will be available only to owners of its Kindle and Kindle Fire devices who are also subscribers to its Amazon Prime program."

"Students in these courses use the computer during class time to work through material at their own speed. Through diagnostics taken along the way, the program creates a "personalized learning path" that targets exactly what lessons they need to work on and then delivers the appropriate material. Points, badges and other game mechanics theoretically keep students chugging through courses with more motivation. In the meantime, teachers learn which students are struggling with exactly which concepts."

"Students spend an average of $900 a year on textbooks-20 percent of tuition at an average university and half of tuition at a community college. Textbook prices have increased at four times the rate of inflation since 1994 and continue to rise."

"This isn't the same approach, however, that Apple took to disrupting the music industry. This isn't the equivalent of $.99 download for songs. This is about hiring "great textbook writers," something I don't think Apple ever did for songwriters, other than a few "iTunes Exclusive Releases" perhaps. And it seems as though -- again, just based on this passage from the biography -- that Jobs' frustration with the industry isn't with the industry so much as the bureaucracy that goes into textbook certification and adoption. How would partnering with Pearson, the largest education publisher in the world, disrupt textbook publishing? Color me skeptical."

"it's only a matter of time before, for example, a major publishing company sells textbooks through Amazon for use on the Fire and hooks in powerful interactive web applications for assessment, tutoring, or simulations, all on a little 7″ device that fits in any students backback."

Raises concerns about proprietary system that focuses on getting you to buy Amazon content; lack of flexibility: "schools are going to have to look for digital content that is available across platform. That could mean looking for DRM-free resources, or at least for resources that aren't restricted to one particular platform or file format. That could mean turning to Web apps over native apps. Does that mean turning to one big media technology company to handle content delivery (whether it's Apple or Amazon or Pearson)? Man, I sure hope not."

"The earliest electronic textbooks simply offered the text of the printed book on a computer. Today's newest models, though, come with an array of features, including software tools that automatically grade homework for professors or let students share their margin notes with friends online."

2009-2010 Kindle tests

Princeton Kindle studu

"Two universities running Kindle DX pilot programs have rejected the device as a potential textbook replacement, citing a poor feature set and the controversial accessibility issues. Primary among these is the text-to-speech capability."

As a part of the RIS Incubation process, I've been evaluating a number of popular e-book readers to see how viable they might be for classroom and/or library use. The readers I examined are: Amazon Kindle Amazon Kindle DX Sony Reader 300 Sony Reader 600 (aka Sony Reader Touch) Barnes and Noble Nook Apple iPad running Apple's iBooks software, Amazon's Kindle software, and Barnes and Noble's Reader software.

Bowdoin makes available Kindles (since 2009)

"One in 10 college students said they have bought an electronic book in the past three months, and 56 percent of those who had purchased an eBook said it was for educational purposes, according to a study released last month by the National Association of College Stores (NACS) OnCampus Research Division." (2010)

"The American Library Association (ALA) has just released its 2011 Public Library Funding and Technology Access Survey, and among its findings, 67% of public libraries in the U.S. now offer free access to e-books for their patrons. That's up 30% since 2007. Of course, access to e-books ranges greatly from state-to-state: 100% of Maryland and Utah libraries offer e-books, while only 25% of ilbraries in Mississippi do so, for example."

"The BioBook is an interactive iPad biology college textbook that allows students and professors to create their own customized learning experience. "