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A proposal by the Prince George's County Board of Education to copyright work created by staff and students for school could mean that a picture drawn by a first-grader, a lesson plan developed by a teacher or an app created by a teen would belong to the school system, not the individual. The measure has some worried that by the system claiming ownership to the work of others, creativity could be stifled and there would be little incentive to come up with innovative ways to educate students. Some have questioned the legality of the proposal as it relates to students.

Questia Library Plus iPhone app. Credit: Questia We'll spare you the obvious "there's an app for that" joke. But you can get a library's worth of books on your phone. Questia, an online research portal for students, announced its application today for reading books, articles and periodicals on an iPhone or iPod Touch. The app costs 99 cents for 5,000 public-domain books and a week of unlimited access. After that, users can buy a two-week subscription for $9.99. There are so many things wrong with this we don't know where to start. For one, students don't like to buy things....

Several universities have recently tried a new model for delivering textbooks in hopes of saving students money: requiring purchase of e-textbooks and charging students a materials fee to cover the costs. A recent report on some of those pilot projects, however, shows that many students find the e-textbooks "clumsy" and prefer print.

While several colleges across the country are pushing electronic textbooks, touting them as more efficient and less cumbersome than regular textbooks, students are reluctant. E-textbooks still account for only 9% of textbook purchases, says Student Monitor, which researches college student behavior.

Students hate textbook publishers; textbook publishers hate that students resell, reuse, and download copies of their texts. Is there a middle ground, a sustainable business model where all parties have a sense of fairness?

New e-textbooks give educators an unprecedented level of insight into student reading habits, and the results have some students and experts wondering if the product compromises personal privacy.

This seems like a pretty fabulous idea to me from the student side....I could see why publishers probably aren't terribly thrilled though. (I'd be interested to see an adaptation for renting e-books, which isn't mentioned in the article as being extant...yet, anyway). Netflix for textbooks, indeed!

An executive in McGraw-Hill's higher-ed division discusses new strategies and models.

"Each August since 1998, Beloit College has released the Beloit College Mindset List, providing a look at the cultural touchstones that shape the lives of students entering college this fall." 2. They have always lived in cyberspace, addicted to a new generation of "electronic narcotics." 5. If they miss The Daily Show, they can always get their news on YouTube. 18. Their folks have never gazed with pride on a new set of bound encyclopedias on the bookshelf. 27. Outdated icons with images of floppy discs for "save," a telephone for "phone," and a snail mail envelope for "mail" have oddly decorated their tablets and smart phone screens. 35. Probably the most tribal generation in history, they despise being separated from contact with their similar-aged friends. 47. Before they purchase an assigned textbook, they will investigate whether it is available for rent or purchase as an e-book. 56. They have always enjoyed school and summer camp memories with a digital yearbook. 71. Despite being preferred urban gathering places, two-thirds of the independent bookstores in the United States have closed for good during their lifetimes.

Interesting view of adapting reference publications to mobile platforms.  Should be on interest to students in PSPB 255!

The Justice Department struck deals with three universities not to promote Amazon's Kindle or other e-book readers unless the devices are fully accessible to blind students." />

In 2007 the JISC national e-books observatory project was set up to undertake market research to help e-book publishers, aggregators, libraries and funding bodies understand the behaviours of e-book users and to assess the impact of free at-the-point of use course text e-books on traditional print sales to students

. Kevin Green, a junior, loved the e-book required in his business-marketing class this spring. "But if it was an accounting course," he said, "I would kind of want a printed textbook because it's got all the numbers" and equations that would be harder to manage electronically. His instructor, Michael J. Wilson, an associate professor of accounting, economics, and finance, said the one problem they had with the e-book in the marketing course was when students needed to refer to a dense table of numbers in the bac

Students of GW can get full access to this article through http://www.gelman.gwu.edu. Go to the listing of databases and search for the Wall Street Journal.

Snagged this from the Diigo homepage. With social media becoming a permanent part of online interaction, seems fitting to have some guidelines for educational purposes.

Possible generation-gap-type issues for digital educational publishing for colleges: "Today, the college assumes all students not only have computer skills but a plethora of high-tech devices and services. The class schedule and registration procedure is entirely online-even if you're in the registrar's office....In the first class, the professor handed out her e-mail address and the URL where the syllabus could be found--instead of her office phone number and a copy of the syllabus. Unfortunately, the college sites are full of graphics and animations and download very slowly on my dial-up connection. (Even if I could afford a broadband connection, my ISP doesn't provide it in my area.)" "At least one exercise in each chapter requires accessing the publisher's textbook Web site. Many of these exercises could just as easily be put on the computer disk also sold-at an increased profit (I used to work for a textbook-preparation company)-with the text....Again, a dial-up connection won't download the videos. The audio files are .mp3; I can't open them, don't have the skill to know what program I need, and have no access to free technical support....So once every chapter I head for either the heavily used public library or the equally heavily used computer lab in the college's suburban learning center (branch campus)--and hope that a computer is available."

Penn State, Indiana and Missouri are the first schools to participate in a USA Today initiative meant to test how students respond to electronic versions of printed newspapers.