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The idea of "showing what you know" and earning badges instead of degrees? In this economic downswing, could something like this become the new emergent way of learning and of assessing? Thoughts?

Sounds like the digital badge is more lke a digital portfolio- which I would more likely support. I find it interesting that our education system (which strives and struggles to provide consistent, high quality education from coast to coast) is seen as deficient but this badge proposal will be the answer? It's like the flood of support for home-schooling after a home-schooler wins a national competition but no one knows about the tens of homescholers I had to remediate in rural NH. Standardization is the key for any system to be integrated into another system. The variety of education models we have in our country makes it difficult for employers to integrate employees. If this digital badge concept relies on a variety of models, they will have the same problem.

The prospect of digital badges to show what you know is both exciting with its potential affordances and worrisome with some of its limitations and ambiguity. It'd be great if the ideal came to pass that digital badges would allow valid demonstration of super-specific skills and knowledge over a greater range of fields and topics than what having a B.A. or B.S. currently does. Digital badges could represent the most particular concepts or skills at a granular level even-- those that are essential in the real-world (whether that be desired by employers or otherwise). If the task or test or challenge, or whatever else would be the means of assessment for earning a badge, was carefully designed and evaluated to be a truly valid measure of proficiency, then earning a badge for something would be a clear indication that you know something. But like Allison said, standardization would be key. What would these assessments/ badge challenges be- so that they would be truly valid indicators of proficiency? Who would be the purveyors or authorities to determine the assessments or challenges to accomplish a badge? Given the medium (completing badge assessments on one's own computer or mobile device - from any site they're at potentially) - what's to stop a user from going "open book" or "opening another tab" in order to look up answers to questions or tutorials on how to do a task, in order to complete the assessment? Doing this would allow a user to ace the assessment and earn the badge- but would defeat any value of the badge in truly demonstrating knowledge or skill. By imagining if digital badges did reach mass-acceptance and use in the real world, and we were to ultimately find them all over the internet like we're now finding social media widgets, it made me realize that the "prove proficiency anywhere I am in any way I want" won't work. I changed fields and career paths from what I studied in college, so I definitely appreciate the value in being able to truly show e

Interesting that as we push for digital textbooks and online access to more resources on one hand, that man people still prefer reading non-digital text and we are looking at coming full-circle with a digital means to deliver the content, but with an affordable, quick, and easy way to convert the material back to its original format. 

Interesting article about libraries going digital, talking about how this actually functions in libraries (Boston Public Library being one) and addressing concerns about publishers' rights. I'm sad that at this point nobody really seems to care about the experience of reading a real book with actual pages. What a loss if we ditch physical books altogether.

Digital books allow students with disabilities to read more easily.

I think the main idea and KEY affordance is getting books to these kids faster and more efficiently. In the past, for a visually impaired student, a district would have to request or find the book in Large print or in Braille after the typical book had arrived, so by making an HTML version of the printed book available (at the same time) as the print, allows for screen readers to work and be available to the students without the traditional wait time. Excellent use of technology.

"As professors mix and match book chapters, case studies, and journal articles, the site keeps track of how much royalties are going to cost. Once the book is made, students have the option of buying it digitally or paying an extra $10 (with an additional 3 cents per page if the book is more than one hundred pages) for the textbook"

Interesting article in edweek on Bookshare - a non-profit electronic book service that provides free digital copies of books in accessible formats for kids with print disabilities, a term coined by George Kerscher to cover visual, physical and language based disabilities that impact the ability to read a physical book.

An infographic of common elements of a digital classroom: including eBooks, Book rental via Kindle, iPads, Open Source software, iTunesU, Digital cameras, projectors, and headphones.

For the first time, Amazon's digital books had outsold paper books. While many popular consumer books have successfully made the switch into the new format, textbooks are still widely read on paper. However, textbooks as e-books ought to be seen as a stepping stone to the future. And we need to design devices that are specifically made to support academic reading.

One example of using Ipads instead of math books. There is a brief mention of incorporating video, but the article does not go into detail about the format of the digital text books

"Jochim and Siddell's books converge a traditional children's book format, a CD-ROM, a webcam and a computer to create "the same interactivity you could have on an iPad or (a Hewlett-Packard Co.) tablet, but with paper," said Jochim, president and founder of the Tempe-based Digital Tech Frontier."

I've always been interested in the use of these so called 'e-readers', how they hopefully will take the place of books, will let you take notes right there on the digital text and will seriously lighten you backpack. Obviously these things haven't quite caught on yet, but the techology is certainly starting to get better and better in this area!

Discussion on whether digital reading differs neurologically from paper reading.

The PULP platform is an example of a writer trying to respond to people wanting more than traditional publishing. If this platform, or something like it, was widely accepted by people it might build a better case for alternative forms of publishing in education

A school turns its library digital.

This is another project by CAST which has been particularly relevant to the work our research project is involved with. For more information click on the link below: http://jlr.sagepub.com/content/43/1/68 This article was provided to us by our contact at CAST and attempts to validate this type of "Digital Reading Environment." It's also authored by Catherine Show of HGSE, and is just a year old. The statistical data is a little above my comprehension level but it is described at a level I can understand. CAST UDL Book Builder This wonderful and free online tool allows you to create your own interactive "books" to help young readers learn reading strategies to build comprehension. Enter your own text, images, and hints.

this was presented in one of my other classes (A-117). it provides an interesting way to use digital text for enhanced learning.

More fears of publishers who hold the rights to intellectual property. Folks, you think health care is a big debate? Wait until our patent system changes - that will be a gladiator battle with everyone in the world (free and not free) participating... "As digital collections grow, Mr. Sargent said he feared a world in which "pretty soon you're not paying for anything." Partly because of such concerns, Macmillan does not allowits e-books to be offered in public libraries. Simon & Schuster, whose authors include Stephen King and Bob Woodward, has also refrained from distributing its e-books to public libraries. "We have not found a business model that works for us and our authors," said Adam Rothberg, a spokesman."

Why read a book OR watch a video when you can do BOTH at the SAME TIME?!

Alright, this is slightly beyond my comprehension, but apparently a vook is a book and video combined. So far they only have 6 books, and one of them is a cookbook so this could possibly be used for learning in informal settings. I'm not quite sure what to make of this, and I wonder if other companies are making similar products. Oh, and for those concerned, yes you can watch/read a vook on your iPhone.