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For the topic of whether you like physical book or ebooks, we have discussed a lot during our class discussion. And the result is, all people prefer physical book other than ebook, the main reason that people said for their choices is the same one, the reading speed could be much faster when they are reading with ebook because they are scanning the texts in the device, however, by this way, they don't remember much about what they just read and have to read again and again in order to understand what the content is talking about. Reading with physical book make them feel more comfortable that they can take some notes in the margin of the book and they all like the texture of physical book.

This is awesome stuff- thanks!

This reading was suggested in a previous class, and it was foundational knowledge that some learners already have, but just reading and validating certain strategies while offering new strategies for thorough reading is so essential in the overload of content we are constantly sifting through.

This is very interesting, for once compiling the reading preferences of a user can help others researching or interested on the same topic access useful resources more easily. At the same time, this can be used to bias the reader towards a particular resource. Also it prompts the issue of profiling people for what they read.

This was a very interesting piece. I'd not heard of the Harvard Library Innovation Lab. Fascinating. Thanks for sharing. Libraries do indeed need to give much to benefit from collaborative tools. Love the Faustian Pact description. So true.

Gracias por compartirlo. Trabajo en una biblioteca universitaria y estoy interesada en la temática de innovación bibliotecaria.

Thank you for sharing. I also heard that many universities are getting rid of their printed textbooks and only using e-texbook due to high prices that students have to pay for their printed textbooks. They may order in the printed textbook, but majority of schools are going digital.

Thank you for sharing this resource. This reminds me of a news article I read before, which is "Apple Announces E-Book Store". According to that news article, Apple announced the create of iBook store in Apple's event in Jan 27 2010, hoping to reshape the e-book industry with a vast selection of electronic books in iBook. Electronic books offered in iBook store are around the same price as Amazon's Kindle platform, but with much more functions and convenience. Taking the form of iPad, and with the support of five largest publishers in the world, iBook offers the electronic version of various books and ebbeds multimedia such as photos, videos, and audio files into books, which is revolutionary. Therefore, the rapid development of technology has promoted the rapid changes and upgrading in book industry. From traditional physical books that we buy from retailers or borrow from libraries, to the online book sellers who sell both physical books and electronic books, to today, ebook stores in portable and mobile devices, how we read, when we read, where we read, and what we read have been transformed to a large extent.

This is a good article. Sometimes, we think new technology will be a disrupted tech to kill and totally replace old industry.But actually, for old industry, the market will shrink a lot ,but won't totally disappear.

What's going to happen with printed books?

It depends on which side of the fence is one sitting on. The truth is the book is here to stay.

Similar example to what Adobe software has done with collecting information…users/students seem to have to accept this "new-normal" of spying, etc.

I agree. Cameras should be there for security, not for surveillance. But just like the Adobe software, before we use it we have to "agree" on its' terms. I believe very few actually read those agreements, because we have to use the software, "agreeing" on those terms might just be "agreeing" on allowing them to collect our information. I live in Vancouver, BC. I know there are people who dislike the idea of the buses with cameras. I personally like that idea, it makes me feel like I am protected. When I was in high school in Victoria, BC, I feel safe taking the taxi even when it is late, because they have cameras in every one of them. When I was in Hong Kong, I feel insecure taking a taxi even when it is noon. So even if some of our information or our identity is given away, I agree on the idea of having cameras on buses and taxi's. I wonder if there is a gender difference on this, and there is also a gender gap of taxi drivers, maybe that is also why I personally feel insecure. Back to the point, if the purpose of cameras is for security, I agree to that. If it is for surveillance, I do not think it is essential; referring to the Harvard University attendance, at least they should inform the students about it.

This line caught my eye: "The study was approved by the US federally mandated Institutional Review Board, which assesses research and determined that the study "did not constitute human subjects research" and therefore did not require prior permission from those captured by the study." I have been debating with my own campus IRB over what constitutes human subjects research and what doesn't--they seem to be operating under the idea that if it's not invasive medical studies involving blood or drugs, it's not really human subjects. I think the issue in this Harvard study is that the IRB also has a clause that if you are collecting data in public spaces and not interacting with the people there, it doesn't require IRB approval; the question is whether these classrooms should be considered public spaces. My feeling is they aren't--in order to be in a room at a particular time, a person has to have chosen to attend that class, and within college classes it is assumed that the students can know that what they say is to some extent private among their classmates and professor. Even if the photos were destroyed after analysis, the fact remains that there were cameras inside what I would consider private spaces, without the consent of the people doing what they might feel is dangerous work (given the current assault on public intellectuals and academic freedom). My guess is that Harvard could easily have asked all the relevant parties to sign consent forms at the beginning of a semester but not indicated on which days they would be filming--people would probably continue doing what they normally do either way, but at least would have the option of asking not to be filmed. There's always a way to set up an area in a lecture hall where the cameras couldn't reach, so students who didn't want to be on film could opt out.

Thank you so much for sharing this article, I meant to read it a few days ago and got side-tracked!

Thanks for sharing this! I have mixed feelings about this article. At first, I was super opposed to the whole initiative Harvard did to their students because I would feel that my privacy has been violated completely, but after realizing that there are many more subtler forms of violations in privacy online (social media sites, tracking cookies etc.) I wasn't as opposed to the article. Although initially, students were not informed about their surveillance, there were told in the aftermath, and their information was destroyed. When using social media sites or installing new applications, there are terms of agreement before continuing on with the installation in which personally I don't read at all. Those terms and conditions have statements inside which notify us of tracking personal information which I have not read earlier but am still not opposed to giving. The information is probably sold to advertisers and we're probably not aware of it but we still give them the information via the signup of the program. Hence, even though there are contradictory views and feelings about their initiatives, we should be more aware and cautious of other forms of surveillance when we sign up for things (e.g. social media sites etc.)

Thank you for sharing. This does raise some concern. I guess there may be good and bad with cameras installed in the school. The cameras installed without students' consents may be violating their privacy and rights. However, it may prevent wrong doings, i guess. When my friend was doing final exam, the prof asked the whole class to put their belongings in front of the classroom, but when he went to pick up his stuff after he was finished, his bag was missing. Through the security camera, they were able to see who stole his stuff.

Did any body else remember George Orwell's novel (1984). By accepting this type of behavior we accepting the image of a holly power that is ethical, care and neutral. Does this exist? and who will monitor the observers?

I think this is a really good point, who will monitor the observers? What kind of power do those people hold and what are they doing with all those information? It makes people uncomfortable.

Interesting news! It's surprising to get to know that Harvard University places cameras without letting students know, photographs them during lectures to measure attendance. This reminds me of my high school in China. When I was in high school, I remember that cameras were installed at the back of every classroom to prevent students from distraction in class or cheating during exams. It mainly worked as threatening students, from my understanding. Because you never know when the camera will be opened, actually, it never opened. What happened in Harvard University just reminded me of that, which is quite satiric.

Thanks for sharing this article. In my personal opinion, I think the action of secretly installed the cameras from Harvard University violates students' privacy. If it's just for measuring classroom attendance, I think Harvard University could definitely find a much better way instead of installing the camera.

"Compartir es servir a los demás" Mucha de esta información sería desconocida si no es por el esfuerzo de una comunidad. Gracias por compartir. Much of this information would be unknown if not for the efforts of a community. Thank you for sharing

Very good work. Thank you for sharing.

Andy, I have read Merete's work and it is fascinating reading. I have been thinking about openness in museums for some time. When I have suggested to some museum professionals that they open up their collections for reuse, remixing and redistribution they have reacted with horror. Partly this is an attitude issue. They view themselves as the "custodians" of our cultural heritage and for that reason may be reluctant to see that heritage be used in ways that they have little control over. I did write a long blog piece some time ago on which museums are allowing open access to their online collections. It's a bit out of date now as other museums have opened up their images since I wrote the piece - such as the Guggenheim and the British Library collection on Flickr. Still, I thought you and others might be interested: http://teachtheweb.blogspot.co.uk/2013/06/using-museum-images-open-and-closed.html

Thank you for sharing.

Gracias por compartirlo, lo he consultado y ha sido realmente enriquecedor.

Excellent article. I also really enjoyed the part about multi-tasking! Very interesting and informative! "What we're actually doing is rapidly shifting our attention from one thing to another," he says. This fast-paced attention seesaw depletes the brain's glucose supply. Glucose is the fuel that the brain's neurons need to communicate with one another. Using up the brain's glucose supply by task switching means the brain will reach a level of fatigue much sooner in the day than if we concentrate on one item at a time with sustained attention."