Much has been discussed this week with regard to the affordances of eReaders, and while I enjoy using the device recreationally, I wanted to see if there were any studies documenting outcomes for struggling readers. I found little research, with the exception of one dissertation that examined the impact of eReaders on this population of […]
Continue reading Ereaders & Struggling Readers Posted in: Week 06: eBooks
I just discovered this iPad 2 item while working with a colleague today on eBooks for her grade three class. We started looking a few weeks ago for good stories to read and be read by her class, and I immediately thought of this modern classic by Crockett Johnson. I still have vivid childhood memories of […]
Continue reading omg – Harold & the Purple Crayon app!! Posted in: Week 06: eBooks
I have 2 very conflicting genres of reading materials in general – my preferred reading is fiction, although I have read my share of biographies and self-help books too – but I belong to 2 different book clubs and so my exposure to great fiction is a cherished distraction from work. But finding time to […]
Continue reading I have 2 very conflicting genres of read… Posted in: Week 06: eBooks
I know, it doesn’t seem fair, but it is what it is. The ipad, right now, is the main game in town (wow – I just can’t stop with the game references). Why? It has the e-reader plus more. I am a recent user of an ipad 2, and a veteran user of a Kobo. […]
Continue reading iPad vs everything else… Posted in: Week 06: eBooks
How effective are e-books? That depends on what you want them to be effective at, and whether they are a step up from something else. Are they effective teaching tools, or are they effective cost savers? A quick search of academic articles will easily give results for both sides. Some studies (Annand, 2008) show that […]
Continue reading E-ffectiveness of e-books Posted in: Week 06: eBooks
Mcquaid,
I am not surprised about the impact ebook has on literacy development. I too saw a few reports where it impacted literacy positively. I also think it is more practical to measure literacy because of the features that are geared toward meaning and comprehension. It is with this in mind that I am planning on testing the waters for myself.
Everton
Hi Mcquaid,
I read Annand’s research report and was very impressed with the saving that the purchasing of eBooks brought the university. It would appear that eBooks are beneficial to publishers, teachers and students in terms of reduced cost. But I also think it is more convenient and flexible for teachers and students.
Hey, I agree with your post. I believe that anyone who buys an ebook will benefit not only from a positive reading experience, but also save money, even with purchasing the ebook. Because there are so many different brands and costs on the market, people have several to choose from- expensive to inexpensive.
Jenaca
Hi Mcquaid,
I like how you have categorised niche areas for the ebooks, It actually helps to analyse its pedagogical relevance and effectiveness by separating the possibilities. it is also help to identify reasons why institutions embrace learning technology- to save cost and to improve teaching or leaning capacity. Good ideas for an EVA to leverage for decision making.
It struck me last night that one really important topic we haven’t yet addressed – from a venture side – is self-publishing e-books. My understanding is that a number of prominent bloggers have self-published e-books, which they sell through their websites (payment is usually through paypal). Some of these authors, such as Chris Guillebeau who […]
Continue reading Another facet of e-books: Self-publishing Posted in: Week 06: eBooks
Thank you for bringing up this topic, Allie,
One recent success story for the eBook format in publishing comes from the 2010 Giller Prize winner, The Sentimentalist by Johanna Skibsrud. Of course, it wasn’t intended to be the hottest selling electronic text, as the novel was originally handcrafted by a small town publisher, Gaspereau Press, could only release so many copies. When the novel was selected by the national literary award, big time publishing house Douglas & McIntyre stepped in, and eBook editions were the most convenient way to get this story into the hands of eager readers from sea to shining sea. One wrinkle in this story might be that if the story had been originally released as an eBook, it would not have been noticed by judges and the general population.
It would also be good to consider how students could get in on the creation of eBooks. Perhaps there will be some students, as they become more familiar with the features of enhanced editions, whose writing takes off in this evolving format. And what better way to get the class involved with a writing project than to have peer reviews, similar to Goodread’s stars and comments, posted on-line. It would be more engaging than stapling together handwritten loose-leaf paper and pinning them to the school’s notice board. Being able to blog well is a more relevant skill than drawing an eye-catching title page, and will become more of a focus in 21st century classrooms.
Hey Allie,
Thanks for bringing this to my attention. I didn’t really think such a thing was possible, but I think it would be a great way to get learners excited about writing and help motivate them! How neat would that be to create a classroom book online through this process!
Jenaca
Hy Allie, as Jenaca I did not think about this issue. But it is relevant. It would be interesting to think about students and self-publishing. I think we would gain wonderful learning experiences.
When I was working with an NGO that trains military and police for UN peace operations, we seriously considered an eBook format for a number of reasons: There is a capability to update the information and keep it relevant It can be linked to live websites throughout the text As we were producing the content, […]
Continue reading Current Successes with eReaders Posted in: Week 06: eBooks
“There is definitely something to be said for the eBook potential in adult learning.”
For whatever reason, this sparked some thoughts for me, or they just happened to come up as I read your entry. Either way… it had me thinking of a government’s possible link to electronic texts and readers. Perhaps adults looking to upgrade their schooling, particularly those with low incomes, could have gov’t subsidize/give them the texts they need to learn more / complete courses. Perhaps even in some case like retraining workers when their workplace closes (a fish plant, lumber yard, etc.). I wonder how much savings a “cheap” investment like this would give to gov’t / society? What social costs would it save down the road?
“Also being able to tailor the content to a specific audience is very enticing; adapting a modular approach that allows for variations on provincial legislation, teacher preference, audience level, is excellent.”
I was also thinking about texts for parents of kids in school – or “homework notes”. Although many texts come with an online version now, I wonder if companies would gather more business if they offered things like free homework help / “instructions” (“So, You’re Kid’s In Algebra…”) . Perhaps schools or public libraries could even have eReaders to loan out for such uses.
Hi all, I am not the proud owner of an eBook reader (unless you count my iPhone, although I have never attempted to read an iBook on there) and I don’t have a whole lot of experience reading for pleasure from my computer. There is something different about curling up with a good laptop that […]
Continue reading What I’m eReading Posted in: Week 06: eBooks
I forgot to mention that audiobooks have become a big part of my life. I am discovering all sorts of old classics through my iPhone as we moved to the country and the commute to the city is upwards of an hour now.
I think you nicely point out how e-readers can really individualize reading, when there is this social dimension (‘I’ll have/read what she’s having/reading’) . You made me think of the impact on second hand book traders; when I was young and commuted and hour each way to school/work, much of my bus reading came from $1 books I grabbed from the 2nd hand bookstore in my town. They weren’t Goethe by any means, but good pulp fiction for a long busride.
Hi All,
I think it will take some time before most persons warm to ebook as the preferred choice of reading. Tradition is not easily replaced and I am sure it will be a tough battle between ebook and traditional paperbacks. For me, I do prefer to read from paperbacks. As soon as I own a kindle I guess my preference will begin to change.
Everton
Hey Everton,
I must say I agree with your post. I even own an ebook and I still think it will take a while for people to choose ebooks over “normal” reading.
Jenaca
I would say that my first encounter with e-book would be from subscription to a free one from a tech e-news letter, this was long before I ever heard about e-readers. About three years later, thanks to ETEC I encountered e-books not to mention Google scholar. Between demands from news feeds, checking emails, ETEC course […]
Continue reading E-books/e-reading Newbie? Not really. Posted in: Week 06: eBooks
Hi Ifeoma,
I can also see that there is a link between how much reading we do online that makes an eReader a little more enticing. It is sort of like the amount that we do on the go now has sensitized us and set the stage for eReaders.
I have found that with MET I am not commuting and have not felt the same way about carrying textbooks, but I would have done anything in teacher’s college to not carry five or six text books to all day classes.
Kristopher
Hi Kristopher,
Yes the availability, portability, accessibility and ubiquity of technology is well demonstrated in its use in learning and that is what makes it appealing and enticing. That same reason makes it easy to acquire technology and not explore it’s effective application in some case. Novelty has a big role to play. I guess that is why as EVA in training we need to analyse each one to make a careful determination of it’s effectiveness before investing $$! You mentioned that you find that with ETEC you are not commuiting. That is so true, cutting travel costs is one of the advantages of online learning and one reason schools adopted online learning.
Ifeoma,
It is very convenient. I too downloaded the bible and it is so cool to read it from the BB. I am assuming the ebook gives that same kind of feel. The more I talk about ebook, the urge is coming on stronger to get one and explore. Maybe I also need to seek sponsorship to source ebooks for my practicing teachers to assist them on their practicum.
Everton
Hi Everton,
Good thinking about sourcing sponsorship for ebooks for your practicing teachers. I would like to know how you and these teachers may be able to form a professional digital community of practice with the e-readers. I am thinking that if the practicing teachers had a common page in something like an online tag tool where they could organize files, folders,and web bookmarks on the ebooks they find online, they could create their own joint reference library. Where different people collaborate and share ideas. It is what they do with it afterall that will make the pedagogical difference.
I have yet to purchase an eReader, and am still a paper book devotee. Part of the reason I enjoy paper books is that I enjoy the process of browsing bookstores and libraries, and that’s usually where I’m inspired to buy or borrow. When I first got my iPhone, I downloaded a few free e-books […]
Continue reading still using trees Posted in: Week 06: eBooks
” It would also be possible to offer customizable textbooks, so that people selected the chapters and topics that were most relevant to them”
Great point. I may be doing a textbook with my adviser and he’s been talking about using this approach. A modular approach would allow us to pitch our text to different markets and provide suitable pricing based on the market (student, professional, etc.)
We’ve been trying to do a similar thing at the organization where I work. We train people in pre-hospital emergency medical care, but the provincial legislation is different in each province. This requires something a little more dynamic than traditional textbooks that we have just begun to explore an eBook as the option. Good luck with your text book!
Hey Andrea,
To add onto what Daivd has said, I really like the point you made. I’ve never thought of creating textbooks that way and I think it would be very beneficial!
How difficult is it to get a license to do this?
Jenaca
Since textbooks in Canada are written to include the curriculum expectations of MANY provinces, I would love to pick and choose pieces from textbooks and “create’ my own and then offer it to students to read online – they would love to reduce the weight in their backpacks and just read those articles that I find relevant…I already did that with textbooks and the students complained that they had to carry the heavy books even though I used only about a quarter of the content – I prefer electronic texts that have interaction, video, audio – many of my learning disabled students needed the text to speech features of the online texts.
Hi Andrew (and all),
I am still a paper reader myself even though I think of myself generally as an early adapter. I am not a huge pleasure reader (or haven’t been for a couple of years), but your experience of browsing the bookstores and libraries reminds me a little of my experience with movies. I use to enjoy going into the local video rental place and browsing for a new release with my favourite actors and seeing what else was out there, but now I find that anything that I am interested in I have already seen. I work from home and have a constant stream of television / movie / noise going on, so often times I have already seen (or heard at least) many of the movies. I have found that stopping at the video store is a waste of time because I already have looked through what was released in the last couple of months. I can imagine that if I was looking for more pleasure reading it would be a similar experience.
Kristopher,
My husband and I have a similar experience with movies. We used to go to Blockbuster & Best Buy to check out new releases but in the past few years it has decreased dramatically and now we seem to use our AppleTV to check out new releases and watch trailers. We both prefer to read e-books rather than paper but we still wander through bookstores to find new books we are interested in. Instead of buying the paper book we take a picture of the cover and then go find it on the internet. I think it’s interesting that we’ve fully committed to the online experience of buying movies & watching trailers through AppleTV but when it comes to e-books although we prefer reading digital copies verses paper we still like to find most of our books through bookstores and paper books.
Andrea, your “still using trees” heading reminded me of an email from years ago, talking about this new invention called “book”. It didn’t need electricity, it didn’t need updates, etc. It also brought to mind a book we have for our little guy here at home, called “It’s a Book”.
You can watch the trailer here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x4BK_2VULCU
I wonder if the order of things was in reverse, would we see books as superior to e-readers? They’re definitely more ecologically-friendly, aren’t they? The inevitable amount of e-waste this new wave of devices will create also had me thinking of another very-worth-watching video, “The Story of Electronics”:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sW_7i6T_H78
Decades down the road, I wonder what our more earth-friendly tech solution will be…
Hi Steve, thanks for those really interesting links! You got me wondering about the green-ness of books versus e-readers, so I did a bit of research. According to GigaOM and research from the Green Press Initiative, “an iPad is responsible for 130 kg (287 lbs) of CO2 equivalent greenhouse gas emissions over its average lifetime. The average printed book, by contrast, is responsible for only 8.85 lbs. So, an iPad owner needs only download 32.4 books instead of purchasing paper copies in order to reach the break even point when it comes to carbon footprint” (http://gigaom.com/apple/is-reading-on-your-ipad-more-green-than-paper-books/).
Interesting links.
I have often wondered about being greener with ewaste. I know from ads that hundreds of thousands of cell phones are thrown out over North America every week.
At work, I tried to purchase my own computer after the lease came up. Not that it was a great computer, but I did not want to see it go to the dump. I was told I could not do that as the hard drive is destroyed and the rest of it went ???where. Anyway, the point is that even if I wanted to be green, I could not. The corporation would not allow it.
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jenaca 5:08 am on October 14, 2011 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Hey Emily,
Very interesting post! I currently have a kobo, although I am very interested in upgrading to the one and only “Ipad”! I think your title is dead on…Ipads are the number one device that can virtually do everything! I really don’t think others compare, unless you are only interested in reading. Then I would have to compare the features of the ereaders more specifically.
Jenaca
ifeoma 9:09 pm on October 14, 2011 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Hi Emily,
It would be a great thing to have school boards have their own ebook stores or library and students can come with their own ereaders (possessing all these features you have mentioned in the last paragraph) to access whatever text in class and study and discuss together, enabling collaboration in class with the ereaders. What a wonderful world of ereading 🙂