E-Reading Emerson - Paper Cuts Blog - NYTimes.com

E-Reading Emerson - Paper Cuts Blog - NYTimes.com: "E-Reading Emerson By MICK SUSSMAN
I recently read Emerson cover to cover, so to speak, on my iPhone’s Kindle app — a lesson both in Transcendentalism and the advantages of digitized literature."

The Amazon Kindle could dramatically improve US education | Paul Allen (the lesser)

The Amazon Kindle could dramatically improve US education | Paul Allen (the lesser): "I think that reading the right books is the best way to get a great education. To salvage the failing US education system we should do whatever it takes to get millions of kids reading great books once again. I think the best way to do that would be for states to purchase Kindles for every student (I’d say 7th-12th grade) in their education system, and to provide great age appropriate books for these students every year."

Kindle in Education Study, Articles « Kindle Review – Kindle 2 Review, Books

Kindle in Education Study, Articles « Kindle Review – Kindle 2 Review, Books: "Top Suggestions from Students (in addition to the cons) 1. Add Page Numbers.
2. Better web browsing.
3. Ability to write notes."

Kindle in Education Study, Articles « Kindle Review – Kindle 2 Review, Books

Kindle in Education Study, Articles « Kindle Review – Kindle 2 Review, Books: "Top Kindle in Education Cons (via Students) 1. It takes too long to load and turn pages. Note: kindle 2 is 25% faster – however, still an issue.
2. Navigation is exceedingly slow. Note: Navigation is slow even in kindle 2 and kindle dx due to lack of a touchscreen.
3. Prefer a real book in my hand.
4. No pages and can’t see how much more there is left to read.
5. Page turns accidentally. Note: Solved in Kindle 2 and Kindle DX.
6. No single file format."

Kindle in Education Study, Articles « Kindle Review – Kindle 2 Review, Books

Kindle in Education Study, Articles « Kindle Review – Kindle 2 Review, Books: "Top Kindle in Education Pros (identified by Students) 1. 92% loved the portability. Much easier than carrying around books. Probably the biggest pro as it comes up numerous times.
2. Connectivity and book availability are great.
3. Readable in sunlight.
4. Having multiple books in the Kindle.
5. Looking up words was a big hit. Note: Kindle 2 has an in-built dictionary that instantly shows definitions on the page itself as a footnote."

Kindle in Education – Intro « Kindle Review – Kindle 2 Review, Books

Kindle in Education – Intro « Kindle Review – Kindle 2 Review, Books: "Kindle in Education – Bigger in Schools than Colleges One of the biggest potential uses of the Kindle in education is in schools. While people focus on colleges, because of the costs of college textbooks, the opportunity is bigger for school children -

1. Kindles can inculcate a habit of reading at a young age.
2. Younger children have not had reading drummed out of their system by a decade plus of MTV and other distractions.
3. The physical benefits of not having to drag around 30 pounds of textbooks is much more so for younger kids."

How we read online. - By Michael Agger - Slate Magazine

How we read online. - By Michael Agger - Slate Magazine: "Pleasure reading is also known as 'ludic reading.' Victor Nell has studied pleasure reading (PDF). Two fascinating notions: *
When we like a text, we read more slowly.
*
When we're really engaged in a text, it's like being in an effortless trance.

Ludic reading can be achieved on the Web, but the environment works against you. Read a nice sentence, get dinged by IM, never return to the story again.

I suppose ludic readers would be the little sloths hiding in the jungle while everyone else is out rampaging around for fresh meat."

Why The Kindle is No Longer on My Amazon Wish List | Blogg-Ed Indetermination

Why The Kindle is No Longer on My Amazon Wish List | Blogg-Ed Indetermination: "Hi marks go to the Kindle for it’s long battery life. I’m 90% done with my book and the Kindle is still well charged. This is much better than the better life I experience with the previously mentioned Sony Touch. The screen refresh rate is also better than the Sony, and I like the fact that I can get the definition of any word by quickly navigating to it with the cursor. But the Sony’s touch screen is a big advantage for highlighting text."

Sony Reader Touch – A Review | Blogg-Ed Indetermination

Sony Reader Touch – A Review | Blogg-Ed Indetermination: "The Sony Reader Touch (PRS-600) is the first e-reader I have had the opportunity to use for an extended period of time. It boasts a clean, minimalist style that I like, with clearly marked and unambiguous buttons across the bottom."

NewsFactor Business | Kindle Lightens Textbook Load, But Flaws Remain

NewsFactor Business | Kindle Lightens Textbook Load, But Flaws Remain: "But several disliked taking notes on a keyboard with Tic-Tac-sized keys that sits under a 9.7-inch screen. Students can also highlight text or bookmark pages -- the digital equivalent of dog-earing -- then look at those excerpts and links on separate screens.

Madeline Kraizel, a freshman at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, has amassed three Kindle pages of bookmarks for her chemistry textbook. That's getting unwieldy, and she isn't sure whether there's a better way to organize them."

NewsFactor Business | Kindle Lightens Textbook Load, But Flaws Remain

NewsFactor Business | Kindle Lightens Textbook Load, But Flaws Remain: "Kraizel, the Case Western freshman, says always having the Kindle with her has improved her study habits. It's much easier to cram in a few minutes of studying between classes, she says, and she's noticed that when she sits down for a serious study session she's more familiar with the material. The Kindle can also do things books can't, like read homework aloud. Una Hopkins, a 46-year-old student in the nurse-practitioner program at Pace University in New York, got five chapters finished that way when she was stuck in traffic.

'It was robotic, but it got me where I needed to go,' Hopkins says."

NewsFactor Business | Kindle Lightens Textbook Load, But Flaws Remain

NewsFactor Business | Kindle Lightens Textbook Load, But Flaws Remain: "Other students struggled when professors had them read documents in PDF format, which doesn't show up well on the Kindle. Users can't zoom in or make notes on them, and diagrams sometimes get separated from notes explaining them. John Sherman, a first-year MBA student at the University of Virginia, says he can read some case studies on the Kindle but still needs to print others.

'For the cases that require a lot of calculations, I find paper cases to be better,' says Sherman, 31. 'For me, it helps to scribble my thoughts in the margins.'"

E-book access not so equal | The Daily Illini

E-book access not so equal | The Daily Illini: "Angela Anderson, supervisor of the accessible media office at the division of Disability Resources and Educational Services, or DRES, said next fall, the University will begin using a conversion program called Digital Accessible Information System, or DAISY, to convert e-books from text to speech."

E-book access not so equal | The Daily Illini

E-book access not so equal | The Daily Illini: "Use of e-books in focus Professor Jonathan Waskan teaches a philosophy class to students who read an e-book by Cengage publishing company.

Course: Philosophy 103 Logic and Reasoning

Why e-books?
- Cheaper than printed textbooks
- Doesn’t waste paper
- Newer editions lead to wasted copies of old textbooks

What is the future of printed textbooks?
“I didn’t see much upside to using the hard copy,” Waskan said. “I think we’re going to be moving more and more towards e-books in the future. I see essentially the demise of textbooks as we know it.”"

Taiwan Plans to Roll out E-readers in Schools

Taiwan Plans to Roll out E-readers in Schools: "Taiwan invested a budget of 1.55 billion USD for the modernized information technology for e-readers in the classroom setting. Currently, the Ministry of Education is finding on the array of e-book designs for the e-readers, and yet the number of units to be purchased will be depending on certain circumstances."

Kindle, Sony May Get Biggest Payoff From Textbooks (Update3) - Bloomberg.com

Kindle, Sony May Get Biggest Payoff From Textbooks (Update3) - Bloomberg.com: "Within five years, textbooks will be the biggest market for e-book devices, dwarfing sales to casual readers, predicts Sarah Epps, an analyst at Forrester Research Inc. in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Corning Inc., which is developing glass screens for e-readers, expects textbooks to fuel about 80 percent of demand for those components by 2019. “Print will expire faster in the textbook world than in the trade book world,” Epps said. “The technical barriers will disappear and five years is enough for the content to catch up with demand. The potential is there.”"

Why the Kindle Won’t Have a Dramatic Impact on College Course Materials for at least Five Years (Part 1 — College Textbook Publishers) at XplanaZine

Why the Kindle Won’t Have a Dramatic Impact on College Course Materials for at least Five Years (Part 1 — College Textbook Publishers) at XplanaZine: "Finally, and most important, while the Kindle will be extremely attractive to students, they are not currently significant decision makers in the textbook adoption process. College textbook publishers sell their product to instructors and institutional representatives."

Why the Kindle Won’t Have a Dramatic Impact on College Course Materials for at least Five Years (Part 1 — College Textbook Publishers) at XplanaZine

Why the Kindle Won’t Have a Dramatic Impact on College Course Materials for at least Five Years (Part 1 — College Textbook Publishers) at XplanaZine: "Another consideration is that e-books for textbook publishers also represent important contextualized learning tools that support their homework management products (LMS solutions). This use of e-books favors online e-books that can be integrated seamlessly into a BlackBoard, Angel, Moodle etc. LMS platform. The Kindle could certainly be used for this but that would require a significant change in the current workflows and processes for textbook publishers."

Professional and Scholarly Publishing Leads the Market for Ebooks by a Wide Margin « The Scholarly Kitchen

Professional and Scholarly Publishing Leads the Market for Ebooks by a Wide Margin « The Scholarly Kitchen: "Of course, as Niels Bohr said, “prediction is very difficult, especially about the future.” But even if Greco’s forecasts for the trade sector are dramatically short and trade ebook revenues grow by as much as 200% through 2013, trade books will still account for less than 20% of the ebook market. Which makes me wonder why the media is so fixated on the trade sector of the ebook market."

York region - Student-led schools not far off, marketing expert says

York region - Student-led schools not far off, marketing expert says:

"Textbooks are expensive, out of date and “unbelievably heavy”, he said. Now, it is possible to download a textbook, instantly update it, read newspapers or magazines, have an embedded dictionary and delve further sources with hand-held technology.

“This is increasingly how our young people are going to want to learn,” Mr. Valiquette said.

Those who are 25 years or younger have never known a world without free constant global source of information at their fingertips on the Internet, he said."

York region - Student-led schools not far off, marketing expert says

York region - Student-led schools not far off, marketing expert says:

"Modern schools must change or be changed by the young people they teach, a youth culture expert told an international conference of educators in Thornhill this week. Max Valiquette, founder and president of marketing firm Youthography told 600 educators that student-run — even student-owned — schools are not that far in the future, thanks to a world where young people control their lives more than ever."

Turbulence Ahead: Smarter Schools

Turbulence Ahead: Smarter Schools:

"I've blogged about this before, and I'm not the only one thinking this way - so is Arnie. The idea has been around a while. Indeed, some Irish schools are experimenting with this - including several in South County Dublin. So I was staggered to find that the Department of Education's/ICT Ireland's Smart Schools = Smart Economy report doesn't contain a single reference to ebooks. Not even one. Surely the smarter thing to do would be to align ourselves with the next generation of pedagogic technologies and to enable a cluster of supporting Irish businesses to grow up around them? Laptops and projectors won't do it."

High School Ditches Textbooks for eBooks - Digital Camera Reviews, Digital Photography Tutorials, Best Digital Cameras - Photoxels

High School Ditches Textbooks for eBooks - Digital Camera Reviews, Digital Photography Tutorials, Best Digital Cameras - Photoxels:

"TORONTO, Nov. 17 – Embracing the benefits of electronic reading, students at Blyth Academy are today beginning the transition from using traditional printed textbooks to digital textbooks read on the Sony(R) Reader Digital Book. Blyth Academy is the first high school in the world to announce that each student will be supplied with an e-Reader in place of printed textbooks."

The Tartan Online : Bookless libraries increase accessibility

The Tartan Online : Bookless libraries increase accessibility: "James Tracy, the headmaster of Cushing Academy, explained his decision to replace his school’s books: “When I look at books, I see an outdated technology, like scrolls before books.”"

The Tartan Online : Bookless libraries increase accessibility

The Tartan Online : Bookless libraries increase accessibility: "“Rare books [can be] scanned and delivered via the World Wide Web to scholars in places such as Argentina and Germany who could not visit the books,” Mary Catharine Johnsen, the special collections and design librarian, said. “Electronic versions save wear and tear on using the physical book, which is important if you are a book from 1755 and your leather spine is dry and cracking.”"

The Tartan Online : Bookless libraries increase accessibility

The Tartan Online : Bookless libraries increase accessibility: "We are working towards a hybrid of an online and paper-based library,” computer science librarian Missy Harvey explained."

Top News - SETDA forum illuminates key ed-tech trends

Top News - SETDA forum illuminates key ed-tech trends: "Participants heard about what's now the norm (interactive whiteboards, or IWBs), what's hot on everyone's list (digital textbooks), and what's on the horizon (national high school reform)."

News: Bookless Libraries? - Inside Higher Ed

News: Bookless Libraries? - Inside Higher Ed:

"he is the CIO who said that libraries are just big air conditioners for books"

News: Bookless Libraries? - Inside Higher Ed

News: Bookless Libraries? - Inside Higher Ed: "“Now, in the fourth generation, we’re really seeing the library as a place to connect, collaborate, learn, and really synthesize all four of those roles together,” said Luce. “How do you do that without bricks and mortar?”"

News: Bookless Libraries? - Inside Higher Ed

News: Bookless Libraries? - Inside Higher Ed: "Certain major research universities, she noted, have even begun moving their books to off-campus storage facilities due to space issues and a diminishing need for on-site hard copies. Libraries everywhere are eliminating pricey subscriptions to printed academic journals, often opting for less expensive digital versions."

Beyond the Book — The Late Age of Print

Beyond the Book — The Late Age of Print:

"I’ve been raising similar concerns recently in my speech about the Amazon Kindle. The device automatically archives detailed, even intimate, information about what and more importantly how people read on the Amazon server cloud. This kind of information is subject not 4th Amendment/search warrant protections but can instead be subpoenaed by prosecutors who are anxious to dig up dirt on suspects. The question I raise in the speech, and the question that also seems to emerge in the case of Google Books and the coming Editions service, is, what happens to a society when privacy is no longer the default setting for reading?"

Beyond the Book — The Late Age of Print

Beyond the Book — The Late Age of Print:

"In some ways the distinction Liu draws harkens back to the difference between “intensive” and “extensive” reading. The intensive mode refers to the deep reading of a small amount of texts, often multiple times, while the extensive mode designates a more cursory type of engagement with a significantly larger amount of texts. The claim among book historians is that the coming of print ushered in a new age of extensive reading, which in turn set in motion a mindful, but ultimately thinner, relationship to books and other types of printed artifacts. Could it be that in emphasizing “peripheral” attention, e-books are not breaking with but rather carrying on the legacy ushered in by print?"

The Right to Read — The Late Age of Print

The Right to Read — The Late Age of Print:

"I’m rather taken with the idea of a right to read given the ways in which new e-book systems, such as the Amazon Kindle, tether reading to corporate custodians who in turn mine the machines for intimate details about how people read. As these devices become more prevalent, I worry about the effects they might have on how people practice and conceive of reading. Until now it was relatively difficult to monitor closely how and what people read. What will become of reading, and people’s relationship to it, once that freedom is definitively diminished? Indeed, a right to read seems to me of paramount importance in a context where someone is looking over your shoulder every time that you open an electronic book or periodical."

Exhaustive Kindle/Nook smackdown - James Fallows

Exhaustive Kindle/Nook smackdown - James Fallows: "Amazon should work on making the Kindle the preferred long-form reading device for all the stuff that's long enough that it gets tedious on computer screens and is awkward on small iPhone-type displays -- texts you otherwise want in physical print (either book or printed-out document) but that aren't so dependent on a visual experience (loaded with graphics, photos etc) that only physical print or a large, high-quality computer display will do."

Exhaustive Kindle/Nook smackdown - James Fallows

Exhaustive Kindle/Nook smackdown - James Fallows: "The various basic features that I think Kindle is missing (or has poorly implemented) suggest to me that Amazon is too wedded to the synchronized cloud feature, which is nifty for Amazon-purchased books but useless for all the other ways the Kindle can be used. Prioritizing the cloud seems to have set limits on other functionalities that should have been designed into the Kindle's system for basic usability from the outset."

Exhaustive Kindle/Nook smackdown - James Fallows

Exhaustive Kindle/Nook smackdown - James Fallows: "'With Google Books now providing the epub format as an option, however, it's a piece of cake to download the epub file for a Full book to your computer and convert it to a mobi file (the free/shareware Calibre does the conversion work for you). Then transfer the mobi file to your Kindle. Voila."

Kindle is number one - Times LIVE

Kindle is number one - Times LIVE:

"'Kindle has become the number one bestselling item by both unit sales and dollars -- not just in our electronics store but across all product categories on Amazon.com,' said Amazon founder and chief executive Jeff Bezos. In keeping with previous practice, Bezos declined to reveal sales figures for the Kindle, but Forrester Research estimates the device has a nearly 60 percent share of the US market followed by the Sony Reader with 35 percent."

Nine E-Readers to Gawk At

Nine E-Readers to Gawk At

New Digital Book Readers Spark Competition for Kindle - TIME

New Digital Book Readers Spark Competition for Kindle - TIME:

"Around the world, at least 17 e-readers are in development or already on the market. Among the better-known entrants is Asustek — the Taiwanese company practically invented the netbook category with its ASUS Eee-PC, and it is working on a product called the Eee-reader that it hopes to have on the market in time for Christmas. South Korea's two powerhouse consumer-electronics companies, Samsung and LG Electronics, are wading in too. Samsung earlier this year introduced a reader called the Papyrus in South Korea; reports circulating in the technology blogosphere say LG is developing a prototype with a large, 11.5-in.(diagonal) flexible screen. Meanwhile, Japan's Fujitsu has released the world's first dedicated e-reader with a color screen, although so far the device is only available in Japan."

Does the Brain Like E-Books? - Room for Debate Blog - NYTimes.com

Does the Brain Like E-Books? - Room for Debate Blog - NYTimes.com:

"The child’s imagination and children’s nascent sense of probity and introspection are no match for a medium that creates a sense of urgency to get to the next piece of stimulating information."

Does the Brain Like E-Books? - Room for Debate Blog - NYTimes.com

Does the Brain Like E-Books? - Room for Debate Blog - NYTimes.com:

"Each young reader has to fashion an entirely new “reading circuit” afresh every time. There is no one neat circuit just waiting to unfold. This means that the circuit can become more or less developed depending on the particulars of the learner: e.g., instruction, culture, motivation, educational opportunity. Equally interesting, this tabula rasa circuit is shaped by the particular requirements of the writing system: for example, Chinese reading circuits require more visual memory than alphabets. This “open architecture” of the reading circuit makes the young reader’s developing circuit malleable to what the medium (e.g., digital online reading, book, etc) emphasizes."

Does the Brain Like E-Books? - Room for Debate Blog - NYTimes.com

Does the Brain Like E-Books? - Room for Debate Blog - NYTimes.com:

"To a great extent, the computer’s usefulness for serious reading depends on the user’s strength of character. Distractions abound on most people’s computer screens. The reading speed reported in academic studies does not include delays induced by clicking away from the text to see the new email that just arrived or check out what’s new on your favorite blog. In one study, workers switched tasks about every three minutes and took over 23 minutes on average to return to a task. Frequent task switching costs time and interferes with the concentration needed to think deeply about what you read."

Does the Brain Like E-Books? - Room for Debate Blog - NYTimes.com

Does the Brain Like E-Books? - Room for Debate Blog - NYTimes.com:

"My group thinks that Web 2.0 offers a different kind of metaphor: not a containing structure but a social experience. Reading environments should not be books or libraries. They should be like the historical coffeehouses, taverns and pubs where one shifts flexibly between focused and collective reading — much like opening a newspaper and debating it in a more socially networked version of the current New York Times Room for Debate. The future of peripheral attention is social networking, and the trick is to harness such attention — some call it distraction — well."

Does the Brain Like E-Books? - Room for Debate Blog - NYTimes.com

Does the Brain Like E-Books? - Room for Debate Blog - NYTimes.com:

"Right now, networked digital media do a poor job of balancing focal and peripheral attention. We swing between two kinds of bad reading. We suffer tunnel vision, as when reading a single page, paragraph, or even “keyword in context” without an organized sense of the whole. Or we suffer marginal distraction, as when feeds or blogrolls in the margin (”sidebar”) of a blog let the whole blogosphere in."

Mark Coker: Why E-Books are Hot and Getting Hotter

Mark Coker: Why E-Books are Hot and Getting Hotter:

"Portable library in the cloud - Imagine holding a portable, limitless catalog of books in the palm of your hand, accessible any time, anywhere. This is possible today with a wireless or Internet-enabled e-reading device. Books are moving from physical repositories (personal libraries, public libraries, book stores) to virtual repositories (personal online libraries, online public libraries, free online repositories, and online bookstores)."

ePub - Changing Font size doesn't change page numbers - MobileRead Forums

ePub - Changing Font size doesn't change page numbers - MobileRead Forums:

"...pages are an outmoded concept that really doesn't have any place in ebooks. A progress indicator (as a % is all that's really needed). Unfortunately, people are going to jump through hoops to try to simulate page numbers to encourage ebook adoption..."

Hybrid Books From Publishers Like Simon and Schuster Add Video and Web Features to Reading - NYTimes.com

Hybrid Books From Publishers Like Simon and Schuster Add Video and Web Features to Reading - NYTimes.com:

"Some authors scoff at the idea of mixing the two mediums. “As a novelist I would never ever” allow videos to substitute for prose, said Walter Mosley, the author of “Devil in a Blue Dress” and other novels. “Reading is one of the few experiences we have outside of relationships in which our cognitive abilities grow,” Mr. Mosley said. “And our cognitive abilities actually go backwards when we’re watching television or doing stuff on computers.”"

Hybrid Books From Publishers Like Simon and Schuster Add Video and Web Features to Reading - NYTimes.com

Hybrid Books From Publishers Like Simon and Schuster Add Video and Web Features to Reading - NYTimes.com:

"The children’s division of HarperCollins recently released the first in a young-adult mystery series called “The Amanda Project,” and has invited readers to discuss clues and characters on a Web site. As the series continues, some of the reader comments may be incorporated into minor characters or subplots. Susan Katz, publisher of HarperCollins Children’s Books, predicted that “there is going to be a popular kind of literature where the author is seen as the leader of a large group and will pick and choose from these suggestions” by readers."

Hybrid Books From Publishers Like Simon and Schuster Add Video and Web Features to Reading - NYTimes.com

Hybrid Books From Publishers Like Simon and Schuster Add Video and Web Features to Reading - NYTimes.com:

"“Everybody is trying to think about how books and information will best be put together in the 21st century,” said Judith Curr, publisher of Atria Books, the Simon & Schuster imprint that is releasing the electronic editions in partnership with Vook, a multimedia company. She added, “You can’t just be linear anymore with your text.”"

Hybrid Books From Publishers Like Simon and Schuster Add Video and Web Features to Reading - NYTimes.com

Hybrid Books From Publishers Like Simon and Schuster Add Video and Web Features to Reading - NYTimes.com:

"“There is no question that these new media are going to be superb at engaging and interesting the reader,” said Maryanne Wolf, a professor of child development at Tufts University and author of “Proust and the Squid: The Story and Science of the Reading Brain.” But, she added, “Can you any longer read Henry James or George Eliot? Do you have the patience?”"

New York Public Library and Kirtas Technologies Partner to Make 500,000 Public-Domain Books Available to the World | LISWire

New York Public Library and Kirtas Technologies Partner to Make 500,000 Public-Domain Books Available to the World | LISWire: "Readers and researchers looking for hard-to-find books now have the opportunity to dip into the collections of one of the world’s most comprehensive libraries to purchase digitized copies of public domain titles. Through their Digitize-on-Demand program, Kirtas Technologies has partnered with The New York Public Library to make 500,000 public domain works from the Library’s collections available (to anyone in the world). “New technology has allowed the Library to greatly expand access to its collections,” said Paul LeClerc, President of The New York Public Library. “Now, for the first time, library users are able to order copies of specific items from our vast public domain collections that are useful to them. Additionally the program creates a digital legacy for future users of the same item and a revenue stream to support our operations. We are very pleased to participate in a program that is so beneficial to everyone involved.'"

The Digitizers: An interview with Peter Collingridge of Enhanced Editions | TeleRead: Bring the E-Books Home

The Digitizers: An interview with Peter Collingridge of Enhanced Editions | TeleRead: Bring the E-Books Home:

"Enhanced Editions does a fabulous job of creating multi-media apps for books. They incorporate opt-in audio, video, and other features to lend a whole new dimension to the reading experience."

L'Ombre de l'Olivier

L'Ombre de l'Olivier:

"The point - dear publishers - is that you are selling your wares to literate (and numerate) folks who are able to do things like price comparisons. If we discover that a heap of (DRM crippled) electrons costs us more than a pile of cellulose we begin to smell a large rodent and to feel like someone is ripping us off. Humans have a fairly well developed sense of fairness - and, as the Music industry can tell anyone who asks, thanks to the Internet it is very easy for people to decide not to pay for content if they think they are being ripped off. Various publishers have claimed (at various times) that it costs a lot to make a book into an ebook and that it takes time - and hence the ebook comes after the printed one. The problems with these claims is that we don't believe you."

E-book biz too fixated on regular readers? If so, what to do about it? | TeleRead: Bring the E-Books Home

E-book biz too fixated on regular readers? If so, what to do about it? | TeleRead: Bring the E-Books Home:

"“I’m not the audience e-readers should be aimed at,” writes Jason Pinter, a best-selling author and Huffington Post contributor. “Yet for some strange reason I am. By marketing the Kindle to me—i.e. ‘adults’ who already read regularly—publishing is merely doubling down on the biggest problem facing the industry: not imageenough people read books. Right now, e-readers are being promoted as an alternative to paper. Big mistake. E-readers should be promoted as a cool option for non readers or hesitant readers. Instead, they’re stunningly being ignored.”"

New initiative offers Florida college students free digital versions of pricey textbooks. - St. Petersburg Times

New initiative offers Florida college students free digital versions of pricey textbooks. - St. Petersburg Times:

"'The model has always been to throw a chunk of money at a professor to write a book that can be used nationally,' Babb said. 'What we are trying to do is turn the paradigm on its ear and say, it's not about a professor getting rich. It's about affordability for students.' For example, students through Orange Grove Texts Plus can now read online, download and print out Elementary Calculus by H. Jerome Keisler for free. Or they can order a copy of the 992-page book to be printed, bound, and shipped directly to their homes for $47.50 (plus shipping)."

New initiative offers Florida college students free digital versions of pricey textbooks. - St. Petersburg Times

New initiative offers Florida college students free digital versions of pricey textbooks. - St. Petersburg Times:

"But through a new initiative state university system officials plan to announce today, Florida college students can get digital versions of some of those pricey textbooks for free. Students who really want a print version can order one custom-bound for between $30 and $50 — far cheaper than even many used textbooks. The project, dubbed Orange Grove Texts Plus, is a partnership involving the University Press of Florida, the state university system's nonprofit publishing arm; the Virginia publisher Integrated Book Technology; and Orange Grove, the state's digital database of K-20 teaching material."

Rebooting the Book (One Apple iPad Tablet at a Time) - O'Reilly Radar

Rebooting the Book (One Apple iPad Tablet at a Time) - O'Reilly Radar:

"Is it heretical to speak of re-inventing the book? Hardly. Consider that before the advent of the printing press, books were made by hand. No two were alike. After the advent of the printing press, information fell on the same pages in each book, and page numbering, tables of contents, and indices became common.

Authorship materially gained in importance, and the end-product was a democratization of knowledge, not to mention a revolution in science.

To me this hearkens back to lessons learned from the way that sound transformed the motion picture industry; namely, it changed how movies were made AND changed what movies were."

Sony ramps up e-book self-publishing options | Crave - CNET

Sony ramps up e-book self-publishing options | Crave - CNET:

"According to Sony, Author Solutions and Smashwords will offer authors the option to publish content in the EPUB format, 'the International Digital Publishing Forum's XML-based standard format for reflowable digital books and publications.' Amazon, on the other hand, uses its proprietary e-book format."

College Students Reject the Kindle: What e-Book Reader is Going to Work? | CloudAve

College Students Reject the Kindle: What e-Book Reader is Going to Work? | CloudAve:

"The book must be on the device in its entirety, or be available to read without pauses. Some of the ebook systems only allow printing or access to pages one at a time on a limited seat basis. This is not an ebook reader issue, this is a supplier issue. Issues like DRM are also going to play in with how people use books. If the DRM solution does not work with any ebook reader then there are going to be issues, and students will reject the entire ebook solution including the reader. The book must be highlight able, mark able, and annotate able. These marks, highlights and annotations should be searchable by keyword(s).

Students should be able to print pages with their highlights and annotations intact on the page like it was part of the original content."

News: 'A Better Pencil' - Inside Higher Ed

News: 'A Better Pencil' - Inside Higher Ed:

"Here’s my objection to the Google book project. First, I think it’s great to digitize as much nondigital text as possible. I take advantage of many of the online databases with digitized newspapers, early printed books, and manuscripts. What I don’t like is that Google is poised to monopolize text. No one entity should have that kind of power over the word. Not only does Google intend to profit from this kind of control (it answers to its stockholders, not to the public), it would have the power to manipulate the text under its control, deciding who can and cannot see it, what can be displayed, what can be erased."

Amazon’s Kindle DX: Not Yet a Hit on Campus - Digits - WSJ

Amazon’s Kindle DX: Not Yet a Hit on Campus - Digits - WSJ:

"Students at Reed College in Portland, Ore., have also had about four weeks to spend with the Kindles. Now some of them have come up with a list of about 10 improvements for the device, including the need for page numbers and easier way for note taking and highlighting, said Martin Ringle, Reed’s chief technology officer. Still, Ringle said, “the pilot is going really well because this is precisely the kind of information we were hoping to ascertain.”"

Hey, Princeton! You should have waited for Sony | Education IT | ZDNet.com

Hey, Princeton! You should have waited for Sony | Education IT | ZDNet.com:

"Students need portability, ease of use, and flexibility. I’m still waiting for higher-resolution and color e-ink, but for now, the $300 Reader has my vote for educational deployments."

Hey, Princeton! You should have waited for Sony | Education IT | ZDNet.com

Hey, Princeton! You should have waited for Sony | Education IT | ZDNet.com:

"The Sony Reader? Just grab the stylus, enter note-taking mode, and you have the option of entering notes with an on-screen keyboard (that responds to both fingers and the stylus), writing directly on the touch screen, and highlighting by dragging the stylus over text. Annotations are easily removed with the stylus by clicking on the eraser tool. The device can also be used to take notes directly in a separate note-taking application. Again, you can use either the stylus or on-screen keyboard, although the latter is too big for serious BlackBerry-style thumb typing and too small to touch type."

Will E-Books Transform the Way We Read? - CBS Evening News - CBS News

Will E-Books Transform the Way We Read? - CBS Evening News - CBS News:

"'They can download digital media for free, and that's audio books, e-books, music and video,' said Renee San Jose, a marketing and events coordinator with Overdrive. It's not sponsored by some high-tech company, but your public library.

Surprised? Libraries are changing with the times, said Washington D.C.'s chief librarian.

'While we used to be the place that held the books we're now in some places the connection point,' said Ginnie Cooper, the chief librarian of D.C. Public Libraries."

Will Amazon Open the Kindle to Developers? - Bits Blog - NYTimes.com

Will Amazon Open the Kindle to Developers? - Bits Blog - NYTimes.com:

"Reading is a solitary activity, requiring privacy, concentration and a total attention span. It would be counter-productive to create a device with options other than reading that would be unnecessary and a burden on the dedicated reader. To these dedicated readers content is what matters most."

CK12 Format Updates

Greetings CK-12 Community!

We have launched a new version of our FlexBooks System (Release 1.1.2). This is a significant milestone in our journey as it has the following flagship features:

• Print Preview from Editor
• Live Media Support to embed and view videos
• Integrated metadata for enhanced searching
• Symbol Editor for editing Math Symbols
• Anonymous PDF access (no need to sign in to view a PDF or a book)
• Search improvements (performance, highlighted text)

One big change you will notice is that we have switched to LaTex for our PDF generation, meaning that when you print your book you will notice a cleaner layout and better representation of charts, graphs and equations.

We have also upgraded the web farm to provide better performance for our users. Hence, our old system has been renamed as http://flexbooks-archives.ck12.org, until all 'valid' user generated content migration is complete.

Your user credentials will work the same way as before (same username and password combination), and you will be able to access the following books on http://www.ck12.org:

-Life Science
-Earth Science
-Biology I
-Engineering--An introduction for High School
-Engineering--Problem Solving with Matlab
-Basic Physics
-21st Century Physics Flexbook
-People's Physics Book
-Algebra I

If you were working from a FlexBook you do not see here, you can access it at http://flexbooks-archives.ck12.org We will be upgrading those books for release on http://www.ck12.org in the next month.

Any of your custom created personal FlexBooks you have been working on can be accessed at http://flexbooks-archives.ck12.org. If you would like to have them transferred to our upgraded system, please contact us at support@ck12.org. We find that working individually with users is the most effective way to prune and cleanup outdated content.

Please stay tuned. We have more performance improvements coming to catch the ones we missed this time around.

Thank you for being a part of our community and happy flexing!

-The CK-12 Team

Opinion: Amazon is right not to offer public domain books | TeleRead: Bring the E-Books Home

Opinion: Amazon is right not to offer public domain books | TeleRead: Bring the E-Books Home:

"The decision by Amazon not to offer public domain books has caused some angst in the ebook community, but from the perspective of a corporate lawyer I think it is the correct decision, at least for now. Don’t forget that Amazon can be sued, and even be subject to criminal charges, if it violates the copyright laws. One suit against Amazon could easily eat up any of the fees Amazon would collect for public domain books for years to come. These things are extremely expensive to defend – costs in the millions are commonplace. Many plaintiff’s lawyers work on a contingency basis and only get paid if they win or force a settlement, so while Amazon is paying millions in defense fees the plaintiff is able to bring the suit almost for free. (Why do you think there are so many class actions suits over relatively trivial matters.)"

Nieman Reports | Why the News Media Became Irrelevant—And How Social Media Can Help

Nieman Reports | Why the News Media Became Irrelevant—And How Social Media Can Help:

"The old journalism, with its overreliance on the same experts and analysts, is out of touch with a culture of information sharing, connection and the collective wisdom of diverse voices passing along direct experience."

Princeton University - Pilot of Amazon's Kindle e-reader launched with fall semester

Princeton University - Pilot of Amazon's Kindle e-reader launched with fall semester:

"At Princeton, the Amazon KindleDX pilot project is sponsored by OIT, the University library and the High Meadows Foundation. The High Meadows Foundation gift of term funds over four years was given to the University to fund initiatives that support goals set forth in the 'Research, education and civic engagement' section of Princeton's Sustainability Plan, which was announced in February of 2008. It is one of the plan's three main areas, along with greenhouse gas emissions reduction and resource conservation.

The library digitized content for the e-reader pilot, while OIT converted some content into e-books and prepared others for delivery, and a committee consisting of representatives from OIT and the library set the goals for the pilot."

Princeton University - Pilot of Amazon's Kindle e-reader launched with fall semester

Princeton University - Pilot of Amazon's Kindle e-reader launched with fall semester:

"'If, through the use of e-readers, we can cut down that printing by even 1 percent, we will have more than made up for what was spent on this pilot,' said Serge Goldstein, one of the pilot project's directors and the University's associate chief information officer and director of academic services."

Princeton University - Pilot of Amazon's Kindle e-reader launched with fall semester

Princeton University - Pilot of Amazon's Kindle e-reader launched with fall semester:

"In addition to class size and availability of readings, general selection criteria for the courses included their heavy reliance on 'e-reserve' material for most of the required reading on the syllabi. The library provided to the e-reader pilot administrators a list of the top courses that put digitized readings on electronic reserve for students at the library."

Nieman Reports | Why the News Media Became Irrelevant—And How Social Media Can Help

Nieman Reports | Why the News Media Became Irrelevant—And How Social Media Can Help:

"Today, people expect to share information, not be fed it. They expect to be listened to when they have knowledge and raise questions. They want news that connects with their lives and interests. They want control over their information. And they want connection—they give their trust to those they engage with—people who talk with them, listen and maintain a relationship."

Open Source Exile: eBook readers need OpenURL resolvers

Open Source Exile: eBook readers need OpenURL resolvers: "Ask yourself, though, whether you'd want to flick between works on the current generation of readers---very painful, since these devices are not designed for efficient navigation between eBooks, but linear reading of them. You can't follow links between them, of course, because on current systems links must point either with the same eBook or out on to the internet---pointing to other eBooks on the same device is verboten."

A Virtual Revolution Is Brewing for Colleges - washingtonpost.com

A Virtual Revolution Is Brewing for Colleges - washingtonpost.com:

"Because the current college system, like the newspaper industry, has built-in redundancies, new Internet efficiencies will lead to fewer researchers and professors. Every major paper once had a bureau in, say, Sarajevo -- now, a few foreign correspondents' pieces are used in dozens of papers. Similarly, at noon on any given day, hundreds of university professors are teaching introductory Sociology 101. The Internet makes it harder to justify these redundancies. In the future, a handful of Soc. 101 lectures will be videotaped and taught across the United States."

A Virtual Revolution Is Brewing for Colleges - washingtonpost.com

A Virtual Revolution Is Brewing for Colleges - washingtonpost.com:

"Both newspapers and universities have traditionally relied on selling hard-to-come-by information. Newspapers touted advertising space next to breaking news, but now that advertisers find their customers on Craigslist and Cars.com, the main source of reporters' pay is vanishing. Colleges also sell information, with a slightly different promise -- a degree, a better job and access to brilliant minds. As with newspapers, some of these features are now available elsewhere."

A Virtual Revolution Is Brewing for Colleges - washingtonpost.com

A Virtual Revolution Is Brewing for Colleges - washingtonpost.com:

"Students starting school this year may be part of the last generation for which 'going to college' means packing up, getting a dorm room and listening to tenured professors. Undergraduate education is on the verge of a radical reordering. Colleges, like newspapers, will be torn apart by new ways of sharing information enabled by the Internet. The business model that sustained private U.S. colleges cannot survive."

The Year of E-Textbooks? - Technology - The Chronicle of Higher Education

The Year of E-Textbooks? - Technology - The Chronicle of Higher Education:

"There are no page numbers for books on the Kindle; instead, every passage has a 'location number,' which lets users jump to that section. Those numbers can be long, and it can be awkward to type them on the small keyboard. So when Ted Humphrey, the professor, asked students to turn to a certain passage in the Iliad, there were 'some glitches,' he says, as a few students mis typed the location number."

To Kindle or Not to Kindle

To Kindle or Not to Kindle: "In the end, I decided to take the plunge and go for the iPod Touch. In my Verizon family of multiple lowest-common-denominator cheap-o cell phones, the iPhone was too rich for our blood. So an iPod Touch was the next best thing.
There were three reasons why I finally went this route. The first is that I decided in the end that smaller was better; I liked the idea that an iPod would fit in my pocket, even smaller than a rack-sized paperback, and at the same time the iPod screen is in the end not that much smaller than that of a Kindle"

To Kindle or Not to Kindle

To Kindle or Not to Kindle: "To Kindle or Not to Kindle
By Jim Cullen
Mr. Cullen teaches at the Ethical Culture Fieldston School in New York. His most recent book is Essaying the Past: How to Read, Write and Think about History. He blogs at American History Now.
Like a lot of devoted readers, I reacted to the roll-out of Amazon's new Kindle two years ago with a sense of wary fascination."

The Kindle Problem - The Atlantic (September 15, 2009)

The Kindle Problem - The Atlantic (September 15, 2009):

"Meanwhile, competitors have spotted an opening and are taking the opportunity to try to elbow the Kindle aside. As of this year, Google has made 1 million public domain books available for free on the Sony Reader, which is priced at $100 less than the Kindle. By thus joining forces, Google and Sony just might out-convenience Kindle."

IREX Technologies 'Consumer' eReader To Feature The Barnes & Noble eBookstore

IREX Technologies 'Consumer' eReader To Feature The Barnes & Noble eBookstore:

"'We will change the dynamics of the consumer market - users want to easily purchase content from a variety of sources and we allow them to read it on an IREX eReader as well as other devices,' said Kevin Hamilton, North American CEO of IREX Technologies. 'Signing this deal with Barnes & Noble positions IREX well in terms of content, and we'll team with other industry leaders to provide the network infrastructure and retail presence.' Earlier this month IREX Technologies confirmed that its anticipated device will include an 8.1-inch touch screen with stylus navigation and 3G wireless connectivity."

At Your Fingers, an Oxford Don - NYTimes.com

At Your Fingers, an Oxford Don - NYTimes.com:

"“The promise of technology is to take us back to the past, toward one-to-one learning,” said Monica Martinez, president of the New Tech Network, a nonprofit group that trains teachers and designs high schools that use computing extensively. “But this is returning back to that concept in a very different way.”"

Why Apple’s Tablet Will Eat Kindle’s Lunch

Why Apple’s Tablet Will Eat Kindle’s Lunch:

"I think the Apple Tablet will be disruptive to the still formative eReader and digital publishing industry. Amazon is the current forerunner there, with the popular Kindle taking the lead over earlier player Sony and smaller companies like iRex, FoxIt and Bookeen. They’re already sitting right on top of a pile of published works to distribute, and right now their vertical strategy is almost the only game in town."

Apple, eBooks and the Media Tablet. « The Digital Professor

Apple, eBooks and the Media Tablet. « The Digital Professor: "It is a media tablet that is needed for distributing eBook content in the education market, not the standalone reader. Students from elementary through graduate school do not need an additional device to carry around. What they do need is a well-done touchscreen media device capable of performing daily tasks related to their educational pursuits. For most this may mean just a tablet, capable of taking notes in class, reading an eBook, and communicating with their teachers and classmates."

Will the Kindle Change Education? | Scholastic.com

Will the Kindle Change Education? | Scholastic.com: "When indiana social studies teacher Chris Edwards directs his students to work on research projects in class, they turn to resources such as books, atlases, computers—and Kindles. Amazon.com’s e-book reader is a device more commonly spotted in airport lounges or on commuter trains than in high school classrooms. Edwards is one of a few teachers that have begun to capitalize on the slim, digital tablets to access and display electronic books. And he thinks the Kindle may eventually become a fixture in student backpacks. “I see it as an update, not simply of the book, but of the library,” says Edwards, who has a set of five Kindles in his classroom at Fishers High School, in Fishers, Indiana."

Will the Kindle Change Education? | Scholastic.com

Will the Kindle Change Education? | Scholastic.com: "Some educators say they are already convinced that e-book readers are what schools need. “For the longest time, distribution of reading materials has been highly inefficient in getting the right material to the right student at the right moment,” says Daniel Witz, a language arts teacher at Lake Bluff Middle School, near Chicago. “You have maybe four books of a fiction title; if a fifth kid wants to be part of that circle, you don’t have that copy,” he says."

Sony Plans to Adopt Common Format for E-Books - NYTimes.com

Sony Plans to Adopt Common Format for E-Books - NYTimes.com: "“People need to remember, when they buy books that come with digital rights management, they don’t have the freedoms they normally would have with a book,” said Holmes Wilson, campaigns manger of the Free Software Foundation, which obtained the signatures of nearly 4,000 authors and tech pundits on a petition saying Amazon’s anticopying software was a “clear threat to the free exchange of ideas.” Companies like Sony and Adobe do not want to abandon anticopying measures, fearing that piracy of books would run rampant. Rather, they want to push the e-book industry toward common standards to avoid a replay of Apple’s domination of the digital music business."

Cory Doctorow’s craphound.com >> Blog Archive » YA writers: Detroit public school teacher of blind kids wants your ebooks for her Braille printer

Cory Doctorow’s craphound.com >> Blog Archive » YA writers: Detroit public school teacher of blind kids wants your ebooks for her Braille printer:

"Back in August, I got a surprise in the mail: a long Braille computer printout and a letter. The letter was from Patti Smith, who teaches visually impaired middle-schoolers in Detroit's public school system. She explained that almost all the Braille kids' books she had access to were for really little kids -- kindergartners, basically -- and how discouraging this was for her kids. The reason she was writing to me was to thank me for releasing my young adult novel Little Brother under a Creative Commons license, which meant that she could download the ebook version and run it through her school's Braille embosser (US copyright law makes it legal to convert any book to Braille or audiobook for blind people, but it is technically challenging and expensive to do this without the electronic text)."

A Textbook Case of Missed Opportunities « The Scholarly Kitchen

A Textbook Case of Missed Opportunities « The Scholarly Kitchen: "In a separate post, Andrew Savikas, preparing for a talk at an upcoming O’Reilly Tools of Change conference, quotes from an exchange he had while preparing: The bigger issue I see is that thinking of the problem as “how do we get a textbook onto an iPhone” is framing it wrong. The challenge is “how do we use a medium that already shares 3 of our 5 senses — eyes, ears, and a mouth — along with geolocation, color video, and a nearly-always-on Web connection to accomplish the ‘job’ of educating a student.” That’s a much more interesting problem to me than “how do we port 2-page book layouts to a small screen.”"

Teaching the iGeneration: The Future of Textbooks

Teaching the iGeneration: The Future of Textbooks:

"Open Source technology may play a crucial role in the future of textbooks. Teachers everywhere are collaborating more. Teachers from all over are beginning to work together to create textbooks. With technology and organizations like ck-12, creating textbooks with a group of professional educators has never been easier."

Top News - Phones, PCs put eBooks within easy reach

Top News - Phones, PCs put eBooks within easy reach: "Sony also has announced that its Readers will be able to load eBooks 'loaned' from local libraries. A library card will provide access to free books that expire after 21 days. The library connection 'would seem to be something Amazon would never embrace, so that could be a key differentiator,' said Richard Doherty, director of research firm The Envisioneering Group. The feature also could prove popular at colleges and universities."

eTexts may soon hit VIU bookstore

eTexts may soon hit VIU bookstore: "Fourth-year criminology student Andrew Kaban worked in VIU's research department over the summer and looked at the relationship between how people read articles online versus in a hardcopy format. The results showed Internet readers skimming through articles, whereas hard-copy readers took their time and were more thorough."

Review: The Sony Pocket Edition (PRS-300) eReader | Brad’s Reader

Review: The Sony Pocket Edition (PRS-300) eReader | Brad’s Reader: "Out of the box, the device feels sturdy and has a nice weight to it. The screen is smaller (5″) than my PRS-500 (6″) but that doesn’t bother me. I was also happy that it came pre-charged, so I was able to turn it on right away without having to plug it in and wait for it to charge. My only disappointment in this regard is the fact that the device does not come with a power adapter. If you want one of those, you have to buy it separately. The eReader will charge when plugged into a computer via the USB cable that comes with it. Luckily I have a power adapter from my PRS-500 that should work fine."

Hevel.org: A Chasing after Wind » Blog Archive » Academic Texts on the Kindle

Hevel.org: A Chasing after Wind » Blog Archive » Academic Texts on the Kindle: "Which brings me back to academic reading. I’m not sure if you’ve noticed, but a lot of the books we read are big and heavy. I am so glad to have an office now because I have a convenient place to keep books. Back in the grad school days I was forever lugging around books like Huehnergard’s Akkadian grammar and Brueggemann’s Theology of the Old Testament [1400 pages between them]. I eagerly await the time, coming soon I believe, when most of the academic resources we need are available electronically. And if they are available electronically, I will most likely be able to put them on my Kindle (or my next Kindle?)."

A library without the books - The Boston Globe

A library without the books - The Boston Globe: "And to replace those old pulpy devices that have transmitted information since Johannes Gutenberg invented the printing press in the 1400s, they have spent $10,000 to buy 18 electronic readers made by Amazon.com and Sony. Administrators plan to distribute the readers, which they’re stocking with digital material, to students looking to spend more time with literature."

Talkback on Library Journal

Talkback on Library Journal: "I have no intimate knowledge of Amazon’s Kindle offerings, but I suspect their catalog overlooks the sort of scholarly content faculty want and would recommend to their students. And then there is perhaps the most significant barrier of all. What would all those library workers whose jobs involve book selection and acquisitions do when it all moves to user selection via the Kindles?"

Talkback on Library Journal

Talkback on Library Journal: "As consumers use e-readers they’ll grow accustomed to simply downloading whatever book they need and having it ready to read in minutes. If academic libraries can adjust to those types of on-demand, just-in-time book orders, we may be in a position to pleasantly surprise the user community."

Newport News teachers, students armed with wide range of e-tools -- dailypress.com

Newport News teachers, students armed with wide range of e-tools -- dailypress.com: "Davis and Weston said the district is exploring the use of electronic readers this year. A finance class at Warwick High School will try using the Amazon.com Kindle electronic reader instead of textbooks and handouts. 'One class will have Kindles; one will not,' Weston said. 'They'll switch off halfway through year, and we'll see how they do.'"

Lost or stolen Kindle? Amazon says you're out of luck - Ars Technica

Lost or stolen Kindle? Amazon says you're out of luck - Ars Technica: "Of course, the other downside to losing a Kindle (besides unsuccessfully trying to frustrate the person who now has it) is the fact that users can no longer access their purchased Kindle books unless they use the Kindle iPhone app or purchase another Kindle. 'Not only could I not read them if I had them due to their DRM,' Smith told us, 'but my purchased content is not even available to me through the Amazon site so long as I do not have a Kindle registered—I confirmed this to be the case with one of the two first-level customer service people.'"

Lost or stolen Kindle? Amazon says you're out of luck - Ars Technica

Lost or stolen Kindle? Amazon says you're out of luck - Ars Technica: "This made us wonder: is there any way to use technology to recover a lost Kindle? After all, the Kindle has built-in wireless connectivity through Sprint, and Amazon has the apparent ability to reach into people's devices to yank back content. There must be some way to figure out where the device is, or at least shut it down remotely to deter thieves. Right? Right?

Our reader, Justin Smith, said that Amazon's Kindle Support told him that there's no way to send a kill signal down to the Kindle and have it shut off remotely. This is 'something which I feel would be beneficial in a situation like this, where recovery of the device is unlikely,' he told us via e-mail."

The case for an e-book standard and the death of DRM - SmartPlanet

The case for an e-book standard and the death of DRM - SmartPlanet: "Bob LiVolsi wants to change that. LiVolsi is the founder and chief executive of BooksOnBoard, the largest independent e-book bookseller. BooksOnBoard was the first retailer to offer to its readers books in the EPUB standard, a free and open file format designed so that consumers can read (and move) their books wherever they want."

The case for an e-book standard and the death of DRM - SmartPlanet

The case for an e-book standard and the death of DRM - SmartPlanet: "SP: Are e-books growing in adoption? If so, how much? BL: We’ve grown nonstop since [we launched, in 2006]. We grow 12 to 15 percent a month, every month. This space has been fairly recession-proof. We do 24/7 support; that helps."

Digital textbooks: Money-saving wave of future? - Norwalk News - The Hour

Digital textbooks: Money-saving wave of future? - Norwalk News - The Hour: "'One big positive of free books is that it gets you out of the horribly exploitative textbook market,' wrote Fullerton College professor Ben Crowell in an e-mail. 'It's just a scandal that they're charging students as much as $250 for an organic chemistry book, and bringing out a new edition every three years in order to kill off the used book market.'"

Darden Students Test the Amazon Kindle DX

Darden Students Test the Amazon Kindle DX: "In addition to saving students from lugging around heavy backpacks, the technology could substantially reduce the use of paper. 'The Kindle could help Darden achieve its goal of becoming 'carbon neutral' by 2020,' Robert Carraway, Darden's associate dean for MBA programs, said.

Darden aims to become a top 10 school for teaching and research on sustainability by 2013 and has launched several other new 'electronic' initiatives this school year. For the first time, all first-year students will have the option to receive electronically the more than 300 case studies they will review. For several second-year courses, paper is not an option."

A Kindle for Every Student - US News and World Report

A Kindle for Every Student - US News and World Report: "At the K-12 level, more is happening with digital books and other new media technologies without using E-book readers. At Cinega High School in Vail, Ariz., students who own laptops can register for 'digital sections' of their English, history, and science classes. Teachers throughout the district are encouraged to incorporate their own PowerPoint presentations, as well as videos and research materials found on websites, into their classes."

Kindle - People Know About It, People Want It - NYTimes.com

Kindle - People Know About It, People Want It - NYTimes.com: "Here are some key findings from the J.P. Morgan survey: * 37 percent of those surveyed knew about the Kindle.
* 51 percent of those who read 10 books or more every year knew about it.
* Less than 5 percent owned one.
* About 15 percent said they were planning to buy one.
* Of those not looking to buy a Kindle, nearly 75 percent said that they were put off by the high price.
* Nearly 73 percent said that they preferred reading paper books."

Digital Textbooks: 3 Reasons Students Aren't Ready

Digital Textbooks: 3 Reasons Students Aren't Ready: "“We may have actually made enough progress for this to be a landmark device, but the caveat that humans have proven is that they are resistant to change,” said Andrew Dillon, Dean of the University of Texas School of Information about the Kindle DX device. “Fighting 700 years of human familiarity with paper is a huge challenge.”"

Sony E-Reader Fighting Amazon's Kindle for Book Dominance - Advertising Age - Digital

Sony E-Reader Fighting Amazon's Kindle for Book Dominance - Advertising Age - Digital: "By the end of 2008, only 1 million e-readers had been sold, with another 3 million estimated to be in users' hands by the end of this year, according to Forrester Research. That's only 3% of the adult book-reading population and $197 million in U.S. sales. But the category is expected to grow rapidly, to 32 million devices, or about $1.8 billion in sales, reaching about one-third of that total by 2014."

N. Branford schools hope device can Kindle love of learning | Education & Training > Education Administration from AllBusiness.com

N. Branford schools hope device can Kindle love of learning | Education & Training > Education Administration from AllBusiness.com: "'We want to identify faculty members who would like to try to implement them in the classroom, and then get some honest feedback on some of the pros and cons and things we can do with them (Kindles),' said Superintendent Scott Schoonmaker. He said he was alerted to Kindle's capabilities at a May meeting with other school districts' officials, one of whom was telling the group about his own Kindle."

N. Branford schools hope device can Kindle love of learning | Education & Training > Education Administration from AllBusiness.com

N. Branford schools hope device can Kindle love of learning | Education & Training > Education Administration from AllBusiness.com: "Over the next six months, North Branford faculty and students will be given the gizmos to use in a small pilot pro- gram that may in a few years lead to the entire school system reading downloaded books on Kindles. Officials from some area districts said they are still researching the idea and may initiate similar programs in the future."

Prediction: Amazon to Sell 10 Million Kindle E-Book Readers | Peter Kafka | MediaMemo | AllThingsD

Prediction: Amazon to Sell 10 Million Kindle E-Book Readers | Peter Kafka | MediaMemo | AllThingsD: "That projection comes from a survey of Web users that Internet analyst Imran Khan commissioned last month. Khan’s survey found that 37 percent of respondents were familiar with the Kindle. And of that group, five percent said they already owned one of the devices, and another 15 percent said they expect to buy one within the next year. Extrapolating those results for the U.S. population, Khan figures that Kindle ownership will hit 10 million in the next 12 months."

38,000 College Students to Save $3 Million Utilizing Flat World Knowledge Open Source Textbooks in Fall 2009 Semester

This Fall semester, 38,000 college students at 350 colleges are enrolled to utilize Flat World textbooks, up from only 1,000 in Spring 2009 at 30 colleges.

“Traditional textbooks have clearly failed students and instructors,” added Flat World Knowledge CEO Eric Frank. “Similarly, digital textbook trials that force a single format, device, or price point will also fail. No single e-reading format or device will ever satisfy all students. “Our commercial open source textbook approach puts control and the power of choice in the hands of students and instructors.”

Download complete press release here.

BBC NEWS | UK | Magazine | A textbook love affair?

BBC NEWS | UK | Magazine | A textbook love affair?: "Dr John Woollard, lecturer in information technology education at the University of Southampton, agrees. 'E-resources are becoming increasingly associated with textbooks,' he says. 'But I personally don't think they will replace books because of the flexibility a textbook offers.

'It is a physical thing and in a classroom everyone can go to a particular page and identify what is being talked about. And a teacher couldn't really readily check if everyone was looking at the right page electronically.'"

Sony, Google Adopt Open Approach in Contrast to Closed Kindle -- Nikkei Electronics Asia -- August 2009 - Tech-On!

Sony, Google Adopt Open Approach in Contrast to Closed Kindle -- Nikkei Electronics Asia -- August 2009 - Tech-On!: "One response that is picking up momentum, primarily in the US, is building an open distribution environment. 'An open standard is essential for the growth of the eBook market,' advises Ana Maria Allesi, vice president of HarperMedia, of major publisher Harper Collins Publishers of the US. If an open standard can be developed, it would be possible for a single reader to be used to purchase eBook data from multiple distribution sites. It would also mean that a single distribution site could sell eBooks to multiple types of readers."

Education reform: Let's start by burning all the textbooks - Computerworld Blogs

Education reform: Let's start by burning all the textbooks - Computerworld Blogs: "Some of the best universities in the world place complete course materials, including video podcasts of lectures, online. What possible reason would some podunk college have to not take advantage of course material from, say, MIT, whenever possible (other than instructor ego)? There's a whole new universe of educational content resources -- most of it free -- that has emerged in the past few years."

Education reform: Let's start by burning all the textbooks - Computerworld Blogs

Education reform: Let's start by burning all the textbooks - Computerworld Blogs: "Maybe school curricula should also take a cue from Hayek, and push the decision-making down to the individual instructor? Electronic materials would make that extremely workable."

Education reform: Let's start by burning all the textbooks - Computerworld Blogs

Education reform: Let's start by burning all the textbooks - Computerworld Blogs: "But the worst thing about textbooks is that they've evolved into bland, unreadable products of interest group politics. Schools are trying to teach students to be literate, and to develop an ear for good language, then we force-feed them these hideous textbooks, which tend to be so stripped of blood and guts and heart (one definition of bad writing) that reading and learning become some kind of forced march through the educational-industrial complex, rather than the journey of discovery they're supposed to be."

Wikipedia enters a new chapter | Technology | The Guardian

Wikipedia enters a new chapter | Technology | The Guardian: "statistics released by the site's analytics team suggest Wikipedia's explosive growth is all but finished. The quickening pace that helped the site reach the 2m article milestone just 17 months after breaking the 1m barrier suddenly evaporated: adding the next million has taken nearly two years."

10 reasons why e-readers make sense in the enterprise | Between the Lines | ZDNet.com

10 reasons why e-readers make sense in the enterprise | Between the Lines | ZDNet.com: "No matter where you stand on the issue, you know businesses waste tons of paper yearly. This paper is either recycled or tossed. Although recycling is a noble gesture, even the act of doing so contributes to the problem. Someone has to pick up (or drop off) that paper to recycle. And the recycling plants use up energy and give off pollution in the process. You can avoid a good deal of this by employing e-readers."

Matsunichi ER600 ebook reader

Matsunichi ER600 ebook reader: "Description: The ER600 is an e-book reader, made by China's Matsunichi. It is available for customization (Matsunichi will not sell these directly) - options include a 5' or 6' E Ink display, touchscreen, 3G/3.5G cellular modem, Wi-Fi and bluetooth."

Sony, OverDrive in Deal - 8/12/2009 8:18:00 AM - Publishers Weekly

Sony, OverDrive in Deal - 8/12/2009 8:18:00 AM - Publishers Weekly: "Sony has signed a joint marketing agreement with OverDrive through which the two will cross-market the use of the Sony Reader in libraries by using the OverDrive network. According to OverDrive, its network offers thousands of e-books through libraries that have been compatible with the Reader for sometime and the promotion venture is designed to highlight the connection. Through OverDrive, library users can browse or search their library Web site, check out their selected e-book with a valid library card, and download to a PC. Once downloaded, the e-book may then be transferred to the Sony Reader via free Adobe Digital Editions software."

Ebook growth explosive; serious disruptions around the corner - The Shatzkin Files

Ebook growth explosive; serious disruptions around the corner - The Shatzkin Files: "But not all the books big houses sell are “ebookable” with current technology: much of the juvie list, most illustrated books, and books where tabular or graphic material is important might well not have been made into ebooks."

Budget cuts put new textbook purchases on hold - Los Angeles Times

Budget cuts put new textbook purchases on hold - Los Angeles Times: "Instructional materials are revised when society changes its mind about what's vital to students' education, when new research points to better methods to boost student learning, and when teachers offer feedback about what lessons work. For example, social studies texts were last adopted in California four years ago, and since then, educators have pinpointed areas that need improvement, said Herman Clay, who was in charge of L.A. Unified sixth- to 12th-grade social studies instruction for four years. (He recently became principal of Cleveland High School in Reseda.)

Some American history books dwell on New York City politics but contain not a word about the 2003 California recall of Gov. Gray Davis. Instructors would also like to see a greater emphasis on landmark California rulings, such as Mendez vs. Westminster, a 1946 school desegregation case that laid the groundwork for Brown vs. Board of Education. Also, teachers are now more focused on frequent assessment of students."

Budget cuts put new textbook purchases on hold - Los Angeles Times

Budget cuts put new textbook purchases on hold - Los Angeles Times: "Irvine Unified, which has cut more than $18 million from its $215-million budget since April, is among the districts that have delayed purchasing English and language arts textbooks. The move is expected to save the Irvine district more than $1.7 million. 'That's a pretty hefty chunk of change,' said district spokesman Ian Hanigan. 'This flexibility enables us to get through 2009-10 without making [more] cuts that would almost certainly impact class sizes and jobs.'"

Budget cuts put new textbook purchases on hold - Los Angeles Times

Budget cuts put new textbook purchases on hold - Los Angeles Times: "California school districts spent at least $633 million on new books in 2007, according to the Assn. of American Publishers. More recent numbers are not available, but a representative of one publishing house who asked not to be named because of proprietary concerns said sales in the state -- the nation's biggest textbook market -- are off by 50% or more. 'We're all seeing a precipitous drop,' said John Sipe Jr., vice president of K-12 sales in California for Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.

Fewer than 200 California districts have bought reading/literature texts this year, compared with publishers' typical expectation of 600 to 700, he said.

'This is a staggering difference for our industry,' Sipe said."

Amost three million active e-book users on the iPhone/Touch and other smart phones. | TeleRead: Bring the E-Books Home

Amost three million active e-book users on the iPhone/Touch and other smart phones. | TeleRead: Bring the E-Books Home: "# Growth of more than 300 percent happened from April to July. # “eBooks represents the second-largest category in the [iPhone/Touch] App Store, with 14% share, only behind Games, which comes in at 19%.'"

Kindle in danger of becoming a Betamax - MarketWatch

Kindle in danger of becoming a Betamax - MarketWatch: "While the Kindle format (a special version of Amazon's e-book software Mobipocket) is specific to the Kindle, the ePub format will be supported by most new devices from other companies. It's also backed by the publishers, who don't like Amazon's dominance of the e-book business, and Adobe, whose Digital Editions e-book format uses ePub. 'I think Amazon has overestimated their power in the value chain,' says Gartner's Weiner. 'I don't think their proprietary format is going to have the ability to compete with ePub if that's offered by everybody else.'"

The Forrester Blog For Consumer Product Strategy Professionals

The Forrester Blog For Consumer Product Strategy Professionals: "The big takeaway is that this could spell trouble for Amazon, if competitors can move in to better serve the later waves of adopters who don't have as strong a relationship with the eCommerce giant."

Joe Wikert's Kindleville Blog: All Kindle, All the Time: Slowly Losing Interest in Subscriptions

Joe Wikert's Kindleville Blog: All Kindle, All the Time: Slowly Losing Interest in Subscriptions: "The iPhone version has ads and the Kindle version doesn't. So what? If that's one of the key differences and it saves me $14/month, bring on the ads!"

Apple's tablet means more education as e-Books prepare for a big-screen future | 9 to 5 Mac

Apple's tablet means more education as e-Books prepare for a big-screen future | 9 to 5 Mac: "'Nobody is going to use their iPhone to do their homework, but this does provide real mobile learning,' said Frank Lyman, CourseSmart's executive vice president. 'If you're in a study group and you have a question, you can immediately access your text.'"

As Classrooms Go Digital, Textbooks May Become History - NYTimes.com

As Classrooms Go Digital, Textbooks May Become History - NYTimes.com: "Most of the digital texts submitted for review in California came from a nonprofit group, CK-12 Foundation, that develops free “flexbooks” that can be customized to meet state standards, and added to by teachers. Its physics flexbook, a Web-based, open-content compilation, was introduced in Virginia in March. “The good part of our flexbooks is that they can be anything you want,” said Neeru Khosla, a founder of the group. “You can use them online, you can download them onto a disk, you can print them, you can customize them, you can embed video. When people get over the mind-set issue, they’ll see that there’s no reason to pay $100 a pop for a textbook, when you can have the content you want free.”

The move to open-source materials is well under way in higher education — and may be accelerated by President Obama’s proposal to invest in creating free online courses as part of his push to improve community colleges."

As Classrooms Go Digital, Textbooks May Become History - NYTimes.com

As Classrooms Go Digital, Textbooks May Become History - NYTimes.com: "Whenever it comes, the online onslaught — and the competition from open-source materials — poses a real threat to traditional textbook publishers. Pearson, the nation’s largest one, submitted four texts in California, all of them already available online, as free supplements to their texts.

“We believe that the world is going digital, but the jury’s still out on how this will evolve,” said Wendy Spiegel, a Pearson spokeswoman. “We’re agnostic, so we’ll provide digital, we’ll provide print, and we’ll see what our customers want.”"

As Classrooms Go Digital, Textbooks May Become History - NYTimes.com

As Classrooms Go Digital, Textbooks May Become History - NYTimes.com: "Many educators expect that digital textbooks and online courses will start small, perhaps for those who want to study a subject they cannot fit into their school schedule or for those who need a few more credits to graduate. Although California education authorities are reviewing 20 open-source high school math and science texts to make sure they meet California’s exacting academic standards in time for use this fall — and will announce this week which ones meet state standards — quick adoption is unlikely.

“I want our teachers to have the best materials available, and with digital textbooks, we could see the best lessons taught by the most dynamic teachers,” said John A. Roach, superintendent of the Carlsbad, Calif., schools. “But they’re not going to replace paper texts right away.”"

As Classrooms Go Digital, Textbooks May Become History - NYTimes.com

As Classrooms Go Digital, Textbooks May Become History - NYTimes.com: "Around the world, hundreds of universities, including M.I.T. and King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals in Saudi Arabia, now use and share open-source courses. Connexions, a Rice University nonprofit organization devoted to open-source learning, submitted an algebra text to California."

Apple's tablet means more education as e-Books prepare for a big-screen future | 9 to 5 Mac

Apple's tablet means more education as e-Books prepare for a big-screen future | 9 to 5 Mac: "If our theorising’s correct, apart from making toast of Kindle , the new tablet device isn’t a product looking for a market, but a solutions-led affair that will fit snugly in lots of markets."

Apple's tablet means more education as e-Books prepare for a big-screen future | 9 to 5 Mac

Apple's tablet means more education as e-Books prepare for a big-screen future | 9 to 5 Mac: "Strike one today comes on news that e-textbook provider, CourseSmart, intends releasing all its 7,000 titles in a format that’s accessible on an iPhone or iPod touch. And it’s no stretch of sanity to think the true target here is to make this content available on the heavily rumored media-centric Apple tablet."

MediaPost Publications NPD: E-Readers Slow to Catch On 08/10/2009

MediaPost Publications NPD: E-Readers Slow to Catch On 08/10/2009: "However, unlike other technologies, the early adopters in the e-reader category tend to be affluent leisure readers, rather than young men. The tipping point for the e-readers, Rubin says, will likely come as they become more widespread among students. 'Textbooks are likely the key to exploding past the leisure readers,' Rubin says."

OLPC Cuts Staff by Half, Drops Sugar Development | Epicenter | Wired.com

OLPC Cuts Staff by Half, Drops Sugar Development | Epicenter | Wired.com: "The PDF book reader software is nice, but you need to learn how to install fonts using the command line before you can truly feel comfortable. The included RSS reader is practically unusable, so I’ve defaulted to Google Reader. In fact, all of the tools for working are a little weak, but if you stick to low-end webapps, you can get by just fine. There are other stumbling blocks, too, like managing system updates or setting up swap space on SD cards and USB sticks. Both of those required some serious digging on the OLPC’s wiki manual."

OLPC’s Hidden Killer App: Ultimate E-Book Reader | Epicenter | Wired.com

OLPC’s Hidden Killer App: Ultimate E-Book Reader | Epicenter | Wired.com: "In the meantime, the XO’s creators aren’t interested in pimping out their hardware to turn a quick profit, but they do see the potential. 'We’re not planning on selling machines directly to people in the U.S., but the XO is an awesome e-book reader,' says OLPC director of community content S.J. Klein. 'Our primary interests are in making sure there are amazing new books for people to use, and in making the experience as interesting and engaging as possible.'"

OLPC’s Hidden Killer App: Ultimate E-Book Reader | Epicenter | Wired.com

OLPC’s Hidden Killer App: Ultimate E-Book Reader | Epicenter | Wired.com: "Once the kinks around software and content are ironed out, the XO could be pitched to commuters, students and travelers as a purely consumer device — 'it’s the rugged Kindle!' — the OLPC project can generate much-needed revenue to fund its educational, open-hardware goals. 'It is a great e-book,' says Walter Bender, former president of OLPC software and content who is now the head of Sugar Labs, the non-profit group that continues to develop the XO’s 'Sugar' interface.

Bender says he can’t speak for OLPC regarding its sales strategy, but he does say that its laptop has a significant advantage: Unlike e-books devices like Amazon’s Kindle or Sony’s Reader, the XO is a fully featured computer.

'So while you can use it to read a PDF or wiki page,' he says in an e-mail, 'you can also use it to annotate pages, write commentary, or even publish your own book: consumer as producer.'"

School Zone: Saving on textbooks | LOCAL NEWS | KHOU.com | News for Houston, Texas

School Zone: Saving on textbooks | LOCAL NEWS | KHOU.com | News for Houston, Texas: "“State legislatures including our own in Texas are starting to not only look at open textbooks as a way of cost savings, but also moving education forward,” said Joel Thierstein, the Executive Director of Connexions.
Thierstein added that professors can take an online textbook and change the coursework to suit their needs. Online textbooks are also easy to update to meet any advancements in specific fields."

Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and the Battle for E-Books - Rita McGrath - Harvard Business Review

Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and the Battle for E-Books - Rita McGrath - Harvard Business Review: "This is a classic Stage I effort; by creating its own vertically-integrated model, Amazon hopes to generate such a superior user experience that it, like Apple, might come to dominate book distribution the way Apple is a force in music. This attempt to create a Stage I competitive advantage, however, may misfire. This could happen if other players can mobilize their own resources to create a great, horizontally-structured alternative for book lovers that doesn't hand all that industry power to one player."

Sony to Release Two Lower-Priced E-Readers - WSJ.com

Sony to Release Two Lower-Priced E-Readers - WSJ.com: "Ok, call me old fashioned, isn't it 2009? I don't care how many forms you put onto a screen, I have computers, televisions, etc, etc that can do that. I want a device I can plug into, bluetooth or FM into my car radio so I can 'hear' the book read to me! I read 4,000 to 5,000 pages a week at work, I get tired of it, let me hear it!"

Brainstorm - Nicholson Baker on the Kindle - The Chronicle of Higher Education

Brainstorm - Nicholson Baker on the Kindle - The Chronicle of Higher Education: "My course, WWS-AMS325 (jointly offered by the Woodrow Wilson School and the American Studies Program) is on “Civil Society and Public Policy,” and all of the weekly assignments are either complete books or book chapters. All but one is available from Amazon, so that was not a problem for me. The 20 enrolled students will each be offered a Kindle DX. They will be able to highlight and annotate text (if they can manage the “tea party” of a keyboard). A bigger challenge, I think (noted by Nicholson) will be finding specific passages for class discussion, since the device specifies “locations” at the foot of each page, and these point only to the Kindle e-version of the text. If you refer to your own analog copy, you have a problem (and if one or more of the students opts out of the pilot, it may make things difficult). The Kindle has an excellent search capacity, so you can find any passage easily, but doing that while carrying on a group discussion may be a challenge. We’ll see."

Poll Archive

Poll Archive: "What traditional print reference source would you like to have electronically?
Publication Manual of the APA (43%, 18 Votes) MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers (31%, 13 Votes) Genreflecting: a guide to Reading Interests in Genre Fiction (12%, 5 Votes) New Variorum Edition of Shakespeare (1963) (12%, 5 Votes) Suggest another title (2%, 1 Votes) Total Voters: 42"

Interviews

Interviews: "Interviews
Each month, No Shelf Required will feature an audio interview with an Ebook publisher, aggregator, or distributor. Interviews will be about 15 - 20 minutes in length. I recommend you download/save the audio file first, then listen."

Pricing Models

Pricing Models: "The price of a book is based on factors which include perceived value, cost to develop and support, cost to produce, number of units which can be expected to be sold, and more. While I believe that most consumer pricing in our society is based on perceived value and not on cost (think Starbucks versus 7-11 for a cup of coffee, or doctor’s time versus car wash attendant’s time), let’s examine publishing costs and see whether eBook costs are less than print book costs."

CRL - Global Resources Network

CRL - Global Resources Network: "The Global Resources Network (GRN) is a voluntary and collaborative initiative of higher academic research institutions to expand and enhance access to international scholarly resources."

Digital Textbooks | Science & Technology | Chemical & Engineering News

Digital Textbooks | Science & Technology | Chemical & Engineering News: "Examples of legitimate “open” textbooks include Wikibook’s “Organic Chemistry,” which has been written by more than a dozen contributors; “Biochemistry,” by Jeremy M. Berg, John L. Tymoczko, and Lubert Stryer; and the “Virtual Textbook of Organic Chemistry,” created by William Reusch.
"

Digital Textbooks: Bane Or Boon? at C&ENtral Science

Digital Textbooks: Bane Or Boon? at C&ENtral Science: "Whenever I get a survey or informational flyer from a textbook publisher offering an electronic version of a textbook for a greatly reduced price, I take an informal survey of my students. The informal surveys are basically carried out by going into the lab and asking the students if they would prefer the electronic book. So far the results have always been unanimous. The students are vehement about wanting their dead tree versions of the textbook. I don’t blame them. That’s the version I prefer."

Amazon Erases Orwell Books From Kindle Devices - NYTimes.com

Amazon Erases Orwell Books From Kindle Devices - NYTimes.com: "Justin Gawronski, a 17-year-old from the Detroit area, was reading “1984” on his Kindle for a summer assignment and lost all his notes and annotations when the file vanished. “They didn’t just take a book back, they stole my work,” he said."

Universities Turn to Kindle? (RJS) - Jesus Creed

Universities Turn to Kindle? (RJS) - Jesus Creed: "Logos/Libronix software has dealt with the 'true' page number issue in a rather effective way, I think. For the electronic books that are in one's library, the software simply places the page numbers in brackets wherever they appear in the paper edition. Example: text text text [124] text text text. It makes citing commentaries very easy.
I don't see why it would be terribly difficult for Amazon to find a similar way of doing things."

Newspaper's Plastic Future A Step Closer - Forbes.com

Newspaper's Plastic Future A Step Closer - Forbes.com: "By the end of 2008, the Amazon Kindle and Sony ( SNE - news - people ) Reader Digital Book hit the 1 million mark in combined U.S. sales, according to Forrester's estimates."

Newspaper's Plastic Future A Step Closer - Forbes.com

Newspaper's Plastic Future A Step Closer - Forbes.com: "The number of eReaders sold in the U.S. will top 3 million by the end of 2009, with 13 million selling by the end of 2013, Forrester forecast in a research note published last month. 'The eReader market is hot,' said Sarah Rotman Epps, a strategist with Forrester Research"

Newspaper's Plastic Future A Step Closer - Forbes.com

Newspaper's Plastic Future A Step Closer - Forbes.com: "According to Forreseter Research, eReader device ownership has doubled in the U.S. alone from 0.6% in the second quarter of 2008, to 1.5% during the same period this year. And the number of consumers who say they intend to buy an eReader in the next six months has tripled, from 2% in the second quarter of 2008 to 6% in same period this year."

Frequently Asked Questions - NIH

Frequently Asked Questions - NIH: "Is the content on our Website copyrighted or free to use? Most of the information on our site is in the public domain and can be used without charge or restriction.

There are a few exceptions. For example, some resources, such as the interactive health tutorials found on NIH's National Library of Medicine Website, and images on the www.nih.gov and http://health.nih.gov/ have been licensed from a third party and are restricted in their use. Generally, copyrighted materials will include a copyright statement. If in doubt, please write to the contact point for that site."

America's School of the Future: Howard Middle School and Studywiz Spark a 21st Century Education Success Story - PreK-12 Market Headlines - B2E News Alert

America's School of the Future: Howard Middle School and Studywiz Spark a 21st Century Education Success Story - PreK-12 Market Headlines - B2E News Alert: "The Howard Middle School of Mathematics and Science (MS)², which is located on the campus of Howard University in Washington D.C, is an educational anomaly. Situated in a school district fraught with a plethora of challenges, the school has become an academic powerhouse since opening its doors in 2005. Last year it was nominated for the President's Blue Ribbon Award for Education Excellence, while faculty member Kimberly Worthy was named the 2009 D.C Teacher of the Year. The school continues to produce outstanding academic results and high graduation rates. So how does an institution in a troubled system become one of the best schools in the nation's capital?"

CourseSmart Partners with Seven New Publishers to Expand eTextbook Offeringss - Higher Ed Market Headlines - B2E News Alert

CourseSmart Partners with Seven New Publishers to Expand eTextbook Offeringss - Higher Ed Market Headlines - B2E News Alert: "Each of CourseSmart's new publishers will supplement its digital library of eTextbooks in the following specialty areas: -- Elsevier Science and Technology: Life and Physical Sciences, Mathematics and Statistics, Engineering, Computer Science, Media Technology, Finance, Business and Hospitality -- F.A. Davis: Nursing and Health Professions
-- Jones & Bartlett: Biology; Health, Fitness and Wellness; Criminology, Nursing and Computer Science
-- SAGE: Education, Psychology, Statistics, Sociology and Criminology
-- Sinauer Associates: Biology, Psychology and Neuroscience
-- Taylor & Francis: Humanities & Social Sciences, Life Science, Business, Psychology, Mental Health and Computer Science
-- Wolters Kluwer Health (Lippincott Williams & Wilkins): Medicine, Nursing and Health Professions

CourseSmart's electronic textbooks are available at an average of 50% less than the print textbooks and enable students to access their textbooks from anywhere, at any time, without purchasing additional hardware or a dedicated reading device. Features like adding notes, highlighting and maintaining print page numbers replicate the important functionality of a print textbook while features like search, and copy/paste leverage the digital format to improve teaching and learning."