Joe Wikert's Publishing 2020 Blog: "iBookstore vs Kindle Bookstore" & "Which Device Wins?"

Joe Wikert's Publishing 2020 Blog: "iBookstore vs Kindle Bookstore" & "Which Device Wins?": "So although the iBooks app is nice, I refuse to paint myself into a corner and be limited to a single platform. Gee, that sounds like what I used to say about the Kindle platform, which leads me to the second question... I'm lumping all dedicated e-readers (e.g., Kindle) as well as multi-purpose devices (e.g., iPad) into my thinking. Sure, eInk is great in the sun, but as I like to say, if it's a sunny day I'd rather be doing something other than sitting around reading! With that in mind, my answer to the 'which device wins' question is...Android."

The view from Down Under: why China’s knockoff devices will drive ebooks | TeleRead: Bring the E-Books Home

The view from Down Under: why China’s knockoff devices will drive ebooks | TeleRead: Bring the E-Books Home: "So is a flood of cheap devices of all creeds and colours good for ebooks? A resounding yes. Certainly in Australia, at this stage of ebooks adoption, I’d say that quantity trumps quality when it comes to both ebooks and ereaders. Those in the US and Europe (in patches) are still in the same boat, although their ebooks markets are more advanced, and I think are past their tipping point."

Pattern Recognition » Blog Archive » eBooks, filetype, and DRM

Pattern Recognition » Blog Archive » eBooks, filetype, and DRM: "There are two different things going on when someone tries to open an eBook file on an eReader. One is filetype…how the file itself is organized internally, how the information contained within is encoded. This is analogous to the difference between a Word file saved as a .doc file, a Word file saved as a .docx file, and an Powerpoint file (.ppt). All are different filetypes…the program involved in the creation, editing, and display of those files describes the information contained inside. Right now, there are two main filetypes being used to describe eBook files: the Amazon eBook standard, or .amz file, and the ePub file (.epub) that is used by just about every other eBook vendor."

Politics K-12 - Education Week

Politics K-12 - Education Week: "The results are in, and the list of Race to the Top winners in Round Two includes an eclectic mix of 10 states that had put together very different kinds of applications in their funding bids for the $3.4 billion in remaining federal funds. The winners in this second and final round announced by the U.S. Department of Education today: the District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Maryland, Massachusetts, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, and Rhode Island. They join first-round winners Delaware and Tennessee."

Textbooks slip as learning tools | tennessean.com | The Tennessean

Textbooks slip as learning tools | tennessean.com | The Tennessean: "But Gary Cowan, Metro's director of instruction for middle schools, said the culture of teaching is changing as educators learn to share ideas and open themselves to new techniques. 'At one time textbooks drove the curriculum. Students were very dependent on them and did most of their work from textbooks. That's no longer true,' he said. 'Now that we have state standards that is the curriculum, and the textbook becomes a resource.'"

Textbooks slip as learning tools | tennessean.com | The Tennessean

Textbooks slip as learning tools | tennessean.com | The Tennessean: "The industry is big business. This year Metro schools alone will spend $5.7 million buying and repairing books for students. Publishing companies are making efforts to offer more materials electronically, but some teachers and experts say they're slow to evolve into a new platform." Nashville.

Dance Review: Irons, Santos create a Latin dance party | The Portland Press Herald / Maine Sunday Telegram

Dance Review: Irons, Santos create a Latin dance party | The Portland Press Herald / Maine Sunday Telegram: "Just watching Irons was a lesson in classical jazz technique, especially in her slow-motion sequences. In bends, she seemed to find extra vertebrae, progressing from one to another in incredibly smooth transitions. Her shoulder rolls and isolations were similarly impressive and expressive. In addition to Irons and Santos, dancers included Chloe Bergman-Ray, Sasha Campbell, Emily Delamater, Erin Hamlin, Kim Hamlin and Karianna Merrill, performing in an array of multicolored costumes, designed by Kim Hamlin."

Audiobooks on the Kindle

Kathy Schrock's Kaffeeklatsch: Amazon Kindle 2 Thoughts: "I chose a title, Bill Bryson's 'In a Sunburned Country', to use for determining the answer to this question. Bryson's print book is 352 pages in length. Audible's format-2 of his book is 46mb in file size, format-3 is 86mb, and format 4 is 172mb. That seems to indicate that, on the Kindle's 2GB storage drive, you could have forty-five format-2 Audible recordings, twenty-four format-3 recordings, or twelve format-4 recordings. (And of course, various numbers of the combination of the formats.)"

Personal Technology: Digital books are changing our reading patterns | The Jakarta Post

Personal Technology: Digital books are changing our reading patterns | The Jakarta Post: "A few weeks ago, I wrote about the emergence of the digital book, and how, basically, we should get over our love affair with its physical ancestor"

Blog U.: Digital Tweed - Inside Higher Ed

Blog U.: Digital Tweed - Inside Higher Ed: "eBooks/eTexts will remain one of those wished for/ever-arriving technologies. Last fall, more than three-fourths (76.3 percent) of the CIOs and senior campus IT officers participating in the annual Campus Computing Survey agreed that “eBook content will be an important source for instructional resources in the next five years.” Two-thirds (66.0 percent) also agreed that “eBook readers (hardware) will be important platforms for instructional content in five years.”"

Doubts About Digital - Brainstorm - The Chronicle of Higher Education

Doubts About Digital - Brainstorm - The Chronicle of Higher Education: "Here’s an important story in the New York Times about the academic benefits of digital tools, with the headline “Computers at Home: Educational Hope vs. Teenage Reality.” And here is a story in Science Daily with a similar theme under the title “College Undergrads Study Ineffectively on Computers, Study Finds: Students Transfer Bad Study Habits from Paper to Screen.”"

iPad on Academic Probation

iPad on Academic Probation: "At the Illinois Institute of Technology, all incoming freshman will be provided an iPad pre-loaded with all the texts and software required for first year classes. 'We can ensure everyone has the same hardware an software, and it makes it easier to integrate into the curriculum,' Evan Venie the associate director of media relations at IIT told wired.com."

iPad on Academic Probation

iPad on Academic Probation: "Oklahoma State University announced earlier in the year that this fall students in the School of Media and Strategic Communications and the Spears School of Business would receive iPads as part of the required material for those disciplines. Students will use the devices as personal study tools, as well as to research ways they may be more effectively implemented in the workforce. 'This limited pilot will be focused on the fields of study where we believe we can best determine the higher education value of the iPad,' explained Bill Handy of the School of Strategic Communications."

iPad on Academic Probation

iPad on Academic Probation: "According to one high school administrator quoted in a recent Business Week article on the topic, to achieve an acceptable return on investment (ROI), half of the textbooks used in any school would have to be available in e-book format before the iPad or other such readers will make good economic sense for schools that already pinch pennies just to provide the basics to their students."

iPad on Academic Probation

iPad on Academic Probation: "Ryan Lawson, the director of technology at Brother Rice High School in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, purchased 700 iPads, one for every student at the all-boys Catholic school. While the boys were understandably excited by the new technology's place in the curriculum, Mr. Lawson fears that the lack of remote monitoring makes the iPad vulnerable to misuse by young people and thus more of a burden than a blessing in the quest for academic excellence."

Palo Alto Online : Stanford School of Medicine turns to iPads

Palo Alto Online : Stanford School of Medicine turns to iPads: "Incoming medical students at the University of California, Irvine are set to receive fully loaded iPads at a ceremony Friday for new students. But iPads aren't just being embraced by medical school staff. A pilot program at Oklahoma State University will provide students in certain communications and business courses with the devices, and all 550 incoming freshmen at the Illinois Institute of Technology will receive iPads loaded with introductory course material this fall."

How four models of e-readers stack up - dailypress.com

How four models of e-readers stack up - dailypress.com: "Many in the halls of higher learning are taking a wait-and-see approach to e-readers. As director of academic information services for the College of William and Mary, Gene Roche advises professors on how to integrate technology into their teaching and research. He said e-readers have great potential. But right now, it's just that, potential. 'Many of us on the faculty are kind of skeptical,' Roche said. 'Our students are reading long passages and keeping track of detailed arguments. That's not something the [e-book] format is really good for … But the iPad is likely to change that because the display is so nice.'"