Techization

A huge hurdle has been jumped for e-textbooks and open source instructional resources.  California held an open ‘e-textbook compeition’ for any company to submit new instructional resources for the state.  The submissions were analyzed against California’s standards for their public education system and rated for their content.

A non-profit organization named CK-12 won the competition which is a recent upstart company with an incredibly small staff.  CK-12 wen’t up against major publishers looking to land a major contract with the state of California.  Of the 16 free digital textbooks for high school math and science reviewed, ten meet at least 90 percent of California’s standards. Four meet 100 percent of standards.’ Three of those recognized as 100% aligned to California standards were from CK-12 and one from H. Jerome Keisler.

What makes this hurdle so huge is that CK-12 is not a major publisher and focuses on open source information and sources.  Their texts are combined information for multiple sources and not a short list of authors.  Similar to ‘Wikipedia’ in a textbook format.  This showcases the power of open source information and California’s commitment to e-readers to deliver this content.

E-Textbooks Offer

• Fast content turn-around.  No need for new print editions which when shipped can contain content that is up to 2 years old. Content can be edited literally overnight and kept up-to-date.
• Content can be made more interactive and media rich via hyperlinks, high-resolution color graphics and other engaging content

This is a huge win for e-textbooks and open source content for instructional material.  It is my hope that universities will begin initialising similar programs for their students with the University of Wisconsin-Stout being a prime candidate test this new technology.

You see an old high school friend while shopping for your next pair of underwear.  You stop briefly to catch-up on ‘old times’ only to find it’s almost like you never were apart.  Sherri had a baby and John just had a killer bachelor party, yadda yadda yadda.  This phenomenon is known as ‘ambient awareness’.  Platforms like Facebook and Twitter have made following your friends, families and co-workers daily lives effortless.

Many non-early adopters ask, why do I care that Matt ate toast this morning or thinks that AT&T is an epic failure as a wireless provider?  With occasional browsing the updates seem really boring, perhaps even absurd to even waste time reading.  Keep following those status updates and tweets, soon a digital picture begins to emerge in your head.  You begin to tune into the flow of your friends daily lives and know their day-to-day triumphs and tribulations.  This is known as digital intimacy.

Digital intimacy is increasing on a monthly basis with the evolution of ‘real-time’ platforms.  Thousands of users squawked when Facebook updated to their freshly designed home page with information popping up in their users feeds faster than ever before.  After a few months most adjusted to the new speed of information and the ground swell subsided.

So with this new ambient awareness of your network, you will find yourself feeling strangely close to your friends even though you rarely see them.  When you do stumble across them you pick up your conversation where it left off online.  This is not an unproven theory, I catch myself doing it all the time.  The more I scan my networks the closer I feel digitally to my friends.  But sometimes too much digital digestion can be a bit stressful.

This stress has led to many digital mavens to start adopting convergence tools like FriendFeed or simply skimming on the platforms they currently use when they have ample time.

Users who create more content are much more likely to have more digital visibility and are also more likely to have digital awareness of their network.  Content creates conversation and will foster more time spent digesting and engaging in the conversation.  This closeness drawn from conversation and interaction will foster more digital awareness of their network, especially those who engage with that users content.

That begs the question, are you in the conversation?

On the heels of the Kindle 2, Amazon announced pre-order sales on another version of their popular e-reader.  This new piece of hardware will be known as the Kindle DX.

The Kindle DX display screen is 2.5 times larger than the Kindle 2, 9.7″ diagonally to be exact.  The reason for the larger screen is to accommodate full pages of text. (10.5″ x 7″)  The Kindle DX boasts a screen resolution of 1,200 x 824 pixels which rivals some smaller laptop displays

As a current college student, I know the high costs and trouble academic textbooks can bring.  Friends of mine often have as many as eight different academic texts.  I just picked up some of my roommates textbooks here in our room, many are 800-1200 pages long and weigh anywhere from 4.2 lbs to 6.5 lbs.  Now stick three or four large textbooks plus a laptop and you have some serious weight on your back!   I’m sure many health care professionals would love to see an e-reader replace textbooks, especially if they filter to younger school children.

What is really interesting and promising for Amazon is the heightened interest from universities across the country.  Amazon already has a test pilot program setup at Arizona State, Case Western Reserve, Princeton, the University of Virginia and Pace university.  Students and faculty will be issued a new Kindle DX next fall with no increase in tuition or other fees.

The positive impact for academic institutions is clear.  Obvious benefits for the student, less costs in production and transporting of texts and a much greener impact on our environment

“Our interest in the pilot is to provide Amazon and other vendors with information on what our students and faculty need in such devices to make them successful,” said Serge Goldstein, associate CIO and director of academic services at Princeton. “The ability to deliver textbooks in a format that doesn’t require paper is probably inevitable.”

These universities are early adopters who will get to see first hand how e-readers could work in an academic environment.  I feel the Kindle DX could work quite well.  However, it is not perfect.

E-readers may not fit well with science courses like biology or chemistry.  Science texts are often filled with vivid graphics that are crucial supplements to the text.  A black and white e-reader like the Kindle DX would not do well in that situation.  We are just on the tip of the iceberg.  These e-readers will continue to get smaller, lighter and even more impressive with their capabilities.  High resolutions color display readers are able to be produced, but the cost to produce them is unrealistic to roll out in large quantities.  Costs will come down and improvements will be suggested as these pilot programs are completed around the country.

It is my belief e-readers like the Kindle DX will become standard on college campuses nationwide in the future.  It will take some time for profitable models to be developed and buy-in from universities and students alike.  However, this shift is inevitable in my strong opinion.