Data mining is creeping into every aspect of student life—classrooms, advising, socializing. Now it’s hitting textbooks, too.
CourseSmart, which sells digital versions of textbooks by big publishers, announced on Wednesday a new tool to help professors and others measure students’ engagement with electronic course materials.
Now E-Textbooks Can Report Back on Students Reading Habits – Wired Campus – The Chronicle of Higher Education
9 November 2012
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Posted by Teb Locke
Pressing Play’s The Thing: Publisher Uses Apple’s iBooks Author Tool To Build iPad Editions Of Shakespeare | TechCrunch
4 October 2012Sourcebooks, a U.S. book publisher, has used Apple’s iBooks Author tool to launch iPad editions of three Shakespeare plays on Apple’s iBooks 2 store. The iBooks include extra content focused on the history of each play’s performance — including photos, videos and audio clips of readings from various actors, along with study-friendly staples such as glossary resources, note-taking and highlighting features.
Leave a Comment » | Digital Humanities, eBooks, Media Distribution, Mobile/Mobile Devices, Software | Permalink
Posted by Teb Locke
New e-book export feature enabled on Wikipedia — Wikimedia blog
19 September 2012We’re happy to announce that a new EPUB export feature has been enabled on English Wikipedia. You can use it to collate your personal collection of Wikipedia articles and generate free ebooks. These can be read on a broad range of devices, like mobile phones, tablets and e-ink based e-book readers.
via New e-book export feature enabled on Wikipedia — Wikimedia blog.
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Posted by Teb Locke
The Road to E-Books: an Analysis
10 September 2012Scholars and librarians offer their perspective on the roadbumps along the way toward easier digital access to academic books and journals. The article does not present new information, but offers a summary of the issues for the curious.
[Source: University Affairs]
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Posted by Oscar Retterer
Students Prefer Print to ‘Clumsy’ E-Textbooks
23 August 2012Students surveyed after a pilot project at five universities praise the portability and cost of electronic texts but complain that they are difficult to navigate.
[Source: Chronicle of Higher Education]
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Posted by Oscar Retterer
Discovery Invests in Digital Textbooks in Hopes of Growth – NYTimes.com
20 August 2012LOS ANGELES — As another academic year starts, about 500,000 children across the country will find themselves learning subjects like middle school history or high school biology from a new line of digital textbooks. These manuals, branded Techbooks, come with all the Internet frills: video, virtual labs, downloadable content.
But the Techbook may be most notable for what it does not have — backing from a traditional educational publisher. Instead it has the support of Discovery, the cable TV company…
via Discovery Invests in Digital Textbooks in Hopes of Growth – NYTimes.com.
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Posted by Teb Locke
Start-Up Hopes to Create Free Digital Versions of Published Books
19 June 2012If African scholar Ruth Finnegan’s fund-raising campaign via a new site called Unglue.it is successful, the anthropologist’s classic and a definitive study on oral literature in Africa would be back in circulation.
UPDATE: 255 Ungluers have pledged $7,562 toward a $7,500 goal.
[Source: Chronicle of Higher Education]
Leave a Comment » | Crowd Sourcing/Crowdfunding, eBooks, Open Access | Permalink
Posted by Oscar Retterer
Are universities reluctant to use iTunes U?
7 June 2012Many of us remember Steve Jobs and his wish to ‘revolutionize education’, but how many universities and colleges are taking advantage of the learning-based tools Apple has provided?
Created in 2007, iTunes U is advertised by Apple as a service that can be used to design and distribute courses that go beyond traditional print media. Designed to appeal to educators, the platform can be used to create interactive learning material for students at university, college or K-12 level.
According to Apple, there have been over 700 million downloads to date of iTunes U. However, are there many colleges and universities who have made the transition from their own platforms to the modern service on offer?
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Posted by Charles Wachira
Open Textbook Catalog @ University of Minnesota
5 June 2012In an effort to reduce costs for students, the College of Education and Human Development has created this catalog of open textbooks to be reviewed by faculty members.
Leave a Comment » | Copyright, Disruptive Technologies, eBooks, General, Media Distribution, Online resources, Open Access, Scholarly Publishing | Permalink
Posted by Teb Locke
The Mobile Campus: Ohio State announces plan to transform teaching, learning, and research
24 May 2012The Ohio State University has announced a plan to build an innovative, forward-looking learning environment that will enhance teaching and student learning. The plan, called Digital First, will expand classroom technology, foster a 21st century mobile learning environment with technology including iPads, and enhance digital learning content through tools such as iTunes U and iBooks Author.
[Source: OSU News Room]
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Posted by Oscar Retterer
Charles Wachira
harryhaddon
Oscar Retterer
Teb Locke
