Baraniuk says the books are expensive and create walls between the books and their readers. He states that digital books are shared and improved every 25 seconds, instead of updated every two years. I like Baraniuk’s perception. The average textbook is updated every two years in a global world that is changing by minutes, or even seconds.
Baraniuk talks about the “published on demand books” being much cheaper than a single author book. The middle man has been taken out of the equation. I’ve heard some colleges are allowing students to rent books rather than buy the books. Have they heard about “published on demand” books?
I enjoyed Baraniuk’s comments on Tech XML. He talks about “turning pages into lego blocks”. Learning is personalized for each student based on the context and each student’s language, learning style, and interest. The XML Technology Center offers assistance to develop all kinds of “XML based applications”. Here’s the website: http://www.oracle.com/technology/tech/xml/index.html
There has to be some kind of grant that we could get as teachers to incorporate kindles or other technological advances that would allow us to be free from the confines of our textbooks.
ReplyDeleteIt is just so crazy to think about the differences of textbook updates and web updates. How can we possibly keep up?? I agree with Mansfield, there has to be a way to get our hands on Kindles and other devices!
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