Earlier this year MobileReader TeamCA pointed out
an article in the Chronicle of Higher Education
about Northwest Missouri State University's experiments with e-textbooks.
Well that University is in that publication again
, apparently Amazon's recent comments
about their own planned experiments with e-textbooks has prompted the University to share some of their insights for any university considering electronic textbooks.
In a nutshell:
- "Judge e-books by their covers. No, not their jacket art, but the device and software used to display them."
- "Learning curves ahead." Different study skills are needed to study with digital books.
- "Professors are eager students." The professors are often as interested in new tools as the students are. Sometimes more so.
- "Long live batteries." Long battery life is absolutely essential to the usability of devices for e-textbooks.
- "Subjects are not equally e-friendly." Some subjects seem to lend themselves better to digitization than others.
- "Environmental impact matters." That is to say many are perceiving e-books' lower impact on trees to be a very valuable factor.
Have a look at the full article
for the full details of their conclusions.
The fact that this was printed in the Chronicle of Higher Education
means that it's pretty well targeted for educators to see and have their thinking on the matter of e-textbooks influenced. How do you think that Northwest Missouri State University's perspective is likely to impact the move toward e-textbooks? Whatever that move may be, of course.