eBook Updates, pricing and trends

Based on an annual study from Follett and School Library Journal, we can see that the percent of school libraries offering eBooks has plateaued, although the size of the collections continues to grow:

Perhaps this is due to the disparity in pricing and availability, which while better than a few years ago, is still an issue for libraries.  Based on work pioneered at Douglas County Public Library, we looked at comparable prices for this year’s Abe Lincoln award nominees:

The above chart basically shows that a librarian could buy roughly 20 (21) hardcovers OR 40 paperbacks OR 18 ebooks for the same money ($320 to $325). That amount is roughly double the cost that an individual would spend on Amazon ($172) to buy the same eBooks or, again, roughly double the cost of buying one paperback copy ($161) of each title.  Prices are as of June 2016.  Perhaps we will see some movement in the future as more consolidations occur.  This past spring, Follett purchased Baker & Taylor and last year, OverDrive announced it was being acquired.

Do you have an interesting way to promote eBooks?  Let us know.  Interested in etextbooks use of digital content in schools? Check out this joint report from ASCD and OverDrive, published in April 2016.

Three Types of Reading ...

Elizabeth Weil (New York Times) has an interesting article in this week’s Education magazine section. In it, she quotes Evan Schnittman, a managing director at Bloomsbury Publishing, who breaks down reading into three kinds as follows

• extractive reading (say, looking up words in the dictionary);
• immersive reading (sinking into “Moby-Dick”) and
• pedagogic reading (studying a physics curriculum).

Clearly, we teach the first when we instruct about searching and using databases, table of contents, the index, etc. In her article, Weil writes that the second "works beautifully on e-ink readers" while noting that e-reading expert Schnittman says a digital device providing a the solution for the third type of reading might be in tablets like the iPad. View the entire September 19 2010 Education issue for more articles with titles like

• Achieving Techno-Literacy;
• Does the Digital Classroom Enfeeble the Mind?;
• Online Curiosity Killer; and
• Anytime, Anywhere which is about online learning and references the soon-to-be-released National Education Technology Plan

There is also an Interactive on the History of Technology in the Classroom. Makes one wonder: have we gone from one handheld device (slate/horn book) to another (Kindle/iPad/netbook)? Join the discussion at The New York Times.

Bringing Text Books to Life. . .

the iPad a game changer in electronic text books. Find out why at NPR.

Web-Based Digital Textbooks

I attended a webinar today presented by Bobby Hobgood, Director of Research and Development in Online Curriculum and Instruction for Learn NC, a program of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Education. Most of the discussion focused on the use of web-based texts for differentiation with 21st century learners.

Take a few minutes and check out the site, in particular the two textbooks they shared with us: North Carolina History (contains primary sources gathered through a joint effort of 75 partners) and Critical Languages (some Mandarin is available with Japanese and Arabic coming). I will be posting other links this Fall about digital texts, but did not want to wait to share today's learning.

There is a North Carolina focus, but educators from Indiana and Pennsylvania also attended. I am impressed at the online materials which North Carolina is making available -- if anyone knows of a similar effort in Illinois (or elsewhere), please note it in the comments section.

Lions, Tigers, AND Bears, oh my!

Actually, it's Blackboard AND Follett, AND Barnes and Noble AND McGraw-Hill. Oh my, indeed! Those organizations announced this week (see press releases on 7/14) that they are working to integrate digital content and streamline access of digital textbooks directly through Blackboard's learning management system. While this initiative is certainly focused on colleges and universities, the combined use in high schools cannot be far away.

Supposedly, educators will more easily be able to evaluate and assign digital texts and students could be able to take notes and highlight electronically using Follett's CafeScribe or Barnes and Noble's forthcoming NOOKstudy. Important developments to watch, especially given our current relationships. Here's a more complete description from Inside Higher Ed.

NOOKstudy Announced

Barnes and Noble announced today the release of NOOKstudy - an application that is Free and works on both PCs and Macs. For full details, see the press release which says in part, "NOOKstudy lets students view multiple books and sources at once and offers access to complementary content (e.g. toolsets, reference materials, etc.), as well as the unprecedented ability to highlight and take notes that are searchable and customizable."

A reviewer in ZDNet concluded, "if NOOKstudy succeeds in college, hopefully we will eventually see it roll out in high schools too." What do you think? Are you interested in giving it a try? I would really like the opportunity to play with it and see how it works with textbooks and other reading materials.

e-Books and the future

I have been doing a lot of thinking about this topic and came across a study on digital textbooks in the higher education market. The main author, Rob Reynolds, was interviewed about How Our Notions of Textbooks May Change (5:58) and Student Buying Behaviors (7:14).

For more details from the main study, go here.

Digital Textbooks are Coming to School

California is the first state to offer high school students free, open-source digital textbooks for high school math and science. Will we see other states follow California’s lead in digital textbooks? As California goes, so goes the nation. Does that mean we'll all be bankrupt eventually?

As usual, the devil is in the details. Read more about the California open-source digital textbook initiative.

E-texts and Student Use

Today’s Wall Street Journal includes an article discussing e-books: “Book Smarts? E-Texts Receive Mixed Reviews from Students”. It raises some question about the technology -- such as ability to highlight and post notes -- and about the cost needing to be lower relative to traditional print textbooks. However, many schools (including California K-12 and several colleges) and publishers are continuing to experiment with this technology. We will hear more about this option in the future.