What is an e-book?
An e-Book is an electronic book, read with your computer, laptop, or on devices called e-book readers.
Where We Started
The concept of electronic books is not new, but dedicated devices on which they are read are relatively new. I remember when Adobe released Acrobat back in the late 80s when I was at Indiana University. I taught several classes promoting the benefits of the Portable Digital Format (PDF) and talked about how it would forever change the way we would think about documents. We’ve come a long way—sharing documents across operating systems is fairly trivial now.
Now we’re dealing with more than just documents; it’s books, novels, text books, etc. Google has over 1.5 million books available online. Amazon has millions of electronic books that can be purchased. Publishers are making their books available both in hard copy and electronically. Individuals are now publishing books electronically without professional publishers.
Advantages
I own both the Kindle 2 and the Kindle DX along with an iPhone. I find that both Kindles read very well and once I got used to how the devices navigate through pages and chapters, it was very convenient to read on the train, an airplane, or in my easy chair. No messy papers or books laying around, just a single device. Reading on the iPhone is a bit more difficult since the screen is much smaller; however, I like the navigation much better—I can zoom in on text and it’s backlit.
Disadvantages
- Highlighting and underscoring is clunky
- PDF support is limited unless taken through a conversion process
- Neither Kindle has the ability to zoom; neither the Kindle nor the Sony are backlit
- iPhone screen is small and reading text can be difficult
Non-Technical Disadvantages
- Publishers haven’t priced e-books cheap enough to make a $400 device purchase worth it for most—especially for textbooks, where students can’t sell the book back
- For educators, getting content onto student devices isn’t easy or in some cases is unavailable
- The devices are subject to theft
Where Is This Going?
I think we’re close, but not quite ready for education. A great device would be a cross between my Kindle and my iPhone—without the phone capabilities. With the Kindle, I like the size and the ability to store up to 1500 books. But the iPhone has superior navigation. If this device could be integrated with something similar to iTunes U, it would make it easy for instructors to introduce new content to students enrolled in their course.