{"id":239,"date":"2009-09-28T00:05:26","date_gmt":"2009-09-28T04:05:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nuweb1.neu.edu\/ats\/wordpress\/?p=11"},"modified":"2014-01-02T10:22:32","modified_gmt":"2014-01-02T15:22:32","slug":"electronic-books","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.markallenstaples.com\/2009\/09\/28\/electronic-books\/","title":{"rendered":"Electronic Books"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2>What is an e-book?<\/h2>\n<address>An e-Book is an electronic book, read with your computer, laptop, or on devices called e-book readers.<\/address>\n<h2>Where We Started<\/h2>\n<p>The concept of electronic books is not new, but dedicated devices on which they are read are relatively new.\u00a0 I remember when Adobe released Acrobat back in the late 80&#8217;s when I was at Indiana University.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 Of course, this was back in the days when finding a way to publish documents that would look the same no matter what operating system was difficult.\u00a0 (Don&#8217;t forget this was back in the DOS\/Windows 3.1 and early Macintosh). We&#8217;ve come a long way &#8211; sharing documents across operating systems is fairly trivial.<\/p>\n<p>Now we&#8217;re dealing with more than just documents, it&#8217;s books, novels, text books, etc.\u00a0 Google has over 1.5 million books available online.\u00a0 Amazon has millions of electronic books that can be purchased.\u00a0 Publishers are making their books available both in hard copy and electronically.\u00a0 Individuals are now publishing books electronically without professional publishers.<\/p>\n<p>So what about the devices that we now call e-books?\u00a0 There&#8217;s the Kindle, the Sony Reader, NetBooks, and some would figure the iPhone in this space.\u00a0 All can read various formats.\u00a0 Getting the content into these devices is different, however. The Kindle uses both USB and the Sprint network.\u00a0 The Sony Reader utilizes USB and standard wireless.\u00a0 The iPhone utilizes iTunes and\/or an app.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Amazon has positioned the Kindle DX for education.<\/li>\n<li>Apple has supported education for some time through iTunes U.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Advantages<\/h2>\n<p>I own both the Kindle 2 and the Kindle DX along with an iPhone.\u00a0 I have several books and subscribe to newspapers and magazines on my Kindle.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 No messy papers or books laying around, just a single device.<\/p>\n<p>The Sony Reader and the Kindle DX can both read PDF documents without a conversion.\u00a0 The Kindle 2 must go through a conversion process for $.10 per document through Amazon.\u00a0 (The free converters don&#8217;t work very well).<\/p>\n<p>Reading on the iPhone is a bit more difficult since the screen is much smaller.\u00a0 However, I like the navigation much better.\u00a0 I can zoom in on text and it&#8217;s backlit.<\/p>\n<p>Pleasure reading is great on all of these devices.<\/p>\n<h5>Getting New Books, Magazines, and Newspapers<\/h5>\n<ul>\n<li>The Kindle uses the Sprint network, receiving subscriptions or access the Amazon store is nearly always available.\u00a0 When I first received my Kindle 2, I was accustomed to turning it on in my apartment.\u00a0 I didn&#8217;t think much about it, but one day it wasn&#8217;t until I got on the the train and turned it on that I realized how flexible this device was.\u00a0 I got my subscription to the Boston Globe, the NY Times, and the US Today within just a few seconds.<\/li>\n<li>The Sony Reader, I use my computer get content.<\/li>\n<li>The iPhone uses either an iPhone app or an iTunes update.\u00a0 The iPhone app takes care of getting the content through the AT&amp;T network.<\/li>\n<li>The Kindle supports voice recognition on many books.\u00a0 However, some publishers have this feature blocked on their book because they already have the book published as an audio book.<\/li>\n<li>The Kindle supports saving clippings into a separate file.<\/li>\n<li>All can play MP3 audio books\/music.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Disadvantages<\/h2>\n<p>While I really enjoy my Kindles, there are some definite disadvantages &#8211; especially in the academe.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Highlighting and underscoring is clunky.<\/li>\n<li>PDF support is limited.\u00a0 Unless the PDF is taken through the conversion process into the Kindle proprietary format, tables of contents, indices, and other linkages do not work.<\/li>\n<li>The less expensive books are flat with no navigation links.<\/li>\n<li>Neither Kindle has the ability to zoom.<\/li>\n<li>Neither the Kindle or the Sony are backlit<\/li>\n<li>iPhone screen is small and reading text can be difficult because you have to move the screen around to read the text.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Non-Technical Disadvantages<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Publishers haven&#8217;t priced e-books cheap enough to make a $400 purchase of the device worth it for most.\n<ul>\n<li>Especially in the text book purchase.\u00a0 e-Books are only marginally less expensive than hard copy.\u00a0 Students can&#8217;t sell the book back, like they can with hard copy.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>For educators, getting content onto student devices isn&#8217;t easy or in some cases it&#8217;s unavailable.<\/li>\n<li>The devices are subject to theft, making it difficult to take it to the beach or the park without making sure that it never leaves your possession.\u00a0 If an individual book is stolen, we&#8217;re out the cost of the book.\u00a0 If someone steals our Kindle, we&#8217;re out around $400.<\/li>\n<li>The device is treated like a laptop by the airlines and TSA.\u00a0 In one airport, I needed to remove it from my bag like I did my laptop.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Where Is This Going?<\/h2>\n<p>I think we&#8217;re close, but not quite ready for education.<\/p>\n<p>A great device would be a cross between my Kindle and my iPhone &#8211; without the phone capabilities.\u00a0 With the Kindle, I like the size and the ability to have up to 1500 books stored on it.\u00a0 But, the iPhone has superior  navigation.<\/p>\n<p>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.\u00a0 When the student turns on their device, the new content would automatically be downloaded.<\/p>\n<h2>Links<a href=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2009\/06\/01\/technology\/internet\/01google.html\" target=\"_blank\"><\/a><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2009\/06\/01\/technology\/internet\/01google.html\" target=\"_blank\">Preparing to Sell E-Books, Google Takes on Amazon<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.wired.com\/gadgetlab\/2009\/02\/showdown-kindle\/\" target=\"_blank\">Showdown: Kindle 2 vs. Sony Reader<\/a><\/li>\n<li>\n<div><a href=\"http:\/\/chronicle.com\/blogPost\/Brigham-Young-U-Suspends\/7227\/\" target=\"_blank\">Brigham Young U. Suspends Kindle-Lending Program<\/a><\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.teleread.org\/2009\/05\/08\/chronicle-of-education-discusses-kindle\/\" target=\"_blank\">Teleread: Bring the e-books Home (Chronicle of\u00a0 Education Discusses Kindle)<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/chronicle.com\/article\/Kindling-Changes-for-the\/48342\/\" target=\"_blank\">Kindling Changes for the Reader and the Writer<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/chronicle.com\/article\/How-a-Student-Friendly-Kind\/47237\/\" target=\"_blank\">How a Student-Friendly Kindle Could Change the Textbook Market<\/a><\/li>\n<li>\n<div><a href=\"http:\/\/chronicle.com\/blogPost\/Nicholson-Baker-on-the-Kindle\/7528\/\" target=\"_blank\">Nicholson Baker on the Kindle<\/a> &#8211; A Faculty Blog<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/chronicle.com\/blogPost\/Amazons-New-Kindle-Is-Unve\/4667\/\" target=\"_blank\">Amazon&#8217;s New Kindle Is Unveiled in Hopes of Capturing the Textbook Market<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.usnews.com\/articles\/education\/k-12\/2009\/08\/25\/a-kindle-for-every-student.htm\" target=\"_blank\">A Kindle for Every Student<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/chronicle.com\/blogPost\/College-Bookstores-Hope-to\/8196\/?sid=wc&amp;utm_source=wc&amp;utm_medium=en\" target=\"_blank\">College Bookstores Hope to Turn Their Web Sites Into E-Book Portals<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/wikis.pepperdine.edu\/display\/GSBME\/e-Books+and+Online+Textbooks\" target=\"_blank\">Pepperdine University &#8211; e-Books and Online Textbooks<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>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.\u00a0 I remember when Adobe released Acrobat back in the late 80&#8217;s when&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,5,7],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.markallenstaples.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/239"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.markallenstaples.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.markallenstaples.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.markallenstaples.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.markallenstaples.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=239"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.markallenstaples.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/239\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.markallenstaples.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=239"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.markallenstaples.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=239"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.markallenstaples.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=239"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}