EBooks in the College Classroom

I recently reviewed the 2011 Horizon Report that was published by The NEW MEDIA CONSORTIUM and the EDUCASE Learning Initiative.   The Horizon report introduces six technologies that will have a significant impact on learning and education in the next five years.  This year technologies highlighted include:

• Electronic Books
• Mobiles
• Argument Reality
• Game Based Learning
• Gesture-Based Computing
• Learning Analytics

Amazon Kindle App for Mac OS

For the purpose of this posting, I hope to spend time presenting ideas related to Electronic Books (EBooks) and my own experiences in the classroom.  Within my own EB supply closet are books from the Amazon Kindle Store, Apple iBooks Store, as the new Google Books Store.  Each store has its own unique strengths and decided weaknesses.

Also, my experiences with actual hardware include reading text via second and third generation Amazon Kindles, on smart phones such as the iPhone and Android as well the traditional computer and the iPad.   Again, each hardware experience has it’s own test case, and inherit pros and cons.

Within the classroom setting the least useful may be iBooks from Apple.   The catalog selection from iBooks pale in comparison to the other stores from Amazon and even Google.  The iBooks Store does at times have a better selection of specialty items (such as texts on Apple programming and software), but in general, the selection is much smaller.    Another negative is iBooks can only be read on iOS devices such as the iPad or iPod Touch or iPad.   Reading online or via your laptop is not possible at this time.  Prices for the iBooks Store is comparable to other online resources and special editions do exist with enhanced text and video for many books.  While a great start and addition to the online reading environment, Apple’s entry to EBooks has limited impact in my classroom.

A even newer option is the Google Bookstore, this new store is showing great possibilities for the classroom.   Google not only has one of the worlds largest collections of scanned books from libraries across the world, their databases include many of the same public domain books included in the iBooks and Amazon Stores.  Numbers of titles appear to be greater via Google while compared to the offerings from Apple.   Accessibility of Google Books are certainly greater with reading apps being available for iOS, Android, and for reading via web on a laptop or desktop machine simply by logging in your Google Account.  Most Google books are even readable on competing platforms (in ePub format) such as the Sony Reader or Barnes and Noble Nook.

The largest and most well known EBook platform is the Amazon Kindle Store.  Kindle is the format I use most personally and in the classroom setting for many, many reasons.   First, no one can come close to the options and catalog that of titles that Amazon provides to customers.   Second, the Kindle can be accessed almost universally, Amazon calls this the “Kindle everywhere”.   There are reader apps for iOS, Android, Blackberry, and almost every other mobile device.   Amazon also has special software for Windows and Mac OS X to read text on the computer.   Of course, as with the iBooks Apps, your reading placement and progress are synced across applications that makes sure whenever and wherever you read your book, your place is kept in the cloud. 

Photo Credit: PiAir (Old Skool) via Flikr Creative Commons

While Amazon is clearly my favorite option due to ease of use, there are other features that the Kindle bring to the table that is quite valuable in the educational setting.  First, the notes tool of the Kindle editions is a great way to highlight important passages and and include personal reflections.   These notes and reflections can now be made public for any student to observe and read (with given permissions) online.  This means that as the instructor reviews the material within the Kindle environment, passages that have been highlighted and the notes of the instructor about specific passengers can automatically be shared with students online.   I think this concept of immediate sharing of text might be the most powerful and under appreciated aspect of the use of EBooks in the educational setting.  

A reported negative in the Horizon Report and other publications related to the use of EBook is the use of location numbers instead of page numbers.   Until recently within the Kindle environment, page numbers did not exist, only artificially created location numbers that were created by Amazon.   I have experienced this pain personally in the classroom when I was using a EBook version, yet my students were relying on page numbers I did not have.  The opposite is common as well, I only have the traditional paper copy of a text when the student has a EBook.   

Thankfully, as of last week Amazon is slowly rolling out a feature that provides page numbers for their EBooks. These page numbers will correspond to the page numbers listed on traditional printed texts.   If this system works as advertised, one of the biggest concerns of using EBooks in the classroom will evaporate.  

While this post basically ignores other competing readers from Borders, the Barnes and Noble Nook or Sony Reader, the foundational concept remains the same.  We as educators must pick the right tool, that will be accessible to the most people and presents the best information possible to students.    I have seen a dramatic number of students using EBooks in the classroom during the past year, thus as the Horizon Report indicates, we are beginning to see a shift from how course material is delivered away from traditional paper to electronic ink.