TeleRead: News and views on e-books, libraries, publishing and related topics » textbooks

Self-Published Books Not a Solution for K-12? Don’t Be So Sure…

Joanna Cabot — Mon, 06 May 2013 18:37:12 +0000

Christopher Harris has a thought-provoking essay up at The Digital Shift in which he argues that self-published books are “not a solution” for K-12. He argues that publishers “serve a critical role in the information ecosystem” by vetting and recommending quality books to school librarians, who often work alone without the benefits of a large [...]

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Living Through the E-Textbook Revolution: One man’s story

Joanna Cabot — Wed, 10 Apr 2013 14:00:40 +0000

David Rabvinowitz has a great story up at TidBITS chronicling his experiences as a college student during this time of e-transition. Rabinowitz has a slightly more nuanced take on the whole situation because, in addition to regular classroom use, he was part of a pilot project at the University of Virginia to try out e-textbooks [...]

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Supreme Court rules importation of textbooks legal under First Sale doctrine

Chris Meadows — Tue, 19 Mar 2013 23:35:24 +0000

Remember the Supreme Court case about the Thai exchange student who bulk imported cheap overseas copies of textbooks and resold them in the U.S. (making over $1 million in sales) to finance his doctorate? The judges handed down a decision today. By a six to three majority, they found that the student’s importation and resale [...]

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For more free textbooks, look at iTunes U

Aggregated Content — Tue, 12 Mar 2013 01:48:07 +0000

By Dr. Frank Lowney This past weekend, Dr. Frank Lowney, an occasional TeleRead contributor, brought to our attention an online archive of free, Creative Commons licensed university textbooks known as the Flatworld Knowledge Book Archive. We heard from Dr. Lowney again yesterday; he told us that “another, larger source of free e-textbooks can actually be found [...]

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A legitimate archive of free textbooks

Dan Eldridge — Sat, 09 Mar 2013 21:19:31 +0000

I received an email earlier this week from Dr. Frank Lowney, an occasional TeleRead contributor, and the author of The Coming ePublishing Revolution in Higher Education. Dr. Lowney, who is professionally affiliated with Georgia College & State University, most definitely knows his stuff when it comes to college textbooks, and higher education in general. That’s important [...]

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What’s Happening to College Bookstores?

Aggregated Content — Thu, 28 Feb 2013 03:56:11 +0000

By Dr. Frank Lowney I recently traveled to Kansas City, Mo., to attend the annual convention put on by the National Association of College Stores (NACS), and to participate in a panel discussion on the impact of emerging technologies upon the textbook business. The CAMpus market EXpo, or CAMEX, is billed as the “largest annual tradeshow [...]

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App Review: Nota

Susan Lulgjuraj — Fri, 22 Feb 2013 16:00:13 +0000

With tablets becoming part of the classroom, new apps regularly arrive on the market to aid educators. One of the newest releases for Android devices is Nota, an app that allows users to add videos, links and images to the pages of textbooks. Nota could aid a wide range of people, providing a comprehensive way [...]

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Why Online Textbooks Still Don’t Work

Joanna Cabot — Tue, 29 Jan 2013 15:30:09 +0000

Techdirt has a great write-up about a school district that is spending over $2 million to switch back to paper textbooks after investing heavily in an on-line model. The problem? Surprisingly, it’s not one of those, ‘There isn’t enough content available yet!’ situations. There is content. But the hardware requirements to run it, in this age [...]

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McGraw-Hill: We don’t need no education publishers

Aggregated Content — Fri, 30 Nov 2012 17:21:30 +0000

By Andy Richardson, CEO of Influential Software It’s a case of another week, another publishing takeover. This week, McGraw-Hill announced that it was offloading its education publishing business, though this time not to another publisher. The private equity arm of investment firm Apollo Global Management will take control of the textbook publisher, which has undershot its revenue targets in seven [...]

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Where to Look for Textbook Alternatives

Joanna Cabot — Thu, 29 Nov 2012 19:46:37 +0000

I’ve seen a lot of articles lately about the high cost of textbooks. This one was about site licenses and how they penalize smaller schools. This one is about the use of e-readers in developing countries. This one is an infographic that looks at the issue from a variety of angles. It strikes me as a somewhat [...]

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The Coming E-Publishing Revolution in Higher Education

Aggregated Content — Sat, 24 Nov 2012 19:30:17 +0000

By Dr. Frank Lowney Editor’s note: Those of you who read TeleRead regularly are probably well aware of the fact that Dr. Frank Lowney has been a staple in our comments section for quite some time now. Because of those comments, it was quite clear to me, long before I actually knew anything about Dr. Lowney or his work, that he [...]

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Ebook Publisher Inkling Launches Its Own Online Store

Aggregated Content — Sat, 03 Nov 2012 21:45:43 +0000

Not wanting to be outdone by South Korea and others, which mandated the use of digital textbooks by 2015, earlier this year the FCC and the Department of Education released the Digital Textbook Playbook to help accelerate digital textbook adoption among American schools. According to a recent report from the State Educational Technology Directors Association (SETDA), it’s not a matter of [...]

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California universities to produce 50 open-source textbooks

a TeleRead Contributor — Sat, 29 Sep 2012 16:30:18 +0000

California Governor Jerry Brown gave his pen a workout this past Thursday, September 27. In addition to signing legislation prohibiting social network snooping by employers and colleges, he also signed off on a proposal for the state to fund 50 open source digital textbooks. He signed two bills, one to create the textbooks and the other to [...]

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Report says 57.8% of U.S. students prefer digital textbooks

Dan Eldridge — Tue, 18 Sep 2012 16:19:19 +0000

Back in mid-June, we posted a press release that introduced you to BookBoon.com, a London-based online publisher that offers free open-access textbooks for students. We heard from BookBoon again this morning; apparently the company recently asked roughly 10,000 students about their preferences between digital textbooks and printed textbooks. According to BookBoon, 2,164 respondents were students based [...]

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Turning personal electronics into classroom participation devices

Chris Meadows — Fri, 20 Jul 2012 01:15:00 +0000

In classrooms, e-books are sort of top-down, one-way communication tools. You buy the book, you read what it says. But what if the same device you use for e-books could also be used to respond to the professor in your classroom? Ki Mae Heussner has an interesting piece at GigaOm on Top Hat Monocle, a [...]

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