MobileRead Forums - View Single Post

wizwor · 06-26-2012, 02:29 AM

Are you interested in buying books or who is publishing them? I'm not aware of sites specializing in the sale of academic texts, but there are LOTS of school books on Amazon and Barnes and Noble (B&N has the bookstore concession at my kid's college). Interesting read (with references) on the whole academic e-publishing movement here.

My oldest is in college and has been compelled to 'rent' e-texts on occasion. The cost of the e-text rental was close to extortion. Clearly, the objective was to maximize revenue by preventing re-sale/sharing of the pristine used e-text among those least impressed with copyright laws. There is so much money to be made on this model that I fear it is the unavoidable future -- instead of allowing kids/parents to buy and sell required texts, simply add an e-text rental to the endless list of fees that swell the cost of an education.

The ck-12 project is creating a library of free texts that are being, for the most part, ignored by Big Academia. My local school system, for instance, is 'looking into' e-education. They have pretty much settled on the i-pad and are looking for a compatible curriculum but are not looking at ck-12. I challenged this as backwards (pick the curriculum, then select among e-readers that support it), but the administration loves their free i-pads and thinks the kids will too. In my routine visits to the middle and high schools, I have only ever seen two administrators using an i-pad and both were taking notes at a meeting. Despite having these toys for several years, NOT A SINGLE PERSON HAS SAMPLED A SINGLE ACADEMIC PROGRAM ON AN IPAD.

I happen to have CK-12's Algebra I and Algebra II on my Fire and Kindle. Generally, when I am at the school, one of these is in a pocket. I shared with a couple of people 'engaged' in the curriculum selection process. They were unimpressed, "Those are just books." Apparently, we've moved on from texts at our underperforming schools.

Anyway, I digress...a lot. Check with B&N or Amazon for texts. Visit CK-12 or MIT's OpenCourseware site or Videolectures.net for some interesting, free content. Google academic epublishing in News to see what is going on.

Have fun!

06-26-2012, 02:29 AM	#9
wizwor Wizard Posts: 1,068 Karma: 23867385 Join Date: Nov 2011 Device: kindle, fire	Are you interested in buying books or who is publishing them? I'm not aware of sites specializing in the sale of academic texts, but there are LOTS of school books on Amazon and Barnes and Noble (B&N has the bookstore concession at my kid's college). Interesting read (with references) on the whole academic e-publishing movement here. My oldest is in college and has been compelled to 'rent' e-texts on occasion. The cost of the e-text rental was close to extortion. Clearly, the objective was to maximize revenue by preventing re-sale/sharing of the pristine used e-text among those least impressed with copyright laws. There is so much money to be made on this model that I fear it is the unavoidable future -- instead of allowing kids/parents to buy and sell required texts, simply add an e-text rental to the endless list of fees that swell the cost of an education. The ck-12 project is creating a library of free texts that are being, for the most part, ignored by Big Academia. My local school system, for instance, is 'looking into' e-education. They have pretty much settled on the i-pad and are looking for a compatible curriculum but are not looking at ck-12. I challenged this as backwards (pick the curriculum, then select among e-readers that support it), but the administration loves their *free* i-pads and thinks the kids will too. In my routine visits to the middle and high schools, I have only ever seen two administrators using an i-pad and both were taking notes at a meeting. Despite having these toys for several years, NOT A SINGLE PERSON HAS SAMPLED A SINGLE ACADEMIC PROGRAM ON AN IPAD. I happen to have CK-12's Algebra I and Algebra II on my Fire and Kindle. Generally, when I am at the school, one of these is in a pocket. I shared with a couple of people 'engaged' in the curriculum selection process. They were unimpressed, "Those are just books." Apparently, we've moved on from texts at our underperforming schools. Anyway, I digress...a lot. Check with B&N or Amazon for texts. Visit CK-12 or MIT's OpenCourseware site or Videolectures.net for some interesting, free content. Google academic epublishing in News to see what is going on. Have fun! Last edited by wizwor; 06-26-2012 at 02:32 AM.