School text books

[witeowl]

Originally Posted by Jessica Lares

Why the big deal about textbook revisions? It's not like people will use the book for more than a year anyway. The next people who take the class can buy the NEW version when they take the class.

Some of us took the conversation to include K-12, not just postsecondary.

[phenomshel]

Herzing University is migrating to etextbooks. I thought I'd hate them. I couldn't have been more wrong. I love being able to keyword search and no fumbling for bookmarks. Virtual Bookshelf (Vitalsource) is the platform they're using. I don't know what will happen if I get an etextbook that I want to keep for future reference purposes though. I guess as long as I keep a valid user account with vitalsource I'll be able to use them. And its handy to be able to have a copy of my current texts on my iPad for when I need to study but I don't necessarily want to stay home!

[Jessica Lares]

Originally Posted by witeowl

Some of us took the conversation to include K-12, not just postsecondary.

What makes you say schools HAVE to get new editions?

[witeowl]

Originally Posted by Jessica Lares

What makes you say schools HAVE to get new editions?

Certainly, they don't HAVE to. But, the reality is that they do, at least in my district. Actually, that's not true. They adopt new textbooks before they have a chance to consider getting the new edition...


Golly, I wonder why our district is broke... It's those damned overpaid teachers, right?

[GreenMonkey]

Originally Posted by anamardoll

What?

I'm not sure I understand this. I'm a hobbyist reviewer who writes reviews on everything I read. Reviewing eBooks is not essentially harder or different from reviewing paper books. Indeed, it's much easier because if you want to quote from the source, you can just copy-paste instead of typing it all in. Very convenient.

Depending on the reading device, keeping up with flipping around is just as easy if not faster on eBooks -- eBooks have a SEARCH function. God, what I would have given for that in college....... *wistful*

Are you reviewing non-fiction books? Doing a review of an ebook for, say, one of my history classes... requires a lot of flipping it around to find the parts I'm looking for for my citations, quotations, etc.

And say you're sitting in class, and trying to find something that argues a certain point or backs up an argument you want to make. Flipping around in a pbook is a lot faster. I can rapidly skim / flip through it and find probably the content / chapter / whatever I'm looking for. Not as easy with an ebook.

It's a mixed bag. The search function can be really useful if you know exactly what you are searching for. But it's a LOT harder to rapidly flip through the book and find what you are looking for.

[shanghaichica]

To be read on a large LCD device, yes. But text books and e-ink displays do not work well IMO.

[OtterBooks]

From what I've seen, the majority of students and faculty do not like the idea of ebook texts replacing paper ones. That's the case at my university, and according to stuff I've read in trade mags like Education Technology, it's the case in general. The idea of e-texts seems to do much better with non-students, or former students thinking "Oh I wish I would have had that," than it does with people who actually would need to use them. I'm responsible for learning-technology at a big state Uni, and the e-text idea has been shot down a few times (as in we've proposed it, offered to subsidize the hardware, and they still don't want it). We're buying iPads for instructors, though, for lecturing.

[arcticmaniac]

yeah, but when you exam last years vs this years edition, there really isn't much difference. even the questions are not changed much. just like apple and its i-universe. only minor incremental changes every year so that apple can get people to upgrade. front facing cameras should have been standard with the 3gs model. but wasn't there till iphone 4. granted there is only so much you can add to the iphone to make it unique every year. i guess with the iphone 5 maybe 4g or some kind of payment system using the phone??

[anamardoll]

Originally Posted by GreenMonkey

Are you reviewing non-fiction books? Doing a review of an ebook for, say, one of my history classes... requires a lot of flipping it around to find the parts I'm looking for for my citations, quotations, etc.

And say you're sitting in class, and trying to find something that argues a certain point or backs up an argument you want to make. Flipping around in a pbook is a lot faster. I can rapidly skim / flip through it and find probably the content / chapter / whatever I'm looking for. Not as easy with an ebook.

It's a mixed bag. The search function can be really useful if you know exactly what you are searching for. But it's a LOT harder to rapidly flip through the book and find what you are looking for.

Maybe it has to do with my reading style, but I highlight with my eReader as I read, so I rarely have to go back for quotes. When I DO have to search, eBooks are ideal for me because I NEVER search by "flipping" -- I search by looking for a keyword or phrase that I remember from the piece I want to quote.

I guess if you search by flipping, eBooks would be harder because they flip slower than a paper book, but for me I never find what I want by flipping, so eBooks definitely have the edge for my reviewing.