In college, I had a tablet I would use often for note taking and homework assignments, The few e-books I had greatly simplified the homework process, as i could cut and paste homework problems and diagrams from the book into my homework and mark them up.
I look forward to the day where e-text books are fully interactive, where students could perform simulations, write codes, or write and submit there homework within fields and figures in the book ( which would ideally be done on a tablet with a stylus). I'm betting a prototype of such a book could be made using CDF. Though, I think a great deal of iteration would be needed to give the book a fluid feel that would satisfy most textbook consumers. **************************** Greg Sonnenfeld On Sat, Jul 23, 2011 at 4:06 PM, Edward Angel <an...@cs.unm.edu> wrote: > As much as I like the idea of a 3D electronic book, I don't believe it will > make an huge impact; maybe when electronic media get to the point where > writing notes and going back and forth are really as easy as with a physical > book. > One of the pressures we face as textbook authors is that unless I have a > very good website to provide additional support (ppt lectures, electronic > versions of all figures, programs, etc) I lose a lot of adopters. As Bruce > knows that's a lot of work. > The analogy between book reps and pharmaceutical reps is interesting. > However there is an order of magnitude difference in renumeration. I've > known health science faculty to give up tenure to become drug reps but I > have never seen that happen with a physics or engineering faculty member. > However, in both cases the job of the rep has changed from knowing a lot > about the product to being able to get into a faculty office and get samples > to someone who really doesn't want to talk to you. > In NM, most UNM students are self-supporting and wind up buying their own > textbooks. There has been a huge cultural shift which goes beyond the money > issue. I would never think of selling a book after taking a class but > students today have an entirely different attitude towards media. Of course > when a biology 101 textbook costs $250 (really does) the $$ matter. > What does seem to be changing is the popularity of on-line courses. At UNM > there are now 8000 student enrollments in such classes each semester. For > many years I fought against such classes as not being up to the standards of > a live class with real interaction. But with the new tools available to put > together on-line courses and to interact with students on-line, I'm > reconsidering my view. Perhaps that's where Bruce and I might find a lot of > agreement. With an on-line format, students can access a lot of 3D demos and > all kinds of other material that could not be in a physical book. I'm going > to develop such a course this fall. > Ed > __________ > Ed Angel > > Chair, Board of Directors, Santa Fe Complex > Founding Director, Art, Research, Technology and Science Laboratory > (ARTS Lab) > Professor Emeritus of Computer Science, University of New Mexico > > 1017 Sierra Pinon > Santa Fe, NM 87501 > 505-984-0136 (home) an...@cs.unm.edu > 505-453-4944 (cell) http://www.cs.unm.edu/~angel > http://artslab.unm.edu > http://sfcomplex.org > On Jul 23, 2011, at 2:54 PM, Bruce Sherwood wrote: > > I'll mention that the smart physics textbook editor at Wiley, whom we > work with, a few years ago gave a very analytical talk at a physics > education conference on why textbooks MUST move to electronic form. He > gave a convincing summary of how the current scheme is dysfunctional > for everyone -- students, authors, faculty, and publishers. The only > group he could identify for whom it sort of works is university > bookstores, and even that group is going under as students buy books > over the web. > > The current high costs are due not only to production costs but also > to the counterintuitive situation that competition drives prices > higher. Publishers spend a lot of money on reps who try desperately to > get a few minutes face time to tell uninterested faculty why they > should use the latest book. The situation is similar to that of > pharmaceuticals, where company reps try to talk to doctors. The > fundamental issue is that in the case of both textbooks and drugs, the > prescriber isn't the same person as the buyer. > > Among the many dysfunctions one is almost humorous. A lot of money is > spent trucking books back and forth between publishers and university > bookstores, thanks to tax laws that require paying taxes on physical > inventory. > > An interesting aspect of textbook prices is that it is the parents who > pay the (high) price to buy the textbook, but it is the student who > gets the (significant) money from selling the used book. This exchange > presumably contributes to the fact that very few students now keep > their college textbooks. > > One possible change that interests our editor and us is that one can > imagine making an electronic textbook be highly interactive, not just > a replacement for paper, in which case an ebook could look much more > attractive. This possible context is one of the motivations for the > work I'm doing with David Scherer to make it easy to write 3D > animations that run in a browser. We're making good progress on this. > > Bruce > > On Sat, Jul 23, 2011 at 1:39 PM, Edward Angel <an...@cs.unm.edu> wrote: > > I suspect it's a rather hopeless venture, at least for technical books. > > I just spent a couple of days with my editors at Addison-Wesley. Since I > > have about 250 adoptions of my textbook in the US, both I and AW are very > > interested in all these issues and have been following the various attempts > > publishers are using to try to make money using the internet. For example, > > AW created CourseSmart where students get access to the book on the internet > > for the semester at about half of what the physical book would cost. That > > venture doesn't seem to be doing very well. Part of the reason is purely > > economic. If a student can resell the book to the bookstore at the end of > > the semester for 50% then why use the electronic version. > > But the most salient factor seems to be that students do not like reading > > technical books on ipads, kindles or any other device. One interesting > > option is that some publishers are offering is a combined option where you > > get both the physical book and the electronic version for a little more than > > the cost of the physical book. Students seem to like option that since they > > can have the electronic version on a portable device while in class but use > > the physical book to study with. But of course that costs even more than the > > outrageous prices students have to pay for just the physical book. > > All in all, the publishers have not a clue as to how to get out of the death > > spiral they're in. Once the used book sellers got organized, the publishers > > responded by hounding authors to do new editions every couple of years, an > > act that drove the price of textbooks through the roof since most of the > > cost is in the production of the book not in the marginal cost of printing > > more copies. It's gotten to the point where at a place like UNM where > > students really struggle financially, the cost of textbooks is edging to > > towards the cost of tuition. Many of us authors have seen our royalties stay > > the same as the cost of books rises while the numbers sold go down but we > > don't feel very good about the situation. > > Ed > > __________ > > Ed Angel > > Chair, Board of Directors, Santa Fe Complex > > Founding Director, Art, Research, Technology and Science Laboratory > > (ARTS Lab) > > Professor Emeritus of Computer Science, University of New Mexico > > 1017 Sierra Pinon > > Santa Fe, NM 87501 > > 505-984-0136 (home) an...@cs.unm.edu > > 505-453-4944 (cell) http://www.cs.unm.edu/~angel > > http://artslab.unm.edu > > http://sfcomplex.org > > On Jul 19, 2011, at 9:17 AM, Owen Densmore wrote: > > Interesting: digital rental of text books at amazon: > > http://www.iclarified.com/entry/index.php?enid=16101 > > Others have done this sort of thing but this is pretty big-time. And I > > notice that this is not only for the kindle device, but also for your > > computer, phone, ipad via their kindle apps, which now allow color, even > > though the kindle itself is black/white only. > > -- Owen > > -- > > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Santa Fe Complex > > "discuss" group. > > To post to this group, send email to disc...@sfcomplex.org > > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to > > discuss+unsubscr...@sfcomplex.org > > For more options, visit this group at > > http://groups.google.com/a/sfcomplex.org/group/discuss > > > ============================================================ > > FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv > > Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College > > lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org > > > ============================================================ > FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv > Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College > lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org > > > ============================================================ > FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv > Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College > lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org > ============================================================ FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org
