Author: Evan
Published: Jan 5th, 2011
Category: Books
Comments: 2

Amazon’s Newest BFF

Last week Amazon announced that the third generation Kindle became the best selling single product in their history! (http://bit.ly/dOL8AQ) Triangulating this news with an insider rumor insider claiming that Amazon sold over 8 million Kindle’s last year puts the Kindle in the same sales range as the iPad. One has to wonder what the reaction in Cupertino to this shocking bit of news. Read the rest of this entry »

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Tags: Amazon, Amazon Kindle, App Store, Apple, Barnes & Noble, Blackberry OS, ebooks, Evan Schnittman, Google, IBook, iPad, iPhone, Kindle, Macintosh, Nook, publishing, Sony Reader, Trade Publishing

Author: Evan
Published: May 5th, 2010
Category: Uncategorized
Comments: 10

The iPad: Gateway Drug to Digital Learning?

In my last post, What’s Next in Digital Reading I explored my notion that there are three kinds of reading; extractive: immersive, and pedagogic. Extractive reading works in digital form as finding and extracting data and information is optimized by the power of digital. Immersive reading struggled to flourish in digital form until the e-ink screen went mainstream with the release of the Kindle. Pedagogic reading, the kind done when learning from a textbook, has yet to take hold as there hasn’t been a device and/or business model for delivering lesson-based reading that has gained any traction. However, this is all about to change dramatically because of the iPad. Read the rest of this entry »

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10 Responses to “The iPad: Gateway Drug to Digital Learning?”

Chipp
on May 5th, 2010
@ 10:57 am:

Though I disagree with your “clues”, your conclusion is interesting.

First off, you need to check your facts. Apple and iPad are not providing the suite of productivity tools freely. They are paid for apps, just like on any other OS, and their cost is substantially lower than commercial suites, and higher than free ones.

Furthermore, as anyone who has used Apple’s productivity suite of tools knows, there is a huge amount lacking in them– namely the ability to move a file from your iPad to another device– or sync it in any way. Long way to go before it really is “productive.”

Second, the iPad can certainly be used to access porn. And it’s done just like every other computer does it– through the browser. It’s all just a URL away. As you correctly point out, Steve is just trying to toss Android under the bus, along with Google, Adobe, Flash, Verizon, developers and a whole host of other people he’s spoken ill of publicly recently. Not very becoming for a CEO.

One reason I believe there will be no large scale adoption of the iPad in Education markets is because folks in Education know they cannot count on Apple to be a good partner. Do you think Steve would accomodate their wishes? For instance, If they need the iPad to have a USB slot so kids can load their homework assignments? Nope. But, on the other hand you can be sure Android tablets will have such a feature.

Another concern with Apple is the concept of a single source supplier. Apple can dictate pricing and usage plans with zero competition. But if an Android tablet is used, there will be HP, Asus, Dell and a host of other suppliers of the hardware, and the software will be much easier to write for and deliver, because it can be created in Flash or bunch of other HDE (High Level Development Environment) which allow developers to write apps faster and with less bugs. Unfortunately, Steve has limited the development of iPad apps to only his Objective-C toolkit– which is not an HDE. There are many more programmers available to program for Android than there will be for iPad.

Google Apps on Android will be much better suited for education as all the data is stored in the cloud. And of course Kindle and Nook and the rest will also be on Android, along with a huge amount of Flash educational content which won’t play on iPads.

So, in the end, I disagree with your hypothesis. Apple knows it cannot compete in education, and is not targeting it as a primary market for iPad.

[Reply]
Evan
on May 5th, 2010
@ 11:19 am:

Thanks for catching the glaring misunderstanding on my part – yes, the iWork isn’t free, each App is $9.99. The point still remains, though one now has to spend $30.

[Reply]
The Daily Square – Lay Low for the Letdown Edition | Booksquare
on May 5th, 2010
@ 9:15 pm:

[...] The iPad: Gateway Drug to Digital Learning?This is reasoning we can get behind: the lack of adult material, the mix of entertainment and learning. [...]
debbie
on May 10th, 2010
@ 2:06 pm:

Not sure how else to submit this question to you, so I’m going to tag along with the Ipad comments.

I watched the Cspan-2 broadcast over the weekend with you among a panel of others discussing electronic publishing. On the topic of (type of) edition bundling, you and one or two others repeated the idea of purchasing first a hardcopy then being able to add-on the download for a reduced price. In the software world, it’s more typical to purchase the download with a small add-on fee to receive a hardcopy by mail.

My primary interest in e-reading is to reduce the amount of “stuff” I have to maintain, store and move from one place to another through my life. Of the titles I would purchase, I am far more likely to choose an e-publication first, and then only purchase hardcopy editions of the materials that I would find worthwhile (by my personal definition) to own in that form.

I’d be interested to hear more about why the hardcopy-first method of bundling would be preferred, if indeed that is the case.

Thanks.

[Reply]
Thoughts from across the Publishing Blogosphere « Kindle Review – Kindle 3 Review, iPad Review
on May 19th, 2010
@ 11:57 pm:

[...] Evan Schnittman at Black Plastic Glasses has finally started writing again and he makes two excellent points. [...]
ezautoshippers
on Jun 18th, 2010
@ 9:08 am:

I agree that the iPad is a great gateway “drug”. If the majority of kids think something is cool than they are going to be more prone to use it. And we all know that the iPad is the cool thing right now with a lot of people. This isn’t to say that next week, month, year something else won’t be out there that is cooler than the iPad. So hopefully this can be a catalyst to a new age of learning.

As far as Apple not being a good partner in education, I don’t agree with that comment. My school had some of the first Apple computers in the state of Illinois, and I was lucky enough to be a part of that program. My daughter is now in the same school district and they have computer labs in every school full of Apple computers. The corporation has been a good partner with education in my area. Hopefully we are not the exception to the rule. As far as schools getting the iPads that doesn’t seem to likely in the near future with the sales going the way they are. It is always better to sell than donate.

[Reply]
Jane Brown
on Jul 1st, 2010
@ 5:02 am:

I can’t really agree with what you said about ipad beeing a getaway drug, because even if it didn’t exist, kids still wouldn’t be reading books. Sadly, that’s the way things are these days :/

[Reply]
sunshyne
on Jul 12th, 2010
@ 5:53 pm:

Jane is correct, my wife and I had a 2 hour discussion on how and why the current crop of kids is a lost cause. You should see some of the resumes that come across my desk. Unreal how some of them are even able to find their way home. I do like the take of the online book store to take on the kindle so I guess the conclusion can be reading digital media is still better than not reading at all. Pax et bonum

[Reply]
Stephen Hull
on Jul 15th, 2010
@ 11:54 am:

Correct me if I’m wrong (someone doubtless will) but wasn’t there a significant test of the iPad on a number of campuses this past academic year? I believe the data showed students — some undergrad, some in professional schools — overwhelmingly did not like using the iPad as their textbook e-reader and note-taker. Evidently a large percentage quit the test anywhere from three to eight weeks into the semester and reverted to print textbooks and note-taking on their laptops. I have no idea what this means for the future of the iPad as a higher ed curriculum platform; probably just that Apple and Pearson will learn a few lessons and adapt as necessary. But I think it does indicate that the iPad, at least in its present iteration, is not automatically a magic bullet, killer app for the higher ed market, regardless of how cool it is for entertainment uses.

[Reply]
Evan Reply:
July 15th, 2010 at 12:02 pm
You are mixing up the Kindle DX test with the iPad.

[Reply]

Tags: Amazon Kindle, App Store, Apple, Cengage, Digital Publishing, Digital Reading, ebooks, econtent, Entourage eDGe, Evan Schnittman, Google, Higher Education, Houghton Mifflin, iPad, iPhone, iPod, iTunes, Kindle, McGraw-Hill, Pearson, publishing, Textbooks, Trade Publishing, Wiley

Author: Evan
Published: Mar 23rd, 2010
Category: Books, Media, Music, Uncategorized
Comments: 5

What’s Next in Digital Reading?

The history of digital reading in a fascinating one and I believe exploring its development arc helps predict the trends that may lie ahead. Thinking about what worked early on – meaning what was read in digital form – use cases where search, find, and quick read were the primary means of interacting with the content, such as encyclopedias and reference works, directories and other data driven compendia.

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5 Responses to “What’s Next in Digital Reading?”

Mike Shatzkin
on Mar 23rd, 2010
@ 6:08 am:

Very thoughtful and original post. You make a critical point that textbooks matched the ecosystem of learning: one class moving at a constant speed from a common starting point to a common ending point. And clearly, digital change enables our learning materials, at least, to be much more nuanced than that.

[Reply]
Chris Cosner
on Mar 24th, 2010
@ 12:38 pm:

Thank you for this post.

Re: “The basic assumption of each text is that students all come in at or near the same level and leave at or near the same level.”

Having taught a foreign language from various textbooks, I can say that there is no class in which everyone is assumed to be at exactly the same level, though it is perhaps always a quixotic hope. The teacher inevitably makes adjustments for as many students as possible. FL textbooks are designed to be used in precisely this way. Many include sets of questions in the introduction to help the student determine what to work on, as well as tests at the end of chapters. Students naturally learn to work with the textbook at their own pace. A good teacher expects more from advanced students and recognizes real progress in the less advanced students.

I’m not sure there is anything earth-shattering a digital book can bring to *this aspect* of the textbook. It is up to the author to create a pedagogically sound design, and up to the teacher to coach the students on how to use the textbook.

One way a digital approach might address the problem of different levels of ability is a kind of rental or buy-in to a whole set of textbooks, so the student is free to move forwards and backwards through the material preceding and subsequent to the class.

But even this may be resisted by educators. After all, the student is always free to go to the library for more material, or to work with a tutor if they are behind. The whole point of a class is to be working together on a subject, to be on the same page. That motivates less advanced students to catch up, and it helps the ‘advanced’ students to solidify material of which they may not yet have a perfect grasp.

[Reply]
The iPad: Gateway Drug to Digital Learning? « Black Plastic Glasses
on May 5th, 2010
@ 3:46 am:

[...] my last post, What’s Next in Digital Reading I explored my notion that there are three kinds of reading; extractive: immersive, and pedagogic. [...]
How do you read? :: Work+Place Discussing Workplace Trends
on May 14th, 2010
@ 1:57 pm:

[...] an ardent reader I was interested in the three kinds of reading described in What’s Next in Digital Reading? (found via Interstitial [...]
Collection Development Blog » Interstitial reading
on Sep 12th, 2010
@ 6:14 pm:

[...] Schnittman of OUP has an interesting post in which he discusses three types of digital reading: extractive, immersive and pedagogic. It is [...]

Tags: Amazon, Amazon Kindle, App Store, Apple, Authors Guild, Baker & Taylor, Barnes & Noble, Books, Cengage, Digital Publishing, Digital Reading, DRM, e-ink, ebooks, econtent, Entourage eDGe, Evan Schnittman, Extractive Reading, Filedby, Follett, Google, Higher Education, Houghton Mifflin, ibookstore, Immersive Reading, Ingram, iPad, iPhone, Kindle, Liquid crystal display, McGraw-Hill, Niko Pfund, Pearson, publishing, Textbooks, XML

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