The University of Notre Dame is temporarily substituting textbooks in some of its classes with iPads to see how use of the tablet device affects learning, according to an article in today's Wall Street Journal. So far, students find the coursework "more interesting."
My first reaction to the article was as the parent of a child, someday (I pray) bound for college. I'm psyched! If e-readers replace textbooks, then we can skip the annual pilgrimage to the campus book store. We'd buy one iPad, download texts, and save a bundle of money. My son would be less likely to misplace one iPad than six textbooks, so we'd also cut down on replacement fees. The possibilities are endless. (Newly released statistics from digital course materials provider CourseSmart.com show that college students returning to classes this January will save an average of $60 per title by using e-textbooks.)
My second reaction was as a business journalist. What a fantastic opportunity for Apple and/or other e-reader manufacturers. If you are, say, Apple and you become the exclusive supplier to the Notre Dame bookstore, it's practically a license to print money. Every year a new batch of incoming freshmen has to buy your product to complete their coursework. You can offer trade-ins, upgrades, and used e-readers (similar to the way textbooks are sold now). Again, the possibilities are endless.
Then, being the supply chain geek that I am, I thought about logistics. Wouldn't textbook companies have to license their content? Charge less for downloads than they do for texts? Would they lose on the sale of hundreds or even thousands of textbooks per semester? Why would they want to do this? Also, it occurs to me that there may be some competitive issues around offering iPads and not, for example, Kindles, in the campus bookstore.
None of those questions was answered in the study, which focuses on learning (it is a university, after all). The study, called the eReader Project, looked at undergraduates in a project-management course at Notre Dame’s Mendoza College of Business this past fall. The sampling of students was small: 40 students in the course used WiFi iPads for seven weeks of the semester; a second wave of 38 students received them in the second half of the semester.
The students were required to download a course e-book in lieu of the physical textbook typically required. (They were given the option of passing up the iPad and going with a hardcover book, but students unanimously chose to go along with the iPad project.) Article and PDF print-outs were provided as supplementary reading, but 22 of the 40 students surveyed said they did 100 percent of the course reading, as well as some additional reading, on their iPad loaners.
The jury is still out on whether or not the iPads enhanced learning. Students were no more distracted in class then they were pre-iPad -- most students have cell or smartphones -- but highlighting and note taking were more difficult on the devices.
The university has redistributed the iPads to law students this semester, and plans to continue to equip students with iPads as educational tools to see how it impacts learning. The school is also eyeing Android tablet devices, like the Samsung Galaxy Tab. The Kindle was a contender at the start of the project, but the color screens on tablet devices were the biggest selling point in an educational setting.
If your business were to go after the education market, what are the "must have" attributes you'd put on your product? And would it be a tablet device, a laptop, or something else? I'd like to hear what readers think -- my son is in the Class of 2015.
It's easy to see that there's cost advantages in publishing content to e-readers vs. printed hardcopy. Will that extra margin go to the author? Doubtful, but I guess it depends how good the author's agent is. The publishing business model looks like it has to go through some changes, much like the music industry. That leads to the question of whether people will still be able to produce great works of literature. If your faith in man is strong, the answer's yes, but let's not be too sanguine. The next dark ages may not be ushered in by great libraries being razed to the ground, but by a little kindle. Of course we're too smart to let that happen.
Issues of privacy raised almost go without saying. Most technological advances in the information age tend to further marketeering and data mining of the minutiae in the realm of personal habits. So standing up for privacy is nearly equatable with a Luddite mentality, but let's take a closer look. There have been advances that reinforce the autonomy of individuals and organizations--pretty good cryptography is a good example--but these tend to raise the hackles, rightly or wrongly, of those that advocate for expanded authoritarian police powers. So whether technology invades our privacy becomes more of a policy issue.
If tablets are to be used in place of textbooks and exercise books in classes during lectures, I think they would create a huge distraction for students. Students would be tempted to check emails, browse websites or perform other activities on the tablet device. With the good old text books, the distraction level is minimal.
On a personal note, I just find it easier / more comfortable to read from a book rather than an electronic device. Perhaps it's just the fsamiliarity thing, but I do think you bring up excellent points.
Highlighting a number of issues related to E-readers and material retention, however I think that most users are overlooking a number of key issues with electronic copies
1. Retainability.
I buy a book, and then will read it a few times, throw it in a corner and then come back to it a few years later, unfortunately many of these 'e' readers are not cross compatible in the way they secure some book copies, which means when you up-grade/replace your hardware there is a chance you 'loose' books.
Not to mention that once your batteries go defective or your device fails , you are left totally without access to any of the material you have paid for, if their was ever another war, that impacted the infrastructure, all the written material stored in that format would be lost.
2. Privacy.
As each month goes by people are giving up more and more of their privacy, now they are allowing advertisers access to the sorts of material they read,the number of times they read it, and the passages of text the read the most (hay ladies now they can track which pages you read the most in any romantic novels)
There is actually a re-surgence it 'romantic' novels for women becasue they now think have a 'safe' place to keep them (inside the E-reader), in reality the options of them being spied on secretly just increased several fold.
3. Cost.
The cost of the material does not reflect the loss of transport costs/ paper/ storage/ production, and you can bet that the Authors are not better off under the new system.
Where possible I will be sticking with 'real' books as long as i can.
Tablet - Considering the infrastructure to support this device for eductation purpose take much resources and over long period before it can be proven qualify to be a perfect mean for education.
Softcopies to support this education tool is a big issue.
Also, what happen if the tablet reliability and robust enough in your routine usage ? and carrying it around is not definitely sure that its programs and data will be secure enough at minimum risk of virus infection and software corruption, hardware malfunction, mishandling etc... It is the matter of total lost if any of the possibilties happened. These are some points needed to take into consideration against the conventional text book.
Well, it is a total different scenario of using the tablet for education purpose.
Having two boys in high school, I can see the advantage of having soft textbooks, but Ipads are not the right format. A netbook is a more practical format since it includes a keyboard and protects the screen when it isn't being used and carried around. The probelm I have is that it is too general purpose and with my kids, they would be on YouTube or blogging instead of paying attention to their studies. It's just too easy for kids to get distracted (adults, too!). What is needed is a "student OS" that is intended for doing school work, not general purpose computing. It would lock out inappropriate applications and web sites without a password. It would be good for note taking, support word processing, powerpoint, and Excel. There are certainly web sites that are useful for getting information, but there needs to be limits on what can be accessed. Since most school books are color, the screen needs to support a full color display. And it needs to be able to network with a printer.
Jennifer--thanks for the additional perspective on how these tools can help beyond cost-savings and profit margins. What a great idea. I can't imagine my life without books (I still read them the old-fashioned way) and yet take them for granted. Almost all technology was originally invented to improve lives, and I can't think of a better way than bringing e-books and e-readers to under-served areas. Cell phone technology is a brilliant solution to a problem too few of us even think about. Thanks for spreading the word. :-)
Video and good graphics are going to be a fundamental part in teaching some subjects if not all of them. I wouldn't neglect them as a good plus for a device thought for the educational market.
What if Apple provided the tablets for the study or gave the university a good discounted price? After all, this study can also serve as a good marketing campaign.
I am pretty sure manufacturers can produce a very affordable tablet for educational purposes, a tablet that could only include the necessary applications for helping and assisting the learning/teaching process at all levels of education. A tablet that not necessary has to be fancy but practical and useful.
Note taking using a tablet is just a matter of practice that will see its benefits as soon as some savvy kids develop a smart technique for it. Adaptation and willingness to learn are fundamental here. Also, think of the elementary school kids who start using a tablet as their first way of taking notes, they have nothing else to compare to and are the ones who will show that there is no secret into it. There's a reason why the product is in the market, it has been tested, right?
I'm so glad you wrote this post. The topic has been on my mind a lot lately, too. We're just at the beginning stages of exploring the possibilities of bringing e-readers, whether they are Kindles or iPads or Nooks or whatever comes next, into classrooms around the globe.
You may find this interesting as well: Worldreader.org is spearheading an ambitious project to put e-readers in the hands of school children in the developing world, particularly in places where books are incredibly difficult to come by (in many cases, schools in these regions don't have any books in their classrooms at all). They recently launched a program with 500 school kids of various ages in Ghana, and have things in the pipeline for Kenya.
Basically, the idea is that because e-readers run on mobile phone technology, it's much easier to use in countries where Internet connectivity still leaves much to be desired. But, since cell phones and supporting networks are almost everywhere these days, downloading educational material can be done with a push of a button. Just a few days ago, in fact, they pushed electronically more than 23,000 books to the kids in the Ghana program. Like you mentioned, getting content digitized and formatted is a hurdle, as is making the devices more durable for harsher-world climates (Ghana certainly isn't Silicon Valley). The group is working with publishing companies, device makers, and a host of other companies to resolve these issues. It will be a meeting of minds on many fronts.
Let me also mention that one of the co-founders, David Risher, previously held senior positions at Amazon and Microsoft, and also has a strong education background. So, the potential reach and usefulness of these new devices are already catching cross-industry attention. Give it a bit more time, and the wave will spread even further.
For full disclosure, as of just a couple days ago, I am volunteering with Worldreader. I stumbled upon this WSJ article and was completely moved by a fairly simple concept that I jumped at the chance to get involved: Technology can change even more lives in even more profound ways. It's as easy as putting a digital book in the hands of a child in the middle of Africa.
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Thailand Stages a Comeback Join EBN contributor Jennifer Baljko on Thursday August 23, 2012, at 11:00 a.m. EST for a live chat on how electronic manufacturers in Thailand have shored up their supply chain to reduce the impact of future natural disasters.
Euro-Crisis: What It Means for High-Tech Firms Join EBN Editor in Chief Bolaji Ojo and Contributing Editor Jennifer Baljko on Thursday, July 12, at 10:00 a.m. EDT for a Live Chat on high-tech and Europe's economic difficulties.
Microsoft Surface: Potential Winners & Losers What are the implications for the electronics industry supply chain of Microsoft Corp.'s decision to launch its own tablet PC? Join industry veteran and EE Times' systems and OEM expert Rick Merritt on Tuesday, July 3, at 12:00 pm EDT for a Live Chat on this subject.
Join EBN contributor Jennifer Baljko on Thursday August 23, 2012, at 11:00 a.m. EST for a live chat on how electronic manufacturers in Thailand have shored up their supply chain to reduce the impact of future natural disasters.
Peter Drucker famously said "Trying to predict the future is like trying to drive down a country road at night with no lights while looking out the back window." Yet in the razor's-edge world of electronics—with a lean supply chain and just-in-time demands—the need to know the future is vital.
While no one really can accurately predict the future, we can take guidance from another Drucker saying which is the best way to predict the future is to create it.
You've heard the saying "the No. 1 supply chain risk is your people." That hasn't always been the case. But today's complex global supply chain requires a new type of multitalented employee. It's one who understands, finance, marketing, economics, is savvy with technology, graceful with relationships and can think analytically.
Where are these people? Are universities properly preparing the next generation supply chain professionals? How do train your existing workforce for these new, demanding positions?
Brian Fuller, editor-in-chief of EBN, will lead a 60-minute Avnet Velocity panel discussion that will ask and answer these and other questions swirling around today's supply-chain talent challenges.
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