Digital Happenings

While the blog highlights many of the digital happenings affecting our industry, there is often more going on than we have a chance to cover. Here are some links to interesting articles from the past few days.

• Apple sold 4.19 million iPads last quarter bringing its total sales to almost 7.5 million since April. Interestingly, the iPad sales last quarter were greater than the sales for the entire line of Macintosh computers which also hit a record high at nearly 3.9 million units. Some analysts are now predicting that Apple will sell up to 40 million iPads next year.
• According to an article from Adage, Apple has also expanded distribution for the iPad to retailers such as Target, Walmart, Sam’s Club, and Best Buy. Previously, the iPad was available at 300 Apple stores and now it will be available at 8,000 stores across the country.
• A recent survey of students by the Associated Press and mtvU found that 57 percent of students said that life without computers and cell phones would be stressful but 25 percent said it would be a relief.
• An article from The New York Times says that Sharp is scaling back its laptop operations to focus on tablets. Sharp plans to launch 5.5-inch and 10-inch screen Android tablets in December. In addition, Sharp will launch an e-book store that will give users access to 30,000 e-books, newspapers, and magazines. A second article from MacWorld provides more information about the tablets.
• According to a TechCrunch article, Amazon says that it continues to sell more Kindle books than print books. Amazon says that it has sold more than three times as many Kindle books from January to September of this year than it did for the same nine months of 2009. Amazon also says that sales for its latest Kindle device have already surpassed total Kindle device sales from the holiday season last year (October through December 2009).
• A recent article from Publishers Weekly discusses the challenges associated with formatting e-books.

Amazon announces a lending program for Kindle e-books

According to an announcement on Amazon’s website, later this year it will introduce an e-book lending program for Kindle users. Users will be able to loan an e-book to a friend that uses a Kindle device or the Kindle app. The loan period will be for 14 days and the lender will not be able to read the book during that time. The announcement notes that publishers and rights holders will determine whether or not their titles are available for lending. Barnes & Noble has a similar lending program in place for its Nook device.

Amazon also announced that it will make Kindle newspapers and magazines available for reading on the Kindle apps. This functionality will be available for Apple devices initially and for Android devices or other apps in the future. This functionality may encourage users to stay within the Kindle app for all of their reading on various devices.

Touch screen technology from Disney Research

An interesting CNN article says that Disney Research is working on a new touch screen technology called TeslaTouch. The new technology would allow users to feel the location of the keys on a flat screen because it uses small electrical impulses to create a pull and push between a person’s finger and the screen. It differs from other touch-sensitive screens because it can actually simulate the feeling of various textures or friction between objects.

Here is a link to a video demo with additional information.

Webinar on Effective Communication in Higher Education

On Tuesday, November 9th, Platt Retail Institute will be holding a webinar to discuss the results from their study on communication effectiveness in higher education. The webinar will include a discussion about the most effective communication methods and how digital technologies can improve the flow of information on college campuses.

In an email about the webinar, Steven Keith Platt, PRI Director and Research Fellow, noted, "Our research study found that 97 percent of students prefer to receive information via digital channels, rather than from non-digital sources. Overall, text messages were found to be the most effective distribution channel, followed closely by digital signage."

For those interested in attending, you can sign up here.

Free interactive biology textbook in creation

A recent article from Wired Science discusses the efforts of the E.O. Wilson Biodiversity Foundation to create an interactive and comprehensive digital textbook for biology that will be available for free. The textbook will be called Life on Earth and it will be created from scratch in the digital format.

Neil Patterson, director of Life on Earth, commented on the effort to revolutionize science education. Patterson noted, “Motion and film are powerful ways of teaching. We’re trying to exploit the human brain, like videogames do, and it’s not a small matter to use technology now available to us.”

The digital book will contain 59 chapters and will be extremely expensive to create so university level editions will be sold for about 10 percent of the cost of an average print textbook. The foundation will also need donations to support the effort.

The Wired article also includes a couple of videos that are worth watching. The first video is a demonstration of the first chapter of Life on Earth and the second video provides more information about the initiative.

XanEdu and NYU Stern School of Business to conduct iPad pilot

According to a recent press release, XanEdu, provider of custom coursepacks and textbooks, has partnered with the NYU Stern School of Business to conduct a program-wide iPad pilot for MBA students. Instructors at the university will use XanEdu’s system to publish course materials that students can access on the iPads. The course materials will include digital note taking capabilities and collaboration tools. Throughout the pilot, students will be asked to provide feedback to help determine if the iPad app meets the needs of the students.

Mobile usage among teens and young adults is on the rise

Nielsen has released a new report about mobile usage in the U.S. that has some interesting statistics.

In regards to texting, teens between the ages of 13-17 far surpass every other age group. Teens send an average of 3,339 texts a month or about six texts for every hour that they are awake. Young adults between the ages of 18-24 come in second at about 1,630 texts per month or about three texts per hour. For both age groups, voice activity has decreased since last year.

According to the report, these age groups are now relying on their phones for many tasks in addition to texting including: the Internet, e-mail, multimedia, games, and apps. Since the second quarter of 2009, data usage among teens (ages 3-17) has quadrupled and among young adults (18-24) it has tripled.

The increased reliance on mobile devices among these age groups presents many opportunities for the mobile industry in the future.

New type of e-paper

A recent Ars Technica article discusses a new type of e-paper that is currently in development. The screen is being developed by Gamma Dynamics and is said to be more advanced than the E Ink screens that are used on many e-readers today. According to the article, the screen is much brighter but it does not use more power. It is also has a much faster refresh rate than the current E Ink screens. More information is available here.

96% of 18-29 year olds own a cell phone

A new report from the Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project has some interesting findings about the number of Americans that own technology devices. Some of the findings include:

• 85% of all Americans and 96% of 18-29 year olds own a cell phone
• 52% of all Americans and 72% of 18-19 year olds own a laptop computer
• 47% of all Americans and 75% of 18-29 year olds own an mp3 player
• 42% of all Americans and 62% of 18-29 year olds own a home gaming system

In regards to e-readers and tablets, 5% of all Americans own and e-book reader and 4% own a tablet computer. The report notes that these devices are new but they are proving to be popular with early adopters. The ownership rates of these devices among college graduates and the affluent are roughly double the national average.

The full report is available here

August 2010 e-book sales statistics

E-book sales statistics for August 2010 have been released by the Association of American Publishers (AAP) via IDPF. Trade e-book sales were $39 million for August 2010, a 172.4% increase over August 2009. IDPF reports calendar year to date revenue is up 193%. Note: These figures represent the 12 to 15 trade book publishers who have been willing to supply their data to IDPF.

HP in-store print-on-demand pilots

This semester, Hewlett Packard (HP) is conducting print-on-demand pilots at three universities. NMS helped to facilitate the pilots with the college stores at Portland State University, The University of Kansas, and Arizona State University. The stores are utilizing HP in-store print-on-demand technology to print and bind course materials. Each college store has worked out agreements with publishers to print a select number of titles. In addition, books in the public domain and open-source books can be printed. More information about each of the pilots can be found below.

A recent article from AZCentral.com discusses the pilot at ASU. McGraw-Hill, John Wiley & Sons, and Cengage Learning have all made a limited number of titles available for the pilot. Some professors who own the rights to their books have also made the titles available for printing. As a result of the pilot, the textbook prices for several courses have reduced. Dennis Mekelburg, associate director of ASU Bookstore, estimates that students could save about a half-million dollars each semester if five percent of ASU classes switch to print-on-demand.

In another article Estella McCollum, director of the KU Bookstore, commented on the pilot at KU. She noted, “With this, we’re essentially never out of stock on the printable titles. We just have a more efficient option for purchasing.” The KU Bookstore hopes to expand the print options next semester to include: student projects, books, portfolios, cookbooks, and other projects.

An article about the pilot at Portland State University points out that the program is good for students, the store, and the earth because it reduces prices for students, keeps sales at the store, and reduces wasteful printing and transportation. The store hopes to get more publishers on board by next semester so that they can increase the amount of content that can be printed.

More information about these pilots will be available prior to CAMEX in February 2011.

Student PIRGs report on open textbooks

A new report regarding open textbooks has been released by The Student PIRGs. The report titled “How Open Textbooks are the Path to Textbook Affordability” concludes that “the next step toward textbook affordability is to promote the creation and adoption of open textbooks.” It says that rentals, e-textbooks, and e-readers are limited in the ability to reduce costs and address student preferences because they only match the preferences of some students. However, open textbooks can reduce costs substantially and accommodate the full spectrum of students.

Some of the Student PIRG data that contributed to this conclusion matches data from the NACS Student Watch study however, there are some differences. For example, in regards to student preferences, the Student PIRGs data shows that 75 percent of students prefer print while 25 percent prefer digital. The NACS study found a similar statistic but when students were subsequently asked the primary reason for purchasing print over digital only 42 percent indicated that their preference for print was the primary reason for their purchase choice. The next two reasons were: lack of inventory (19 percent) and that the professor used the print copy (13 percent). This shows that while a majority of students may prefer print to digital, that preference is decreasing in its relevance as a reason not to purchase digital -- suggesting that the preference for print over digital may be lessening in significance. If the content is available and if the faculty chooses digital more students may be ready to switch. Preference for print may have been definitive before but it is more marginal now.

The Student PIRGs report also estimates that students would spend an average of 80 percent less on textbooks each year if they moved to all open textbooks. This compares to 61 percent less for rentals, 52 percent less for e-textbooks, and 39 percent less for e-reader textbooks. While open textbooks may be more affordable now, the model may not be sustainable over the long term. As more faculty adopt open course materials, it may have an impact on overall educational affordability because revenue that goes to support financial aid, tuition sustainability, and other institutional expenses will be lost. This is not an argument against seeking lower cost course materials. Rather, it is an argument that open source still presents enough shortcomings that it is not yet a panacea for the textbook affordability problem.

While open textbooks will certainly play a part in the future, the associated limitations need to be worked out before they can be widely adopted. College Stores should be thinking about ways to incorporate open textbooks into their offerings. College Stores have an opportunity to provide access to the digital versions and offer printed versions through print-on-demand so that the store remains the primary source for student content needs, regardless of format or source.

E-book industry to be regulated in China

According to a recent report, China’s General Administration of Press and Publication (GAPP) has released a regulation to guide the development of the e-book industry in China. The regulation seeks to resolve some of the current issues in the industry. One of the issues is that the e-books are published in a variety of formats and the e-reader devices only support specific formats. This is also an issue in the U.S. and can be challenging for both consumers and publishers. The regulation will help resolve this issue by establishing standards for format, quality, and copyright. The regulation also includes tasks such as: establishing a pool of reading material for e-books, nurturing big e-book brands, and improving the quality of digital transformation of traditional publications.

Virginia Department of Education iPad pilot

A recent article from eSchool News discusses the iPad pilot that the Virginia Department of Education (VDOE) is conducting. The VDOE is working with Pearson to implement the program for fourth, seventh, and ninth grade students in social studies classes. Additional content, software, and platforms are being provided by Five Ponds Press, Victory Productions, Adobe, and MashOn. In addition, AP biology students participating in VDOE’s online learning program will use an interactive textbook created by Inkling in cooperation with McGraw-Hill.

The iPad pilot is part of VDOE’s larger "Beyond Textbook" initiative which aims to “explore the potential of wireless technology and digital textbooks to enhance teaching and learning.”

Patricia Wright, Superintendent of Public Instruction, commented on the initiative, “The experiences of students and teachers will be evaluated, and the knowledge gained will help policy makers, educators, and our private-sector partners better understand the potential instructional uses of interactive digital media and wireless technology. We will learn what works in the classroom and build on that as our schools move beyond traditional textbooks.”

The iPad pilot program will kick off on November 1 and will run for 12 weeks. Additional information can be found in the press release.

Esquire magazine iPad app

Here is an interesting video of the Esquire magazine app for the iPad. The app was developed in partnership with Scrollmotion and features an engaging and interactive experience. The first issue of the magazine for the iPad is available now. You can also read more about it in this posting from Mashable.com.

“Digital Public Library of America”

Last weekend, Harvard’s chief librarian, Robert Darnton, organized a meeting of representatives from foundations, institutions, and libraries to discuss how to build a national digital library. The group issued a statement to endorse the idea which includes an open distributed network of online resources from libraries, archives, museums, and universities across the country. According to Mr. Darnton, the goal is not to coordinate existing digitization projects but to make “the entire cultural heritage of the country accessible free of charge to all of our citizens.”

A recent article from The Chronicle includes an interview with Mr. Darnton about the meeting and the challenges. Darnton noted that the biggest obstacle will be “finding our way through our baroque copyright laws.” Next steps for the group include: forming a coalition of foundations to fund it and bringing together leaders to mobilize support in Washington.

Mr. Darnton also recently wrote a column for The New York Review of Books blog that discusses why the U.S. should begin building a national digital library and the other countries that are doing so.

Scholastic study on reading in the digital age

Scholastic has released the results from its 2010 Kids and Family Reading Report that explored reading in the digital age. The study included children between the ages of 6 and 17, and their parents for a total of 2,090 respondents.

The study produced some interesting findings including:

• 25 percent of children (age 6-17) have read a book on a digital device
• 57 percent of children (age 9-17) say they are interested in reading an e-book
• 33 percent of children (age 9-17) say they would read more books for fun if they had greater access to e-books.

While digital is appealing to many children, the results also showed that kids still embrace print books. 66 percent of children (ages 9-17) agreed with the statement, “I'll always want to read books printed on paper even though there are e-books available."

As for the parents, 6 percent said that they currently own an e-reader and another 16 percent plan to buy one within the year. In addition, 83 percent of the parents said they do or will encourage their child to use their e-reader device. However, many parents worry about the impact of digital devices. 56 percent of parents said that they worry that their children will become less interested in reading books for fun as they become more involved with digital devices.

The full report is available on Scholastic’s website.

Digital Happenings

• According to The Wall Street Journal's Digits blog, earlier this week Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer commented, “You’ll see new slates with Windows on them. You’ll see them this Christmas.” Ballmer did not provide any additional information.
• Earlier this year, the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) organization announced a partnership with Marvell and now OLPC has received a grant from Marvell to fund the development of an Android educational tablet for children around the world. According to an Ars Technica article, the device will be available for demonstration at the Consumer Electronics Show in January.
• Rumors have been circulating that MIT is planning to charge for its free online course materials via the MIT OpenCourseWare (OCW) system. An article from The New York Times reports that this is not the case.
• A posting on the Gadgetwise blog features a round-up of the tablets that are in the works. The posting does not include the latest news that Dell is preparing to launch a second Android tablet. Dell recently showed off a 7-inch tablet at a conference but details about the device were not disclosed.

Sales forecasts for the iPad and Kindle

A few recent articles discuss updated sales predictions for the iPad and Kindle.

Gene Munster, analyst for Piper Jaffray, says that Apple could control 94 percent of the global tablet market this year. This means that Apple may sell an estimated 10.7 million tablets out of 11.3 million in industry sales. Munster also increased the forecast for iPad sales in 2011. Munster previously estimated that Apple would sell about 14.5 million units in 2011. The new forecast says that Apple could sell 21 million iPads and surpass sales of the Mac.

A second article from Electronista discusses Kindle sales. Douglas Anmuth from Barclays Capital estimates that Amazon will sell about five million Kindles this year and 11.5 million in 2012.

These forecasts put Apple ahead of Amazon in terms of device sales but Amazon will still benefit from e-book sales on the iPad. Currently, the Kindle app is one of the most popular apps for the iPad.

The Future of the Book by IDEO

Here is an interesting video from IDEO, a global design company, about how they envision the future of the book. Their design concept is broken down into three tracks: Nelson, Coupland, and Alice. Nelson is a reading experience that comprises multiple perspectives, Coupland incorporates social networking into the experience, and Alice invites the reader to engage in the story telling process.

The video has some really interesting ideas and is worth a watch. In addition, here is an article with more information.

e-reader users are likely to read more and purchase more books

A new study from market research firm Harris Interactive found that 8 percent of Americans use an e-reader and an additional 12 percent plan to purchase an e-reader within the next six months.

The study also found that consumers that own e-readers read more and purchase more books. The study notes, "Overall, two in five Americans (40%) read 11 or more books a year with one in five reading 21 or more books in a year (19%). But among those who have an e-reader, over one-third read 11-20 books a year (36%) and over one-quarter read 21 or more books in an average year (26%)."

Additional results from the study can be found here.

Text messaging statistics

The Mashable website recently featured an interesting article about text messaging and how it has become one of the most popular forms of communication. The article includes a graphic to illustrate the texting trends and averages in the U.S. and around the world. Some interesting stats include:

• Texting has surpassed e-mail, phone, and face-to-face conversation as the main communication vehicle for 12-17 year olds.
• In the U.S., 14-17 year old girls send about 100 texts per day while boys in the same age group send about 30 texts per day.
• By 2009, 5 trillion text messages were being sent annually worldwide.

For more statistics, visit the Mashable website.

BlackBerry PlayBook tablet

Rumors about a RIM BlackBerry tablet began circulating last week and earlier this week the company unveiled a 7-inch PlayBook tablet. This announcement has everyone wondering how the device compares to the iPad and other tablet competition. According to reports it does surpass some of the iPad’s current specs but by the time it is released next year there may be a newer edition of the iPad as well.

An article from eWeek includes pictures of the device and points out some of the differences between the PlayBook and the iPad. Some of the advantages of the PlayBook include: 1 GHz dual-core processor, multitasking capabilities, support for Adobe Flash, mirco USB and mirco HDMI ports, and dual cameras. However, the iPad excels with its 3G support, long battery life, and access to thousands of apps.

While the PlayBook is being compared to the iPad, it is expected to be targeted at enterprise users and not the consumer market. For example, Blackberry users may find the device useful because they can pair their smartphone with it and view any of their content on the larger device. Analysts point out that this puts the device in a different playing field. In an article from CIO Insight, Analyst Ken Hyers from Technology Business Research, noted, “[RIM] really has the market to itself. There's little chance, in my opinion, that this will be a runaway best seller, but I don't think it necessarily needs to be. If it catches on with the enterprise as a genuine productivity tool in the same way that the BlackBerry has, it will be a positive development for RIM.”

For additional info, an article from Fast Company features a side by side comparison of the PlayBook, iPad, and Samsung’s Galaxy Tab.

Kno announces second tablet for education

According to a posting on Wired’s Gadget Lab, Kno Inc., has announced that it will release a second touchscreen tablet this year. Kno’s first tablet includes two 14-inch screens while the second tablet includes just one 14-inch screen. Detailed specs have not been released but it is expected to incorporate similar functionality as the dual screen device.

Osman Rashid, CEO and Co-Founder of Kno Inc., commented on the new device, “Even though the Kno pays for itself in 13 months, the smaller up front investment of the single screen version will allow more students to use our learning platform."

The dual screen device is being piloted on a few campuses this fall and both devices are scheduled to ship by the end of the year.

Pictures of the new device can be found on Wired’s website.

Sharp to launch tablets and e-bookstore

Sharp Corp. has announced that it will launch two tablets and an e-bookstore in Japan to compete with the Apple iPad. According to the press release, it will offer a mobile device with a 5.5 inch LCD screen and a 10.8 inch device designed for home use. Both of the devices will feature the Google Android operating system.

Sharp’s e-bookstore will give users access to 30,000 e-books, newspapers, and magazines. Users will be able to receive the latest content on their devices via automatic scheduled delivery. Next year, Sharp will expand the offering to include movies, music, and games.

The tablets and e-bookstore will be available in Japan in December and Sharp plans to launch the system in the U.S. and Europe “as soon as possible.” It has also been reported that Sharp is in negotiations with Verizon.

e-reader users are likely to read more and purchase more books

A new study from market research firm Harris Interactive found that 8 percent of Americans use an e-reader and an additional 12 percent plan to purchase an e-reader within the next six months. The study also found that consumers that own e-readers read more and purchase more books than those that do not own e-readers. The study notes, "Overall, two in five Americans (40%) read 11 or more books a year with one in five reading 21 or more books in a year (19%). But among those who have an e-reader, over one-third read 11-20 books a year (36%) and over one-quarter read 21 or more books in an average year (26%)."

Additional results from the study can be found here.

Ebooks: Libraries at the Tipping Point

On Wednesday, September 29, the Ebooks: Libraries at the Tipping Point online conference will be held. The conference includes some great speakers that you may be interested in. Visit the conference website to view the complete program and find out more.

E-textbooks in South Korea schools

For the past few weeks, Jeff Young from The Chronicle has been traveling through Asia to observe how digital technologies are changing teaching, research, and university experiences. Mr. Young recently stopped in South Korea and observed four classrooms at an elementary school that is participating in the e-textbook pilot run by the government. An interesting article written by Mr. Young provides an overview of the classroom experience and includes comments from students and faculty about the learning experience.

As with other e-textbook pilots, the comments show that there are advantages and challenges to using the technology in the classroom. Some of the advantages include: the wide range of real world material that is available compared to the paper text and that the students are performing better in math class with the digital textbooks. While some of the challenges include: self guided quizzes that do not give detailed feedback and difficulty accessing the materials from home. Teachers at the school also say that they have difficulty finding and producing multimedia content to incorporate into the digital textbooks.

Mr. Young summed up the article by pointing out the e-textbooks provide an interactive and engaging experience but at this point seem to be high maintenance.

You can read more about Mr. Young’s travels on his College 2.0 column.

Digital Happenings

Here are some links to interesting articles from the past few days:

• The Xplanation blog has a posting about “Nine Important Trends in the Evolution of Digital Textbook and E-learning Content” that is worth a read. Some of the trends include the growth of OER, the development of a common format for e-textbooks, and a merging of the rental and e-textbook markets.
• An article from the Wall Street Journal reports that Blackberry could unveil a 7-inch tablet as early as next week. According to the report, the tablet will not be sold with a cellular service but users will be able to connect to cellular networks through Blackberry smartphones.
• According to a recent press release, Vook has released 47 enhanced e-books or “vooks” in the Apple iBookstore. As mentioned previously, vooks blend text, video, images, and social networking into a single experience. Here is a video demo that explains more.
• Here is an interesting article about a school in Scotland that gave each of its students an iPad for use in class and at home.
• According to Publishers Weekly, the Community College Open Textbook Collaborative (CCOTC) has partnered with Dynamic Books, an interactive digital textbook platform from Macmillan. CCOTC is a nonprofit coalition of colleges, governmental agencies, educational nonprofits, and other education-related organizations that was formed to help reduce the cost of textbooks. CCOTC has identified 27 open textbooks that will be made available through Dynamic Books beginning in January 2011.
• A posting on the Kindle Nation Daily blog says that Amazon is winning the e-book pricing war against publishers. The number of e-books in the Kindle store that are in Amazon’s preferred price range has increased significantly over the past few months. The posting includes a pricing analysis as well.

Update on iPad pilots at Seton Hill University and George Fox University

A recent article from Wired Campus provides some updates on a few of the iPad pilots occurring this fall.

According to the article, faculty members at Seton Hill University are working with the developers of Inkling, an interactive textbooks app for the iPad, to determine how to integrate the technology into the classroom. As mentioned previously, Inkling has many appealing features including: figures and diagrams that can be freely rotated and resized, embedded videos and case studies, and interactive quizzes. One of the most interesting features is the note sharing functionality that allows students to take notes in the margins and then share the notes with classmates or instructors in real-time. This gives students the opportunity to ask questions and share ideas instantly. Catherine Giunta, an associate professor of business at Seton Hill, says that the technology has changed the way that students interact with the textbook and how she interacts with the students. Ms. Guinta has been able to give students individualized instruction and guidance after reviewing their margin notes.

The article also discusses the iPad experience at George Fox University. For the first time this year, the university expanded the computing options and offered each incoming first-year student a choice between an iPad and a MacBook. According to the article, only about 10 percent of the students chose the iPad so it has been difficult to completely incorporate the device into the curriculum this semester.

July 2010 e-book sales statistics

E-book sales statistics for July 2010 have been released by the Association of American Publishers (AAP) via IDPF. Trade e-book sales were $40.8 million for July 2010, a 150.2% increase over July 2009. IDPF reports calendar year to date revenue is up 191%. Note: These figures represent the 12 to 15 trade book publishers who have been willing to supply their data to IDPF.

Apple’s iBooks is one of most popular iPad apps

According to an article on TheBookseller.com, Apple’s iBooks application is one of the most popular apps on the iPad and it has even surpassed social networking apps like Facebook and Twitter. A recent report says that 78% of iPad owners have downloaded the iBooks app while 52% have downloaded the Facebook app and 34% have downloaded the Twitter app. The report also says that half of the users use the iBooks app three times a week and almost a quarter of the users access it daily.

Something you can’t do with the iPad

Here is a funny advertisement from Newsday that was posted on the Bits Blog. It shows you one of the few things that you can’t do with the iPad.

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt announces innovation fund and partnership with A&E Television Networks

A few recent announcements from Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (HMH) show that the publisher is preparing for the digital future. Earlier this week, HMH announced the creation of an innovation fund to invest in education initiatives globally. According to the press release, the fund will support projects that enhance student achievement, individualized learning, and technology integration. The goal is to bring new solutions to the market that will play a role in transforming education.

HMH also plans to invest in innovation centers in the U.S. and Ireland. At the centers, innovation teams will work with third party manufacturers, foundations, and academia on new solutions. The HMH Fuse: Algebra 1 app that we discussed last week is one of the new solutions.

Today, HMH also announced a new partnership with A&E Television Networks (AETN). Content from HISTORY, a division of AETN formerly known as the History Channel, will be used to create digital education materials including: multimedia classroom packages, a streaming digital library, and interactive textbooks.

Here is an interesting video from the companies that discusses how the partnership could help transform education in the classroom.

University of Texas at San Antonio opens a bookless library

As we discussed in a previous posting, some university libraries have begun remaking their physical spaces for the digital future. Stanford University, Cornell University, and Johns Hopkins University have all made changes on their campuses.

According to a recent article, the University of Texas at San Antonio has also created a new library space which will be the first bookless library on a college or university campus. The Applied Engineering and Technology Library at the university includes 425,000 e-books and 18,000 e-journal subscriptions, as well as computers, LCD screens, printers, and scanners for student use. In the near future, the library will also make e-reader and tablet devices available for check out.

According to the article, the new bookless library is catching on with students because librarians now have more time to assist them.

Early results from iPad pilot at University of Notre Dame

An article on Forbes.com discusses the results from the first survey of a test group of students using iPads at the University of Notre Dame. While the students have only been using the devices for a short time, the overall results are positive. Corey Angst, Assistant Professor of Management, and the faculty member teaching the class, noted that he anticipated more negative feedback. “In [Information Technology] research, we almost always see a slight dip in satisfaction after a couple weeks of usage. In this case, we saw very little of that.”

Below is a listing of some of the pros and cons that were expressed by the students.

Pros

• Encouraged exploration of additional topics
• Provided functions/tools that are not possible with a traditional textbook
• Made coursework more interesting
• Improved collaboration among team members
• Helped with organization
• Made bags/backpacks much lighter
• Used for reading in other courses and non-academic reading
• Reduced paper usage

Cons

• Distracting due to games, apps, and web browser
• Concerned about the effects of spending so much time looking at a screen
• More difficult to highlight text on an iPad than a regular book

Notre Dame plans to rotate the iPads among different classes next semester. The university aims to create an “e-publishing ecosystem” for the entire university in the future.

The future of reading

Wired has an interesting article written by Jonah Lehrer about the future of reading on screens. Lehrer points out that advances in technology are making it easier to consume content on television, computer screens, etc., but he worries that this could backfire with books. He says that we may consume the words unconsciously and not truly contemplate the meaning of what we are reading.

“I worry that, before long, we’ll become so used to the mindless clarity of e-ink – to these screens that keep on getting better – that the technology will feedback onto the content, making us less willing to endure harder texts. We’ll forget what it’s like to flex those dorsal muscles, to consciously decipher a literate clause.”

The full article can be found on Wired’s website.

The size of books

Have you ever wondered why books are the size that they are? A posting on Wired’s Gadget Lab blog has the story behind the size.

Bookstore at Christopher Newport University to go digital in January 2011

Christopher Newport University recently announced that it will shut down its campus bookstore and launch a textbook website in January. The university said the decision was based on student buying patterns and the increase in online competition. The new website will include new and used textbooks, rentals, and e-books.

An article about the announcement can be found here.

Daytona State College plans to switch to e-textbooks in January 2011

According to a recent article from Inside Higher Ed, beginning in January, Daytona State College will purchase licenses from textbook publishers that will give students access to e-textbooks for a fee. This model allows the university to buy the license at a discounted price and transfer the cost and the savings to the students. According to Rand S. Spiwak, chief financial officer of Daytona State College, students may save as much as 80% with this model. Students will also have the option to purchase the print version if they choose. The digital course materials fee can be used as a credit toward the print version. In addition, this model will still give faculty the opportunity to choose among multiple publishers when selecting the texts for students.

The article points out that the college bookstore will not benefit from this new model but the college is prepared for that. Spiwak noted, “The simplest conclusion would be we’ll have no bookstore. What we’ll have is a store that sells t-shirts and backpacks, and things that go with e-readers.”

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt launches algebra app and pilots in four California school districts

Today, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (HMH) launched an interactive full-curriculum algebra app for the iPad and announced year-long pilots with four school districts in California.

The app is called HMH Fuse: Algebra 1 and it includes a year-long course and ancillary materials. The app is intended to provide students with an interactive learning experience that features: guided practice, video lessons, vocabulary links, graphing tools, highlighting, and notetaking capabilities. The app also provides teachers with real-time performance feedback for students.

According to the press release, approximately 400 students in San Francisco, Long Beach, Riverside, and Fresno school districts will participate in the pilot. The students will utilize the algebra app on iPad devices while control groups of students will use traditional paper textbooks. The groups will be compared based on student achievement and attitudes about learning.

The HMH Education website features additional information about the app and pilot. There is also a video demo to show how the app works on the iPad.

How do digital devices affect the way we process information?

An interesting article from NPR discusses several research projects that are studying the way that digital technologies affect our brains. Some research shows that heavy multimedia users have trouble focusing on tasks and filtering out irrelevant information. While other research shows that digital technologies have many positive benefits because information can be organized so that we do not have to keep track of it all.

The article also includes some interesting stats. It says that the average person today consumes about three times as much information as a person consumed in 1960. In addition, an average computer user can switch programs 36 times an hour.

Youth in Japan and China experience “character amnesia”

A recent article from Yahoo News says that the younger generations in China and Japan often have a hard time remembering how to write certain characters because of the constant use of digital devices. In China, electronic devices offer a menu of characters so users just need to be able to recognize a character. In Japan, the simpler writing systems are used for digital devices so over time users may forget the more complicated writing system.

Siok Wai Ting, assistant professor of linguistics at Hong Kong University, pointed out that forgetting how to write the characters could eventually affect reading ability.

Five publishers to pilot digital textbooks at California State Universities

Earlier this week, it was announced that Cengage Learning, McGraw-Hill Education, Bedford/Freeman/Worth, John Wiley & Sons, and Pearson will all participate in a pilot with The Digital Marketplace, an initiative of the California State University Office of the Chancellor.

The pilot begins this semester and includes five California State Universities: Dominguez Hills, Fullerton, Long Beach, San Bernardino, and San Francisco State. Between the schools, 32 courses will be participating and about 4,000 students. Students enrolled in the participating classes will be able to purchase subscriptions for the digital content through their campus bookstores. With the subscription, students will be able to access the digital content for the length of the term and read the texts on computers/laptops, iPad, iPhones, and other devices.

According to an article on the California State University website, the pilot program will likely expand to include more courses and campuses for the spring 2011 semester. In addition, data will be collected throughout the pilots to learn more about student and faculty preferences for digital material.

Full edition of Oxford English Dictionary may not be printed again

According to an article from Telegraph.co.uk, it is not likely that a full edition of the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) will be printed again. The second version of OED was published in 1989 across 20 volumes but has also been available online via subscription for many years. Currently, it receives about two million visits per month from subscribers. The third version is still a decade away from completion and will likely only appear online at that point.

Nigel Portwood, the chief executive of Oxford University Press, commented, “The print dictionary market is just disappearing, it is falling away by tens of percent a year.”

Simon Winchester, author of ‘The Meaning of Everything: The Story of the Oxford English Dictionary’ added, “The printed book is about to vanish at extraordinary speed. I have two complete OEDs, but never consult them – I use the online OED five or six times daily. The same with many of my reference books – and soon with most.”

Oxford University Press, owner of the dictionary, said that it will still continue to print the Oxford Dictionary of English which is sold in bookstores.

Sony announces three new e-readers

Today, Sony announced the launch of three new e-reader devices. The three devices are upgraded versions of those already on the market including the Reader Pocket Edition, Reader Touch Edition, and the wireless Reader Daily Edition. All of the devices now include a touch screen and utilize E Ink’s latest display technology called Pearl. Pearl has a contrast ratio approximately 50 percent greater than the previous E Ink display. In addition, all of the devices have a reduced size and weight. The Reader Pocket Edition and the Reader Touch Edition are available now and the wireless Reader Daily Edition is expected to ship in time for the holidays. To see pictures of the new devices, you can view this posting on the Teleread blog.

In addition, Sony has announced plans to expand its Reader line to Italy, Spain, Australia, Japan, and China.

800 institutions to use Flat World Knowledge textbooks this fall

Flat World Knowledge continues to pick up textbook adoptions across the U.S. According to a recent press release, more than 1,300 educators at 800 colleges and universities will use Flat World’s open textbooks this fall. This is up from 400 institutions in the fall of 2009 and 30 institutions during the spring of 2009. To date, Flat World Knowledge has published 24 titles and an additional 50 titles are in the works.

Flat World reports that it is “on track to save 150,000 students $12 million or more in textbook expenses for the 2010/2011 academic year.”

Echo Smartpen from Livescribe

In a previous posting, we discussed Livescribe’s Pulse Smartpen. The smartpen looks like an ordinary pen but also includes memory storage, OLED display, speaker, microphone, camera, and a USB connector. When the pen is used with special paper, the camera tracks the movement of anything that is written or drawn while recording audio.

According to a posting on Engadget, this fall Livescribe will release a new pen called Echo. The Echo will include additional storage as well as software to allow users to export their notes to a computer. Users can then share their notes via social networks, email, etc. In addition, when the pen is connected to a computer via a USB cable, anything that is drawn on the paper will be streamed to the computer in real time. These additional features could make the pens very useful for both students and instructors.

The Livescribe website features more information and a video demo.

The environmental impact of e-reader devices

A few months ago, the New York Times published an interesting piece about the environmental impact of e-reader devices. While some details about the way the devices are manufactured are not available, the article provides an estimate of the environmental impact of the devices compared to paper books.

Personal digitization of books in Japan

The personal digitization of books is a quickly growing trend in Japan. It is referred to as “jisui” and it allows people to convert a title to a digital format by scanning each page individually. Users find that doing this makes books easier to keep over time, as having their library consolidated in a single place is much more convenient than managing a collection of physical books.

Many companies in Japan now offer book-cutting and scanning services, which has raised concerns about copyright violations, as this process of digitization is permitted under Japanese copyright law provided that individuals do the reproduction themselves and for personal use.

Tetsuya Imamura, an associate professor in intellectual property law at Meiji University, says that the law is lagging behind the latest developments. "Legally speaking, it is a violation of reproduction rights, but with respect to the handling of digital data, the copyright law is out of step with current times," Imamura says.

For more information on this topic, a Mainichi Daily News article about this trend can be found here.

Digital Happenings

• According to a recent press release, three universities and the Virginia Department of Education have announced pilot programs with Inkling. The universities include: Abilene Christian University, Seton Hill University, and the University of Alabama. Inkling is a new start-up company that is working with publishers to rethink electronic textbooks. You can read more about Inkling in one of our previous posts. The Bits Blog also has a recent post.
• An article from Forbes features a Q&A with Tom Christopher, the president of Follett’s Higher Ed division, about the future of the college store.
• Is Apple working on a touch-screen desktop iPad?
• Reuters has an interesting article about a new social networking technology called Scoop. According to the developers, Scoop is intended to help connect college students with their campuses and social communities.
• Fast Company tells you why you should not underestimate the B&N Nook.
• An article from San Francisco Chronicle says that mobile payment technologies are gaining momentum and companies like Apple, AT&T, and Verizon Wireless may soon offer this type of feature.
• According to Information Week, Amazon says that its latest Kindle model has sold more in its first four weeks than any of its previous Kindle devices. For this version, Amazon has reduced the size, weight, and price of the device.
• In regards to e-book sales, Amazon recently said that they continue to sell more Kindle books than hardcover books. “Over the past three months, for every 100 hardcover books Amazon.com has sold, it has sold 143 Kindle books.”
  
  

Forrester predicts tablets will be fastest growing category of PC’s

Earlier this summer, Forrester Research released a report with predictions for the US consumer PC market. Forrester predicted that tablets would be the fastest growing category of computers and would grow from 3.5 million units in 2010, to 8.4 million in 2011, to 59 million units in 2015. Forrester now says that based on new data and the success of the Apple iPad, their estimate was conservative and an update to the report will be published later this year.

In a blog post, Sarah Rotman Epps, author of the report explained, “One of the assumptions we made in our initial forecast was that the iPad would behave like other similar consumer devices in its first year of adoption: When it went on sale in April, we assumed that sales would be strong based on pent-up demand for a hyped product; we then assumed that sales would slow in a summer slump, as is common with consumer technology purchases; and that sales would spike again in the holiday season. But the iPad isn’t behaving like other consumer devices: It has a steamroller of momentum behind it that indicates incredibly strong demand for this entirely new form factor.”

According to an article from Campus Technology, in the report, Epps says that consumers were not looking for an iPad type device before it was introduced because the top features that they look for in a PC are not included in an iPad. However, Apple has done a great job of advertising the product, educating consumers, and making consumers realize just how much they need one.

Virginia State University to provide free e-textbooks to business students

According to a recent press release, this fall the business school at Virginia State University will give e-textbooks to the students enrolled in eight core courses. The university is working with Flat World Knowledge and has purchased a digital site license for the e-textbooks. This means that the university will pay for the e-textbooks via an institutional fee based on the number of students, which is similar to how institutions pay for campus-wide software.

The license allows students free access to the web, PDF, audio, and e-reader versions of the textbooks for the iPad, Kindle, and other e-readers. In addition, students with print disabilities will have access to textbooks in DAISY (Digital Accessible Information System) and BRF (Braille Ready Format) formats. Students can also choose to purchase the print version of the textbooks if they prefer.

The initiative is part of the business school’s “revolution of excellence” which aims to increase retention and graduation rates through technology-based solutions. The intention of this pilot is to help remove textbook costs as one of the barriers. If the experiment goes well, it will expand next semester to include more courses. However, the university will be exploring options to transfer associated licensing costs to the students.

Flat World has done a terrific job of getting media coverage and the concept of institutional licensing of textbook content is also gaining coverage. This may be a signal that course material publishers have driven textbook prices as far as they can go. If more schools or institutions are able to get faculty to shift in numbers both how and what they teach, which is part of what textbook selection represents, in order to manage course materials prices then something is broken in the system. There is also a risk if the cost is ultimately built into tuition. Textbook prices are an easy target. The tuition problem is not. One thing is sure – more experiments and more conversions to different business models will continue to proliferate.

Inkling – Adding value to digital textbooks

Digital textbooks have lagged behind the booming sales of electronic books, and many publishers and companies are attempting to make them more appealing, primarily by better utilizing the benefits of the digital format. One such company, Inkling, is working with publishers to rethink the electronic textbooks, and it is initially introducing four McGraw-Hill interactive college textbooks designed for the iPad.

The Inkling-based books make good use of the iPad and provide features that many students expect from digital but thus far have not quite received. Figures and diagrams can be freely rotated and resized, embedded videos and case studies are included in most chapters, keywords can be tapped to display their definition, and there are interactive quizzes for each section. One of the most interesting features that Inkling provides is its note sharing functionality, whereby students can take notes and then share them with peers and instructors in real-time in order to ask questions or share ideas. Publishers and companies like Inkling are beginning to take advantage of the digital format and add value to digital textbooks, which will likely have a large impact on student adoption and sales over the next several years.

“In 2009, digital textbooks generated about $40 million in sales, estimates Rob Reynolds, director of product design and research for Xplana, a social learning company owned by MBS Service Co. But he expects that to double to $80 million this year, or roughly 1% of the total higher education textbook market. By 2015 the market will exceed $2 billion in sales, or more than 20% of the total market, he says.”

For more information on Inkling, a recent Wall Street Journal article discusses the company and digital textbooks. Inkling also has many interesting videos on their site.

Donate a Kindle 2

Here’s a great idea. If you are thinking about upgrading to the Kindle 3 but can’t figure out what to do with your Kindle 2, you could donate it to the soldiers deployed overseas. A new program called Kindle 2 for Troops (K24T) is accepting donations of pre-owned Kindle 2 e-readers through Thanksgiving Day. Visit the E-Books for Troops website for more information.

Video from SDSU

The San Diego State University Bookstore website has a great video message from the president of SDSU about the store’s new textbook rental program. The video is a great example of a way to show students how the college store and institution are working to save them money.

Results from the Consumer Attitudes Toward E-book Reading study

Each week, O’Reilly Tools of Change (TOC) hosts a conversation on Twitter that focuses on topics of interest in the book and reading community. One of the recent conversations featured some of the latest results from the ongoing Consumer Attitudes Toward E-book Reading study by the Book Industry Study Group (BISG). The study includes hundreds of e-book consumers and aims to understand their purchasing and reading habits.

Some interesting results from the study include:
- Half of all e-books acquired today are free e-books.
- The cost of entry is still the top reason people give for not switching to an e-reader device.
- The Kindle has surpassed the PC as the most frequently used device for reading digital books.

To read more of the results, visit the TOC website.

June 2010 e-book sales statistics

E-book sales statistics for June 2010 have been released by the Association of American Publishers (AAP) via IDPF. Trade e-book sales were $29.8 million for June 2010, a 118.9% increase over June 2009. IDPF reports calendar year to date revenue is up 204.2%. IDPF also reports that the sales for Q1 and Q2 of 2010 ($179.7 million) have surpassed the sales for all of 2009 ($169.5 million). Note: These figures represent the 12 to 15 trade book publishers who have been willing to supply their data to IDPF.

Learning with Digital

An interesting article from USA Today discusses how well students can learn with digital technologies. The article points out that while there are many benefits to digital learning, there are also some challenges to keep in mind.

One of the challenges is learning how to make sense out of an increased amount of information. Richard Mayer, psychology professor at the University of California-Santa Barbara noted, “The challenge for working in the electronic age is that we have so much access to information but we still have the same brain we always had. The problem is not access to information. It is integrating that information and making sense out of it."

Another challenge is student study habits. Research from the Journal of Educational Psychology indicates that when students have poor study habits on paper the same habits transfer to digital learning. In a second article from Science Daily, one of the authors of the report, Ken Kiewra, noted that teachers will need to help students learn new strategies to study more effectively with digital technologies.

A third challenge is the distraction that technology can cause. Kaplan Test Prep and Admissions analyzed student study habits and found that some students put away their laptops, cell phones, or other devices when it was time to study because distractions were just a click away.

While digital learning presents some challenges it also creates opportunities. As Jeff Olson, vice president of research for Kaplan Test Prep and Admissions, points out, advances in technology “represent very real potential to remake education for the better. The potential for the textbook to come alive with interactivity ... will make the next several years of e-book innovation fascinating to watch."

iPad programs

A recent article from Ars Technica includes an overview of some of the iPad programs occurring at institutions this fall. Oklahoma State University, Illinois Institute of Technology, Seton Hill University, George Fox University, Reed College, North Carolina State University Libraries, Duke University's Global Health Institute, and the University of Maryland are some of the institutions that have implemented programs. The programs differ among the schools but aim to answer similar questions such as:
- Does the iPad enhance learning?
- Does the device provide a cost savings to students?
- Is the iPad worth investing in for future students?
- How can the iPad and its apps be integrated into curriculums?
- How can mobile devices be integrated into the workplace?

For Reed College, it will be their second experiment with e-reader devices. Last fall, the college participated in the Kindle DX pilot and found that the technology was still limited and required improvement for educational use. This fall, Reed will repeat the experiment with iPads.

Martin Ringle, chief technology officer at Reed College, commented on the experiment. "If I were to predict, I would say that the results are going to be dramatically different and much better and they're going to point the way to what role this technology is going to play in higher education."

We look forward to hearing the results from the programs in the coming months.

Data shows mobile devices are overtaking PC’s

An interesting article on Fortune.com discusses the recent stats that show mobile devices are overtaking PC’s. “In a nutshell, what we are seeing in smartphones is bigger than anything that has come before it. Much bigger than the PC. And it is coming so fast that we don't realize what's happening.”

Should e-readers be allowed in coffee shops?

The NY Times Bits blog has an interesting posting about whether or not e-readers should be allowed in the coffee shops that do not allow computers. Are e-readers equivalent to computers or paper books? What do you think?

e-reader accessibility

Recently Ars Technica compared the Kindle, the iPad, the Sony Reader, and the Nook to find out which device had the best accessibility features. Their research showed that the iPad and the Kindle are farthest ahead but there is still room for improvement. While all of the e-readers allow users to increase the font size, only the iPad and the Kindle include text-to-speech functionality. In addition, only the iPad and the latest version of the Kindle, the Kindle 3, include audible menus.

In a recent press release, the National Federation of the Blind praised Amazon for making the Kindle 3 accessible.

Dr. Marc Maurer, President of the National Federation of the Blind, said: "We commend Amazon on the unveiling of a new Kindle that blind and print-disabled people can use. In order to compete in today's digital society, blind and print-disabled people must be able to access the same reading technologies as the sighted. The National Federation of the Blind has long been urging Amazon to make its reading device accessible, and we are pleased that our efforts have come to fruition."

University libraries prepare for the digital future

An interesting article from The Chronicle discusses university libraries that are moving completely online or remaking their physical spaces for the digital future. The libraries at Stanford University, Cornell University, and Johns Hopkins University are all making changes toward a “bookless library.”

According to the article, Stanford University recently opened a new engineering library that is significantly smaller and includes far fewer books. Only 15,000 of the library’s 96,000 books will be on display in the new library and the rest will be moved to off-site storage. Librarians will no longer staff the desk but will be available to students through e-mail, Facebook, online chatting, or phone. In addition, the library will have 15 e-book readers available. An article on Stanford’s website includes more information and a video about the new library.

Cornell University’s engineering library is also moving most of its print books to storage and then dividing the remainder among other libraries on campus. In addition, Johns Hopkins University has decided it will no longer have a physical location for its medical library. The library staff will now work within the academic departments.

The article notes that many of the libraries that are moving towards digital are those in the science and technology fields because they contain journals that are already available online. Libraries for other disciplines are not as likely to move in the short term. However, things could change in the long term. Recent data from The Association of Research Libraries shows that libraries are now spending less money on books and more on electronic resources.

Digital Happenings

While the blog highlights many of the digital happenings affecting our industry, there is often more going on than we have a chance to cover. Here are some links to related stories that might be of interest.

• Campus Technology has an interesting article about the colleges that are remaking their campuses and designing learning spaces to accommodate student interaction and technology.
• CNET recently featured an interview with Ian Freed, Vice President of Amazon Kindle. Freed says that Amazon believes it has 70-80 percent of the e-book market.
• An article from eSchool News discusses the new copyright law that lets students and faculty in film or media studies courses legally “rip” movie excerpts to make commentaries, compilations, and other works.
• An article from Campus Technology discusses the news that Ohio’s Board of Regents will be working with Blackboard to create a statewide online learning clearinghouse.
• A recent article from NYU Press says that fifty-five university presses have expressed interest in participating in a University Press EBook Consortium to sell collections of e-books to academic libraries. The consortium will launch in fall 2011.
• A press release from the University of Scranton features praise from recent graduates for the university’s successful online learning program.
• A recent article from The NY Times compares the iPad (a multitasker device) to the Amazon Kindle (a specialist device) and says that early evidence suggests that some Kindle owners are also purchasing iPads and moving some of their e-book purchases to the Apple iBookstore.

Dual-screen e-readers on campuses this fall

According to a recent article from Wired Campus, this fall 50 college bookstores will carry the Entourage Edge e-reader and about 100 students at three campuses will test the Kno e-reader.

As mentioned in previous postings, both the Edge and the Kno were designed for education. The Edge is a hybrid e-reader with a 9.7 inch, black and white, E Ink screen for reading and taking notes, and a 10.1 inch color LCD screen for viewing images, videos, and the internet. Publishers such as McGraw-Hill, Cengage Learning, and Elsevier have made digital content available on the device through the Entourage e-book store.

In comparison, the Kno is a foldable dual-screen e-reader/notebook that includes two 14-inch LCD screens and the ability to highlight and annotate. Cengage Learning, McGraw Hill, Pearson, and Wiley will provide select digital resources for the pilot this fall. The Kno is expected to go on sale in October and ship in time for the holidays.

Enrollment in e-school learning on the rise

An article from Dayton Daily News says that e-school enrollment in the state of Ohio is on the rise. For the 2009-2010 school year, 29,269 K-12 students attended school online. This is up from 2,191 students in 2000-2001. According to the article, Ohio ranks third in the nation for the number of enrolled e-school students.

Analyst reactions to the news that B&N may be for sale

Shelf Awareness has an interesting article that includes a round-up of analyst reactions to the announcement that B&N may be for sale.

Curriki – a community for free educational material

Amongst other topics related to textbook sales, a recent NY Times article discusses Curriki, a nonprofit organization established to support the development and distribution of free educational materials. Founded in 2004 by Sun Microsystems and originally called the Global Education and Learning Community (GELC), Curriki is spearheaded by Scott McNealy, former CEO of Sun. Like many others, McNealy is seeking to find a solution to the rising cost of textbooks; Curriki’s answer is open-source.

“We are spending $8 billion to $15 billion per year on textbooks” in the United States, Mr. McNealy says. “It seems to me we could put that all online for free.”

Curriki’s website is an online environment composed of educators and educational experts where members may share and publish resources, communicate with peers, and build, add-to, and comment on curricula and materials from the Curriki repository. Anyone can contribute to and use the material found on Curriki. According to their website, the community is currently composed of over 132,000 members and contains almost 38,000 resources, which include lesson plans, textbooks, videos, units, simulations, and other community-driven resources.

According to the NY Times article, “Curriki has made only modest strides, but Mr. McNealy has pledged to inject new life.” Mr. McNealy would like to create an organized framework for collecting education informational and build systems to evaluate materials and monitor student performance.

New research finds consumers favor digital but do not always trust the internet

An interesting report by the Center for the Digital Future at the Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism at the University of Southern California analyzes current trends and finds that people are quickly moving away from print in favor of digital. The report, released late last month, includes many interesting statistics about the practices and preferences of internet users. According to the study, internet reliance is reaching a new peak; the internet is now used by 82 percent of Americans.

Amongst the findings are statistics that illustrate the continuing decline of newspapers: "Eighteen percent of Internet users said they stopped a subscription to a newspaper or magazine because they now get the same or related content online, and twenty-two percent of users who read newspapers said they would not miss the print edition.”

However, while most people rely on the web as an important source for information, a much smaller percentage feel that the information is reliable. According to the report, “In the year 2000, 55 percent of users said that most or all of online information is reliable; in the current study, 39 percent had the same response – a new low level for the Digital Future Project.”

The report also covers many other topics including: internet users’ perception of website advertisements, social networking, and online shopping.

A full overview of the report can be found here. In addition, a recent New York Times Bits blog article discusses the report.

A view from college stores...

The California Association of College Stores (CACS) newsletter always has some interesting pieces in it. In this month’s newsletter there are a couple of interesting pieces.

Tony Sanjume, the incoming president of CACS talks about “living in interesting times” and the truth behind this proverb, and other misperceptions we may have about things. He makes a great plea on behalf of the college stores – emphasizing one point that differentiates college stores from many of their competitors: that the college store is part of the academic mission of the institution and works hard to obtain lower prices for students. He writes:

I doubt that there is another business that struggles with this issue more than the College Bookstore. We are perceived by some to be price gougers, profiteers, and opportunists of the worst sort; you would think we were selling water to earthquake victims at $10 a half liter. When in reality, most of the people in the store side of the business spend most of their time trying to provide lowest cost alternatives.

So what is the truth?

The truth is that textbook people are out hustling for next semester adoptions early, as soon as the dust settles from the start of the current semester. Why? Well, to find used books, to build a buyback list to pay out top dollar to our students at the end of the semester.

The truth is that general merchandise people are always looking for bargains in the supply area, they are looking for the $9.99 t-shirt, the bargain general reading books because they know that students are on very limited budgets.

The truth is I have yet to meet a college bookstore employee who didn’t have the best interests of the student in mind.

The truth is that textbooks are expensive.

The truth is that college is expensive.

The truth is that publishing is a business and the major academic publishers are public companies that are responsible for providing a bottom line on a corporate statement.

The truth is that faculty demand the most up to date information provided in an attractive package that comes with test banks and additional multimedia course management systems.

If I can be so bold as to paraphrase (and Tony correct me if I am off too far), despite best efforts to reduce costs, students still believe the store is out there to rip them off.

One “truth” I think Tony forgot to add is that most college stores are non-profit organizations. What profit they do generate typically goes back to the institution to support financial aid, student activities, or capital budgets – so that students can afford the rising tuition to attend academic institutions, or that they have the activities on their campus that interest them and make it a great living environment.

Are textbooks crazy expensive – I do not think anyone would argue against that. But the next time you are buying your textbook from someplace else to save money, ask yourself what that place is giving back to your institution to help with financial aid or campus life. There are several other arguments that could be made here – but I will attempt to avoid standing on that soap box too long.

Another interesting point that Tony made in his article referred to the initiative at Daytona State College designed to move course materials completely to digital. In my opinion this move is premature compared to the state of technology, preferences of students, and for other reasons – but hey, a school has to market itself, right? Tony raised a great set of questions that reflect some of the value the college store brings to the table and some of the questions that academic institutions must think about in considering options like these. For example:

1. Who will monitor the aggregation of course materials from faculty to ensure timely submission?
2. Who will ensure that digital delivery of course materials to students occurs in a smooth fashion?
3. Who will create and maintain the server that will interface between the publisher and the college?
4. Who will build the program that will know that a student’s fees have been paid so that it will notify the student and enable the download of their appropriate course materials?
5. Who has heard of FERPA?
6. Who will match the authorized course materials to the appropriate class?
7. Who will decipher what the faculty really meant to order?
8. Who will tell the faculty that they are only able to use course materials from these approved sources?
9. Who will tell that faculty member that the guy in Berkeley who hand prints his book in his garage on hemp paper is not an approved vendor?
10. Who will tell students that they can only have their course materials for 180 or 360 days because of DRM requirements? And then they need to buy them again if they’d like to use them for future reference.
11. Who will ensure that every student has a digital book reader, i.e. computer?
12. Who will tell foreign publishers that they need to create digital course materials?
13. What will you do when the digital cost of course materials begins to approach the cost of printed course materials after print product no longer subsidizes the artificially low cost of digital materials?
14. What happens when new editions keep coming every 2-3 years even when used books are eliminated?
15. Who has a higher average salary, an IT professional or a bookstore professional?

Suzanne Donnelly’s piece on the “buffet model” in the college store in this month’s newsletter is also good. She talks about change – here and coming – and how the role of textbook managers is undergoing a fundamental transformation on college campuses. I like the upbeat and opportunity-oriented perspective her piece provides, and so recommend that article to college store readers of this blog as well.

Barnes & Noble considering sale of company

Barnes & Noble announced that its board is evaluating strategic alternatives to improve shareholder value, including the possible sale of the company.

According to reports, like other booksellers, B&N struggles with the changing publishing industry and retail environment. In recent years, books sales have moved to other big-box retailers and to online competitors such as Amazon. In addition, reading habits are changing as e-books and e-readers become more popular. B&N made efforts to adapt to the changing environment with its large online store and electronic reading options however, sales at the brick and mortar stores are still a significant part of the business.

David Schick, managing director at Stifel Nicolaus commented, “There’s been a long series of pressures. The market has not been kind to bookstores, and it’s for new reasons like competition with Apple and Amazon, and it’s for old reasons, like what we believe has been a decline in reading for the last 20 years. Americans have devoted less of what we call media time to books.”

An article from Reuters says that Leonard Riggo, founder of B&N, may be a possible buyer along with a larger investor group. The article notes that going private could help the company realign its business and invest more in digital options.

For college stores the future of B&N has interesting implications. As one of the largest contract management companies serving the college store industry, the fate of the company could ultimately affect hundreds of college campuses. Textbook publishers likely also feel concern as the number of large channel-aggregating players diminishes – leaving them to negotiate with a few players, such as Amazon and Apple, over future pricing models for their products. As the future of B&N and B&N College awaits determination, college stores might take the opportunity to ask themselves what they are doing to remain viable and relevant into the future, and how we improve the value we provide to our “shareholders” – students, faculty, and institutions.

Kindle 3 / Kindle Wi-Fi released

Last week Amazon announced the release of the third generation Kindle, which implements many expected features and updates, is 21% smaller, 15% lighter, and provides 4GB of storage space. This third generation Kindle comes with a 6” version of the high-contrast, next generation E Ink screen found on the Kindle DX Graphite, and it features 20% faster page turning speeds. In response to the accessibility issues for the visually impaired, which we discussed in a previous posting, Amazon implemented Text-to-Speech enabled menus—a much-needed and long-promised feature that allows visually impaired users to navigate through the Kindle.

As expected, Amazon also added built-in Wi-Fi connectivity and launched a less expensive, Wi-Fi only version of the device, coined the Kindle Wi-Fi. Due to demand, the Kindle 3/Kindle WiFi are temporarily sold out, and the next shipment is expected to be around September 4th.

More information and a review of the Kindle 3 can be found here.

Cathy’s Book – Ebook Enhancements

E-book enhancements, such as audio, video, animation, etc. are becoming increasingly popular. A great example of this is Cathy’s Book, a popular teen novel that makes great use of these features to immerse the reader in an interactive experience.

Here is a demo of the Cathy’s Book app.

The value of editors

A recent article discusses the implications of yet another move by Amazon that angered the publishing industry when Wylie Agency signed a deal to sell digital versions of some of its best sellers exclusively to Amazon, a topic on which we touched in a post earlier this week. The article raises an important question:

If a literary agency can become a publisher, then what's to stop Amazon or Apple or Google, or any other "digital behemoth" from doing the same thing?

The answer to this is very little. Amazon is clearly moving toward a model in which they could oust publishers from the process; however, the impact to the industry would be enormous. Although the rise of the e-book has progressively made it easier for authors to self-publish or otherwise rely less upon publishers—and it is probable that Amazon and others will attempt to step into this domain in their stead—this can easily be argued as a detriment to the industry as a whole. What these “digital behemoths” do not and likely would not provide, at least to the same extent, is the collaborative, editorial process through which publishers nurture promising writers over time. Without this editorial process, the quality of both writers and consequently their works would decrease drastically over time—a fact that publishers often fail to elucidate. As most authors who have gone through this rigorous and collaborative process would attest, it has an enormous impact on the final work; without it, titles revered as ‘great’ or ‘timeless’ would be only ‘good’ or ‘alright’. Due to its strong position and the threat that Amazon poses to publishers, it seems important to analyze the value of this editorial process. The question becomes, how do we measure the value of an editor?

Earlier this month, IBM attempted to answer this. Although IBM conducted its study using marketing web-pages, the principal idea is certainly applicable. IBM ran an A/B test, where they presented unedited pages to some users and edited pages to the rest and tracked the clicks to desired links on the page over the course of a month. According to IBM:

“The mean difference in engagement was 30 percent across the set of pages. We got a 30 percent improvement on the desired call to action for the pages across the board.”

Although it is much more difficult to quantitatively analyze the value of the editorial process in the book industry, publishers should be contemplating how to do so, and they should contemplate how to present the pivotal part they play in the industry more prominently.
More information on IBM’s attempt to measure the value of editors can be found in a DigitalBook World article here.