Interactive Books from Kiwa

The conversation continues..

Kiwa has a collection of interactive "Qbooks" available for the iPod Touch, iPhone and iPad. These interactive books have features such as "Swipe to Read," "Touch to Hear," "Touch to Spell" and a "My Narration" function to read and record in your own voice. Some have narration built-in. You will find the ability to "paint" story pages with custom brushes, as well. The books are moderately priced (.99 cents for the iPod Touch versions up to $7.99 for the iPad HD versions). Many titles are also multi-lingual, which might be suitable for foreign language teaching. The Kiwa website reports that "support for other platforms coming soon."

ICE 2011 Presentation: "ePub and the Future of the Book"

Today and tomorrow I will be presenting the work of the ADE team's Summer Institute project and ideas around the use of ePub, digital text and specifically the iPad for delivering instruction. Calling all educators!! Here is your chance to add your voice to the discussion. Visit the back-channel "chat board" at http://todaysmeet.com/futureofbooks/ and post your ideas about what books mean to you, and what you think is important when we look at what books of the future should be, do, or have. No sign-up is required.

Florida sets timeline for digital textbooks by 2015

Dateline: February 17, 2011 in the St. Petersburg Times:

State education officials rolled out a five-year proposal this week that calls for all students in K-12 to use only "electronic materials" delivered by Kindles, iPads and other similar technology by 2015.

Read the full article

What is the Future of the Book? Discussion continues at Educon

Christine DiPaulo and Chris Penny lead a discussion during Educon 2.3 (Jan 28-31, 2011 http://educon23.org/) in Philadelphia titled Future Of The Book. (http://educon23.org/conversations/Future_Of_The_Book). It was an extension of the work started at the Apple Distinguished Educators Summer 2010 Institute. Bill Rankin was kind enough to allow them to repurpose some of his outstanding work. Dr. Penny reports, "The session was very well received."

Watch live streaming video from educon14 at livestream.com

Vooks... connected, but not very adaptable.

I recently learned about "Vooks," which, according to the website, a Vook is an enhanced digital book blending video and Internet links. Well, it's not really a book...

From http://vook.com/what-is-a-vook.html

A vook is a new innovation in reading that blends a well-written book, high-quality video and the power of the Internet into a single, complete story. You can read your book, watch videos that enhance the story and connect with authors and your friends through social media all on one screen, without switching between platforms.

Vooks are available in two formats: As a web-based application you can read on your computer and an application for iPhone, iPod touch and iPad for reading on the go. With the web-based application you don't have to download programs or install software. Just open your favorite browser and start reading and watching in an exciting new way. You can also download and install the mobile applications through the Apple iTunes store and sync them with your Apple mobile device.

It's not an "ebook" as one would expect an ebook to be (based on similar offering from vendors such as Amazon or Barnes and Noble).  And, although users can read a selection on either a personal device or the web, and "connect" with other readers using a variety of social networking tools, unfortunately, readers cannot sync content between the web and their personal device. From the FAQs:

Unfortunately, at this time we are unable to offer multi-platform access. If you want to access a particular title on both your computer and your mobile device, you will have to purchase both versions. This is due to the separate checkout carts used on our site and the mobile provider's site. 

There is a small amount of free "lite" content available (Buddha, 3 Little Pigs), that does not require you to create an account. The lite versions include a few chapters (with videos) and a link to purchase the full version.

Connected? ... Socially, yes. 

Adaptable or Customizable?...  Somewhat.

Fonts (three sizes), and lightness/darkness can be adjusted, however it would appear that bookmarks and highlighting are not an option. 

A Future of Social Reading?

Connected!
Imagine being able to connect with other readers, or to connect with the author!

This report from NPR the other day mentions the idea of "Social Reading"

Some in the publishing industry look forward to a new age of "social reading," in which devices allow readers to share their reactions with each other. And the author might be interested in seeing a graph of the page-turns of thousands of people as they read his latest novel.

"I wouldn't have a problem with looking, but I would probably ignore what I saw," says author Stephen King. "There's a thing about certain pitchers who all of a sudden can't find the strike zone and are walking a lot of hitters and giving up a lot of hits, and you'll hear the announcer say, 'He's steering the ball.' And writers can do that, too."

But King expects the data will continue to be collected, as book-lovers switch to networked devices.

"Ultimately, this sort of thing scares the hell out of me," King says. "But it is the way that things are."

Read the full report (and listen) at http://www.npr.org/2010/12/15/132058735/is-your-e-book-reading-up-on-you

Google eBooks: "Time to set your reading free"

From http://books.google.com/help/ebooks/overview.html



"Google eBooks is compatible with any dedicated ebook reader that supports the Adobe eBook platform, including the Barnes & Noble Nook™ and Reader™ from Sony. With just a few steps, you can start reading over 3 million Google eBooks on the go."...

"Google eBooks can be downloaded onto all eReader devices that run Adobe Digital Editions. (Note: Google eBooks are not currently compatible with the Kindle).

Some common supported devices include: Aluratek Libre, Astak EZ Reader, BeBook, Bookeen, COOL-ER, Elonex eBook, HanLin eBook, IREX Digital Reader, Neolux Nuut, and more."