“A textbook case of innovation.
It’s time to do things a better way. By exploring. By collaborating with friends. By charting your own course. Follow your curiosity into a more engaging experience. Inkling isn’t just a book on a screen. It’s an entirely new way to learn.”

Inkling isn’t about books on a screen. It’s about redefining how you work with your learning content and improving how you learn.”

It (the samples) looks very well produced but does it change anything? If publishers and authors don’t learn to think in the new medium isn’t this apt to beget “old wine in a new bottle” syndrome?

More info here:
http://www.inkling.com/

“The growing popularity of e-books has raised a difficult question in the publishing marketplace that used to have an easy answer: What’s a book worth?”

You can read or listen to the article here:

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=124592613&sc=fb&cc=fp

“Professors will be able to reorganize or delete chapters; upload course syllabuses, notes, videos, pictures and graphs; and perhaps most notably, rewrite or delete individual paragraphs, equations or illustrations.”

Distribution will be online and via traditional bookstores:

“Students will be able to buy the e-books at dynamicbooks.com, in college bookstores and through CourseSmart, a joint venture among five textbook publishers that sells electronic textbooks. The DynamicBooks editions — which can be reached online or downloaded — can be read on laptops and the iPhone from Apple. Clancy Marshall, general manager of DynamicBooks, said the company planned to negotiate agreements with Apple so the electronic books could be read on the iPad.”

See the NYT article “Textbooks That Professors Can Rewrite Digitally” for more info. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/22/business/media/22textbook.html?partner=rss&emc=rss

“Beyond Textbooks

Today we offer a Q & A with Andy Chlup of the Vail School District. With experience as a classroom teacher and technology coordinator, Andy is a perfect choice to head up one of the digital learning movements cited in the aforementioned NY Times article, Beyond Textbooks.

Andy notes he has been passionate about utilizing technology in the classroom from the first day he walked into a classroom. His interest in digital learning was spurred on by the wide-spread availability of open-source web-based tools such as WordPressMU, Moodle, DekiWiki, and many more.

Below, Andy discusses the move to a digital learning model, one that actually transcends any discussion of textbooks.”

See:
http://www.openeducation.net/2009/09/17/beyond-textbooks-andy-chlup-discusses-digital-learning-models/

Schools Dump Textbooks for iPods, Laptops
Teachers Say Students Learn Better From the Devices, Even Eultitasking

“For generations, school meant books — lots of books. But not anymore. Around the country, from high school to grad school, textbooks are getting harder to find. Technology has made the library something that can fit into the palm of your hand. ”

More at:
http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/ipods-laptops-replacing-school-textbooks/story?id=8563292

“Open Source Textbook Company Now BMOC At 400 Colleges”

http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2009/08/open-source-textbook-company-now-bmoc-at-400-colleges/