The right choice of Ebooks in Education?

(Picture above: Screen grab from Singapore’s in2015 video – (c) IDA Singapore)

Ebook Readers in Class rooms and Education:

The recent release of Apples iPad has sparked off a huge debate on it’s potential in many areas. There is a distinct polarization of views in two camps, the ones who say the device is over-hyped, and the ones who follow Apple as a religion, and believe it to be the prophet of technology, that will part the sea of confusion and lead the way forward. Amongst the many uses of the new iPad device, is a sudden surge of enthusiasm with educators and businesses that provide technology in education.

The iPad is being positioned or propositioned as the start of a revolution that will replace traditional textbooks. The subject of replacing paper with technology is of course close to the heart of almost everyone, especially environmentalists. I would tend to agree too, that trees are better seen than felt in a compressed form. However, just as Avatar the movie made stereoscopic 3D a household name, the iPad seems to be making e-book readers a household name. Not that 3D movies or e-book readers did not exist prior to these “brands”. It’s the right mix of money, marketing and evangelism that covers the last mile to adoption.

The debate –  iPad versus E-ink readers:

Let’s look briefly, and objectively at what it “could” take to replace textbooks in a classroom:

iPad based Textbook:

iPad Pros:

• Simple uncomplicated and uncluttered interface and Operating system, offering touch and launch applications
• Big screen real estate = better possibility of page layout and readability
• Hyperlinking of text possibility to branch out to the Internet for further research
• Wifi and 3G support
• Multi-touch surface for interacting.

The list above is non exhaustive, and more could be added by comments to this article below

iPad Cons:

• Back lit display, hence the reading experience is identical to reading off a laptop screen and thus not easy on the eyes for extended reading
• Weight of the device – Can lead to strain on the wrists and in worse case scenarios (though obviously not yet proven) CTS or similar.
• If placed on the table to read, can lead to neck strain
• Applications are restricted to those that Apple approves, and mostly available at a cost through the Apple store.
• No Flash support – While it is argued that HTML 5 will make Flash redundant, as of today, Flash is one of the leading methods of multimedia presentation in the educational sector.
• No USB port – quick insertion of USB peripherals is not possible. An extension hardware may be available in the future at an extra cost
• No built-in webcam – highly ineffective as a multimedia presentation device, not suited for Augmented Reality learning.
• Most extras if any will be at a cost that will take the base price $500 device to much higher range
• battery life of 10 hours – may not be enough for an e-book reader.

E-Ink based Textbook:

E-ink is a revolution as an electronics display, while currently most affordable in black and white, it is available in color as well. E-book readers based on e-ink are the now famous Kindle from Amazon, and followed by a multitude of devices from main stream manufacturers such as Sony and I-River.

E-ink based Textbooks Pros:

• Approximately half the price of the iPad
• E-ink technology is the next best experience to reading printed paper, it looks exactly like printed paper.
• Battery life on a single charge is approx 7 to 10 days or around 7000 “page turns”
• Weight about the same as a typical paper back
• Hyperlinking ability: Devices such as the Kindle, have 3G built-in, so “opening it” for general Internet access is a business decision, and a firmware upgrade for a web browser.
• E-book readers such as the I-River Story have support for SD expansion memory cards and can display Excel, Power point and MS doc files, in addition to features such as voice recorder, useful for recording lecturers in a classroom and reviewing them later.

Cons:

• Touch screen on some e-book readers, and on some, none.
• No webcam and thus no true web browsing experience
• * Does not break the traditional “book reading” experience.

The list of Cons above is non exhaustive, and readers of the article are welcome to list more in the comments section below.

* Limited to my personal opinion only, is that this does not detract from the traditional book reading experience. To me, the ability to link from a printed word to website, then ushers in a whole level of interactive yet distracting possibilities. Sometimes, to digest information, a linear based approach is best. This is what a traditional book allows. Prior to 1997 B.G (before google), people would sit with a book and a dictionary if they needed help, or the bibliography at the back sent them to the library for more. E-ink readers do have a built in dictionary so that is good enough for me. This however, is a personal approach to reading a book and is not the way others may want to, especially in a classroom or educational context.

Net book based Textbook:

Net books are approximately the same cost as dedicated e-ink based book readers, and more powerful ones still a bit cheaper than the base price of the iPad.

Pros:

• For the cost of a netbook,  and an investment of $50 more it is possible to have both, a dedicated “textbook” based on an e-book reader, and a multimedia research and learning tool.
• Full fledged operating system, that can be customized if needed for simplicity, but that would be redundant in a classroom full of next generation technology savvy students.
• USB ports, proper Physical keyboard for typing in reports, webcam facility for media production’
• Wifi, and 3G (via usb dongle)
• In most cases lighter in weight than an iPad or can be desktop placed and screen tilted at a convenient angle for reading

Cons:

• Not marketed well
• Not Glamorous or trendy?
• No multi-touch, touchscreen features.

It is my belief that the school bag of  today would be perfect if it was affordable for every child or student to have access to an e-ink based book reader and have a note-book besides them for additional research. The e-ink based reader would encourage them to sync up with their notebooks and archive finished reports, images and music and also completely authored books for non distracting – easy-on-the-eyes reading.

Augmented Reality (AR) Text Book  with Google Goggles:

Could the small yet forward thinking country of Singapore and it’s motivated people have been right all along when they conceived their ‘Intelligent Nation’ in2015 vision? Surprisingly, the video clip segment above shows where they want to take education in their country by the year 2015.

The surprising thing is, just today Feb 5th, Engadget reports that a see through Laptop screen developed by Samsung could be out for retail at any time. What is so revolutionary about a see through screen? The potential for Augmented Reality (AR), that’s what!

The video clip shows children taking their “text books” outdoors to learn more. It is not impossible to see a new E-Book Reader with a see through screen and a 180 degree twist-able camera integrated in the device, soon being the definitive paper text book killer. Aiming the webcam at objects of interest and linking directly to Google ”Goggles“, could send back contextual information, and AR applications running on a webpage could also show real-time augmented multimedia on the real world surroundings.

The Future of Education:

It seems that Education is not without irony, in the near future both students and teachers will be going to school to learn! – Technology is moving so fast, it won’t be a surprise for a professor to come to class one day and find out that students have devised a whole new way to use text-books. This could re-define the student teacher relationship, as more information and knowledge gets assimilated and the brain is “The Cloud”. But that is the subject of another article.