As a student I am so excited about a article written two days ago on Econtentmag.com about Web 2.0 and ebooks in the classroom. Educators are taking notice the opportunity to not only save money from the rising costs of printing new and updated versions of textbooks each year but also the effects of green economics and more and more students looking for alternatives.
Bookshelf provides free software, allowing users to download, store, and manage etextbooks. With publishers such as McGraw-Hill, Elsevier, and John Wiley & Sons providing textbooks in the VitalBook format, users have the option of downloading directly from a publisher’s website or through VitalSource.
Just to give an example of the uses increase, last years NFP Read an eBook Week saw and catered to a small group of 1200 readers, however this year the group heard from and saw participation from some 30k users.
Jason Overby from the College of Charleston explains, new features are making the books more useful. “I’ve known about electronic books for quite a while, but I’ve never been a fan of what was available up until this point,”
The new options for not only download of textbooks, but to take notes and transfer chapters to mobile devices such as iPhone and Blackberry a student does not have to drag with him 5 textbooks, a laptop, and notebooks; the new student be more efficient and learn in a language that not only speaks his, but also is more likely to be read and studied. Since users are more comfortable with downloading content (thanks iTunes) it is now user friendly so use ebooks and etexts.
Like I said before, as a student this is a simple sell for me.
