Khan Academy Triples Unique Users To 3.5 Million. Today at The Web 2.0 Summit in San Francisco, Founder of Khan Academy, Salman Khan, took the stage to share a few quick stats on the growth of his online video education platform.
For those unfamiliar, Khan Academy is, as John Batelle noted this afternoon, one of Bill Gates’ favorite educators. It also happens to be one of mine, but I thought you’d probably resonate a bit more with Bill Gates. But Khan Academy is the institution of Salman Khan, who brought the idea of educating young people, self-starters, people who learn at their own pace — online. “Educational”-type YouTube videos have now been around for years, but Khan Academy’s repository is pretty ridiculous. The educational startup now counts over 2,600 videos in its library, with sessions or classes on everything from arithmetic to physics, including 211 practice exercises, to let students watch videos and learn at their own pace.
QuickWire: Students' e-Book Use Has Flatlined Since 2008 - Wired Campus. Digital textbooks save UNH business students $70K. DURHAM — A new digital textbook program launched this semester at the University of New Hampshire Whittemore School of Business and Economics has saved students more than $70,000 in textbook costs.
While UNH has been expanding its digital textbook offerings, this is the first time an entire class has used only a digital textbook. Instead of purchasing hard copies of their textbook, the more than 600 students enrolled in Prof. Ross Gittell's "Introduction to Business" course at the Whittemore School of Business and Economics paid just $33.25 for unlimited online access for the term. Textbook prices represent a large out-of-pocket expense for students; conventional hard-cover textbooks average $150 each. Textbook prices have increased 22 percent over the last four years, quadruple inflation, according to the Student Public Interest Research Groups.
This fall, students saved $88,500 by opting for the digital version of textbooks at the UNH Bookstore, which includes Gittell's students. Indiana U. Helps Shape Economic Terms of eText Transition. This month, Indiana University made agreements with a software company and five publishers that influence the economic terms for the future of e-textbooks.
Can Higher Education Be Fixed? The Innovative University. Is this the end of the line for college bookstores? POSTED AT 07:45 PM ON Sep. 20, 2011 iTunes did it to CD stores.
Redbox and Netflix did it to Blockbuster and Hollywood Video. Now Courseload and IU are doing it to college bookstores as eTexts are finally starting to find their way into college classrooms. A new agreement between IU and numerous electronic text publishers will allow students to purchase their class materials at a fraction of the price they would pay otherwise. Students will have access to highly discounted digital or printed copies of their textbooks for their entire college career, according to the agreement. Indiana U Strikes Cost-Cutting Deal with E-Text Publishers. E-Textbooks | News Indiana U Strikes Cost-Cutting Deal with E-Text Publishers By Dian Schaffhauser09/13/11 Indiana University (IU) has negotiated new publisher agreements that are expected to reduce the costs of e-textbooks for students, extend the periods in which they have access to the texts, and give them more flexibility in how they use the digital material.
The current set of agreements applies to e-text publishers John Wiley & Sons, Macmillan's Bedford Freeman & Worth Publishing Group, W.W. Norton, and Flat World Knowledge. Under the new terms, the publishers will provide students substantial cost savings, the ability to access digital or printed hard copies, and uninterrupted access to all of their e-texts while they're students at IU. Saylor Foundation Kicks Off Open Textbook Challenge. E-Textbooks | News Saylor Foundation Kicks Off Open Textbook Challenge By Tim Sohn09/12/11 The Saylor Foundation is offering $20,000 to college textbook authors willing to allow free use of their publications by students and educators. The deadline for the first wave of funding is Nov. 1. The non-profit organization is seeking authors who will agree to license their work under a Creative Commons license, which helps creators retain copyright while allowing others to copy, distribute, and make various uses of their work.
A classroom in your eBook? California-based company brings social media functions to ever-popular eBook format, especially on tablets By Dennis Carter, Assistant Editor Read more by Denny Carter Students on 50 campuses will use iPad-based Inkling eBooks this fall.
Besides notes, highlights, and web links, an eBook company has introduced interactive and social media aspects to its tablet-based tomes, becoming the latest to blend textbooks with classroom-like chats. New Report now Out: California Universities & Digital Content - eBookNewser. Research Center: Technology in Education. Students stage 'textbook rebellion' at University of Maryland. College activists and professors will tour campuses nationwide to lobby for more low-cost textbook options, including open online textbooks By Dennis Carter, Assistant EditorRead more by Denny Carter August 31st, 2011 Plotkin spoke to students gathered outside a UMD library.
College students are going without required textbooks, doing their best to eke through the semester without shelling out hundreds in their campus bookstores. With inexpensive alternatives sparse, a group of college activists—backed by the Obama administration—is railing against skyrocketing textbook prices … one campus at a time. Textbook Rebellion launched a website that collects petition signatures aiming to show the widespread support for course textbooks that cost $30 or less, including online books that can be converted to traditional texts through an inexpensive printing process. Hal Plotkin, a senior policy adviser for the U.S. Pearson goes open source with Plug and Play.
01.09.11 | Anna Richardson Taylor Pearson has embraced an open-source approach to digital content, making its proprietary content available to third-party digital developers.
The publisher officially globally launched its Plug and Play platform today [1st September], which gives in-house and external developers the chance to use Pearson-owned content to create digital applications. Pearson announced the project in May with news of an open application programming interface (API) for its DK Eyewitness Guide to London. New Pew study on Higher Education and the Digital Revolution anticipates digital textbooks. Vendors, Ed Tech, and Higher Ed: Becoming Better Friends « higher education management group. Technology often has “unintended consequences.”
The increased use of technology in higher education has, for example, increased the dependence of these institutions on the vendors that build and market educational technology. This wasn’t the intention, it just worked out that way. The increased presence of technology products and services in higher education stems from the simple fact that for colleges it is less costly, quicker and less risky to purchase proven solutions than it is to produce the technology in-house. Wired Campus. Like many other colleges, Southern New Hampshire University is experiencing an online-education boom.
But look under the hood of its digital learning operation, and what you’ll find in many ways resembles traditional education: students forking over substantial tuition payments to study in small, professor-led classes that last from eight to 11 weeks. So what innovation will put that model out of business? Answering that question will be the responsibility of a new two-person “innovation team” at Southern New Hampshire. It’s an unusual job description: Disrupt the disruptive innovation. Canada: Copyright: Major Universities Will Not Renew Agreements With Copyright Clearinghouse « INFOdocket. So when does academic publishing get disrupted? Exclusive: What Electronic Textbook Provider Has The Biggest Library? [STUDY]
Just about every electronic textbook company declares that it has the most books available for download. Coursesmart calls itself “the world’s largest digital course materials provider.” Sellers like Barnes & Noble and Amazon return absurdly high numbers for searches in their etextbooks sections that include novels and other general books used in classes. Textbooks.com boasts the “biggest selection of used & new college textbooks.” And a Kno executive recently told that Kno has the biggest etextbook offering on the Internet. Up until this point, there’s really been no good way to objectively compare each company’s offerings. Digital textbooks: Big savings if you can find them. This guest post comes from Laura Heller at dealnews. One of the latest changes in college culture is the availability of digital textbooks, which was underscored when Amazon unveiled its new rental platform last month.
The promise is that you can save up to 80% with the ephemeral versions of those oft-cumbersome and expensive paper volumes. iPad, I Saw, I Waited: The State of E-Textbooks. If you’re looking for a textbook example of technology obstruction by the media industry, look no further than e-textbooks. “About 90 percent of the time, the cheapest option is still to buy a used book and then resell that book,” says Jonathan Robinson, founder of FreeTextbooks.com, an online retailer of discount books.
“That is really an obstacle for widespread adoption [of e-textbooks], because smarter consumers realize that and are not going to leap into the digital movement until the pricing evens out.” Chegg partnering with Ingram on digital textbook delivery. Amazon Student app lets students buy and resell textbooks, other items. By Chris Meadows Smartphones can be used for plenty of things other than information retrieval.
Case in point: Amazon has released a new iPhone app aimed at college students. A fine-tuned version of its previous iPhone shopping app, Amazon Student will not only allow students to shop for textbooks and other products Amazon carries, but also let them resell items they already have though Amazon’s Trade-In program. Students can use the iPhone’s camera to take pictures of the bar code of the items for a quick listing. Then they can print a shipping label, and Amazon will send them a gift card for the amount of the sale. Chegg Unleashes Digital Textbook Rentals, Aims To Be 'LinkedIn For College Students'
Chegg, the largest website for textbook rentals in the United States, is going digital. 8 tech tools for college students. By Mark W. Smith, Detroit Free Press Updated 8/16/2011 3:59 PM The smartphone has become the centerpiece of many students' digital lives. Simin Wang, AFP/Getty Images Simin Wang, AFP/Getty Images. Rising Costs Force Students To Skimp On Textbooks. WASHINGTON -- As the cost of textbooks continues to rise, many college students are choosing to skimp on textbooks to save money. Seven out of 10 undergraduates surveyed at 13 college campuses said they had not purchased one or more textbooks because the cost was too high, according to a new survey released Thursday by the U.S. Public Interest Research Group. The Government Accountability Office has estimated that textbooks cost a quarter the average tuition for state universities and three-fourths the average tuition at community colleges.
The U.S. PIRG analysis also found the price of textbooks has risen 22 percent over the past four years-- a much faster rate than overall inflation. "Generally what we get from students is 'Yeah, it's only a few dollars, but it could be my dinner,' " said Jessica Bruning, a student at Iowa State University who has worked with a school group to lobby the Iowa legislature on behalf of college students. U.S. D. Are eBooks Bad For Learning? - eBookNewser. Inkling Raises $17 Million in new Funding - eBookNewser. College Students Willing To Give Up Sex To Avoid Lugging Books - eBookNewser. Teaching with the iPad (and Angry Birds) Higher Ed E-Learning Growth To Continue at Modest Pace Through 2015. Findings. Note: The data in this report come from Pew Internet Project surveys conducted throughout 2010, which were bundled together to collect a statistically meaningful population of those who said they attended community college, four-year schools, and graduate schools.
For more information about the samples, please see the Methodology section at the end of this report. College students, the internet, home broadband, and wireless connections When it comes to general internet access, young adults of all stripes are much more likely than the general population to go online. A college with no books and paper, only iPads.
At the Meridian International (MINT) College in Taguig City, pens, papers and books have been replaced with one device: a tablet computer. Higher ed cautiously embraces of the cloud. High-profile cloud computing security breaches worry campus IT leaders, but cloud adoption continues among colleges and universities large and small. Technology—Apple's iPad and Other Tablets Make Digital Textbooks Cool on Campus. Copyright Clearance Center Offering Reuse Rights - eBookNewser.
Inside Higher Ed Articles. College Students Want Their Textbooks the Old-Fashioned Way: In Print. Pearson social media survey 2011. New Survey Finds More than Ninety Percent of College Faculty Use Social Media in the Workplace. Denver, CO, April 11, 2011 — College faculty are twice as likely as other workers to be using social media as part of their job, and more than 80 percent of faculty are using some form of social media in their teaching, according to a new survey from the Babson Survey Research Group and Pearson. The results were presented during Cite 2011, Pearson’s 12th annual higher education technology conference. The survey of nearly 2,000 faculty found that more than 90 percent of college faculty use social media in the workplace, compared to 47 percent of employees in other industries. UC Libraries academic ebook use survey available, 58% use ebooks. Is the iPad Ready To Replace the Printed Textbook?
Www.pearsonlearningsolutions.com/educators/pearson-social-media-survey-2011-bw.pdf. Back to the Future: The Changing Paradigm for College Textbooks and Libraries. Britannica Launches Portal for Access to Hundreds of Reference E-book Titles : Page 1 of 1. Www.poudrelibraries.org/about/pdf/ereader-report-2011extended.pdf. Digital Textbooks Slow to Catch On. Education Reform: If It Can’t Fit into a Tablet PC, Forget It. Is Higher Education Ready for "The Education Bubble"?
New Textbook Paradigm - In Which I Get It. Would You Like A $49 Electronic College Textbook With Lifetime Updates? Apps make college easier to access.