Ray Kurzweil tries to build a better e-reader - CNET. LAS VEGAS--Ray Kurzweil knows a little something about e-readers. The computing pioneer, who among other things helped develop modern text recognition software, has been working to use digital technology to improve reading for the past 30 years. After years of work on how computers can help those with learning disabilities, Kurzweil is now taking aim at the masses. His latest project, Blio, is an effort to improve the emerging electronic book field with software that turns e-books into more than just a digital copy of the print edition. Blio, which is due out next month, is software that combines a full-color digital book with the ability to add Web content, video, and professionally narrated audiobooks. Kurzweil said that kind of reading experience just isn't possible on current e-readers like the Kindle. Plus, he said, most people don't want to carry a separate device just for reading. The Blio software allows for a number of interesting enhancements over standard e-books.
Blio - Don't just read books. Experience them. COLSD. Or… Let’s build things the same way to address learner needs that are different. Déjà Vu Fifteen years ago a key impediment to meeting the academic needs of special education students was the inflexibility of print curriculum materials and the barriers they presented to students with sensory, physical and learning disabilities. At that time two essential components were identified to address this issue: 1) digital versions of textbooks and core instructional materials and 2) widely-adopted technical specifications for their creation. The National Instructional Materials Accessibility Standard, NIMAS, was built on those components.
Fast forward to today. While digital versions of print instructional materials have significantly expanded both access and usability, the majority of curriculum materials digital from the outset – both commercial and open resources – are, ironically, more rigid and less adaptable to retrofitting than their print counterparts. Wide Commercial Adoption for EPUB. Top Hat Raises $22.5 Million to Go After Pearson, McGraw-Hill. Top Hat, the Canadian education technology startup, completed a new round of funding to give it more firepower to go after textbook publishers like Pearson Plc. The $22.5 million round is Top Hat’s biggest yet and brings its total funding to about $40 million, the Toronto-based company said in a statement Wednesday.
New York-based Union Square Ventures participated, as well as previous investors iNovia Capital and Georgian Partners, among others. The funding values Top Hat at $185 million, according to people familiar with the deal. Top Hat is one of a handful of startups trying to find ways to disrupt the traditional textbook publishing industry, dominated by companies like Pearson, Cengage Learning Inc. and McGraw-Hill Education Inc., which is owned by Apollo Global Management LLC.
All of these firms have added digital educational materials to their range of products, but the transition has been rocky. Publisher Weakness “That era is coming to an end,” he said. LearningField: Unlimited Access to e-texts for Australian Schools Yrs 7-12. Because you asked, OneNote integration. At VitalSource®, it is a priority for us to listen to our users and make our solutions as useful as possible to teaching and learning. That’s why we are excited to announce we have integrated with Microsoft OneNote to expand on our popular feature: Export your Notebook. With this new integration, students are able to send their notes and highlights to their own OneNote application and annotate further within OneNote utilizing all the features within the Microsoft suite. After speaking with customers including students, faculty, trainers, mentees, and more, we found OneNote is the preferred app for both taking and sharing notes. However, the process for this was clunky, users had to copy content from VitalSource Bookshelf®, paste into OneNote, and then make notes.
In order to simplify this process, Bookshelf worked on an integration that would help eliminate any manual steps in this process. We are committed to your academic success. The World's 52 Largest Book Publishers, 2016. Pearson maintained its place as the world’s largest book publisher in 2015, but that doesn’t mean the U.K. -based company didn’t face its share of challenges. The company began a major restructuring effort in the year that included the sale of the Financial Times and its stake in the Economist. Pearson also announced in January 2016 that it will cut about 4,000 jobs from its worldwide educational publishing operation, in an attempt to “create a single global product organization.” Pearson embarked on the overhaul to adapt to changes in the educational marketplace. Those changes were a major factor in total revenue at the company falling from over $7 billion in 2014 to $6.6 billion last year.
(Scroll down to see the full global ranking chart.) The five largest publishers in 2014 retained their positions in 2015 on the Livres Hebdo/Publishers Weekly ranking, but that stability masked some notable shifts that took place among the global giants. Source: Livres Hebdo.