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What does Notion Ink’s Adam (Tablet) mean for Education?

August 10, 2010 By 6 Comments

I sent Rohan Shravan, Founding Director / CEO at Notion Ink, a question about what impact does he think or hope that the Notion Ink Adam (Android tablet) will make on the educational realm whether higher education to kindergarten to high school and even home school? Here was his delightful response:

First it will be tough to manage tablets and books at the same time. Tablet will not provide the easy of writing and quickly taking notes. But as usage and application will grow, this will become easier. The breakeven will happen when you will be able to use your normal pencils and pens on tablets.

Books will be there, first static as you have on hard prints. Then you will have moving images, then interactivity. Suddenly a new variety of publishers and designers will collaborate and design educational books which test you as you learn, in the form of games, interactions. Size of the books will reduce as more and more content goes online. Books will just only be links.

We will have to wait for devices which can be bought at a lower price, without the loss in functionality. iPad is not for education, or at least right now. Educational devices needs to be free and not locked.

The new generation will be awesomely lucky! Kids will learn in cartoons and animation about alphabets and basics while reading or rather watching a book! And senior students will enjoy zooming in at surface which become atoms, and then electrons, then quarks, right till you see that vibrating
string!

I have huge expectations from this modern mode of computing. Hoping Adam will be able to play a role!

Regards,
Rohan

We truly are living in exciting time. As Rohan stated in this email like any other new technology early adopters may face some minor set backs, but in the long term, open technology like the Adam and Android tablets will become the future of learning!

Filed Under: eBooks, Edutainment, eLearning 3.0, Industry News, Mobile Learning Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

Why the Kindle Failed Higher Education

May 27, 2010 By 2 Comments

I remember the Kindle was first announced, I thought this was the beginning of a revolution, but after getting my hands on one I remember that I really disliked the monochrome screen and lack of functionality for such a high priced device. The Kindle has proven people are love being able to read on the go.

KINDLE COST FAIL

The 6″ Kindle is $259 & the 9.7″ Kindle is  $489 and Amazon boasts a 16 shades of gray, monochrome screen. Currently, you can get an iPad (9.7″ screen) that can almost replace your PC for $499. Plus, the iPad has a Kindle app for free where you can read your books in color. You tell me which is a better deal.

On top of the initial cost of the devices, you still have to pay for the eTextbooks for your Kindle.

The Seattle Times said, “At the University of Virginia, as many as 80 percent of MBA students who participated in Amazon’s pilot program said they would not recommend the Kindle DX as a classroom study aid (though more than 90 percent liked it for pleasure reading).”

KINDLE ENGAGEMENT FAIL

The current student population is part of the “entertain me” generation. They want to be engaged, as well as, entertained as they learn. Let’s face it, the typical eTextbooks are pretty much just static, plain Jane, PDFs. There is nothing about the current digital textbooks that are interactive. This engagement gap is where the future of eTextbooks and eLearning is going.

The Seattle Times also stated,”‘At Princeton University and Portland-based Reed College, a small liberal-arts institution, students praised the Kindle for its long battery life, paper savings and portability. They then complained they couldn’t scribble notes in the margins, easily highlight passages or fully appreciate color charts and graphics.”

“TO INFINITY AND BEYOND…” (Great quote from Buzz Lightyear)

Amazon was headed in the right direction when they went with a mobile reader, but students desire a more engaging learning experience. If you can deliver a better digital learning experience for eTextbooks at a reasonable price point, you can win the hearts (and minds) of thousands of students across the globe.

THE TABLET EXPERIENCE

Being the Mac Geek that I am, I bought my iPad when it first went on pre-order and it was delivered that first Saturday. Even though its expensive, it is truly a wonderful device. Take a look at the Wired Magazine iPad app released yesterday. Now imagine that being your eTextbook!

Now compare that to a typical ePub formatted eBook running on the Kindle iPad App:

I really like the Wired app because of the rich media experience and the level of engagement is 100 times better. Everywhere I go with my iPad, many are interested in it and wants to see what it can do. A little over a month ago it was a couple of college students in Starbucks. Last weekend, it was an older gentleman at the local community market. Tablets are the future of education and digital media consumption in my opinion! As this summer is get starterd, we should see a whole slew of Google Android tablets hitting the markets that will compete with Apple’s iPad. Most are priced cheaper than the iPad and can be as low as $150.

Personally, I’m looking forward to Notion Ink’s ADAM. This is for a number of reasons, but mostly because Google supports open development and freedom to use whatever tools you want to develop content and applications for their open source operating system (Android). As a part of every eLearning developer’s wish list the Notion Ink ADAM will support Adobe Flash & AIR for Android apps!

Do you have a Kindle? Do you have an iPad? What are your thoughts? Can it be that next great technological leap for education?

RESOURCES

Amazon CEO: Kindle won’t compete with iPad - http://www.macworld.com/article/151554/2010/05/amazon_kindle_ipad.html

Computex will bring Android + ARM tablets, but are they ready? - http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/news/2010/05/computex-will-bring-android-arm-tablets-but-are-they-ready.ars

iPad Screenshots – http://www.flickr.com/photos/donaldleegraham/sets/72157624016518073/

Amazon.com’s Kindle fails first college test – http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/businesstechnology/2011938870_kindle24.html

Filed Under: eBooks, Mobile Learning, Tools Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Virtual Library or Traditional Library?

July 25, 2009 By 2 Comments

When was the last time you visited your campus or public library?

I was reading a couple of blog posts, one by my colleague Thomas Curtis on this blog called, “Terminating Education” and then the other by Convergence Training called, “Will Libraries Be Around in 10 Years? 20? 50?” and both of these articles made me ask myself the question “When was the last time I physically went into a library?” I honestly can’t remember. Yes, its been that long. I graduated from university for over a year now, but even then it was a very rare occasion for me to visit the library because I had access to resources such as EBSCOhost and Google Scholar for research and papers.

A few questions to ponder…

  • When was the last time you went to the library?
  • Do you think traditional libraries hold any value to the majority of the public any longer?
  • What would you think if the government got rid of all traditional libraries and put in one huge virtual library?

Sounds off and let us know what you think?

Filed Under: eBooks

Will Barnes & Noble give Amazon’s Kindle a Worthy Fight?

July 21, 2009 By 1 Comment

Quoted from PlasticLogic.com – Barnes & Noble Launches Worlds Largest eBookstore:

“Barnes & Noble, Inc. (NYSE: BKS), the world’s largest bookseller, announced today the launch of the Barnes & Noble eBookstore (www.bn.com/ebooks), the world’s largest eBookstore, on Barnes & Noble.com (www.bn.com), enabling customers to buy eBooks and read them on a wide range of platforms, including the iPhone and iPod touch, BlackBerry® smartphones, as well as most Windows® and Mac® laptops or full-sized desktop computers. In addition, Barnes & Noble announced that it will be the exclusive eBookstore provider on the forthcoming and much anticipated Plastic Logic eReader device.”

Click here to read the full press release…

Amazon clearly has an advantage currently in the educational realm. While B&N has 700,000+ books with the expectation of over a million within a year, the issue is that they don’t have any eTextbooks or educational section yet. Amazon already has a deal with major educational publishers (Cengage Learning, Pearson, and Wiley, etc…) to provide their traditional textbook in an eTextbook format on the Kindle.

So how does this impact the educational community? Well if you remember, Barnes & Noble (B&N) is in bed with many of the major universities in the United States, so that could mean they will have an easier time getting their eTextbooks into the classroom. So if B&N could strike a similar deal with the traditional textbook publishers they may have an advantage, but for now B&N can’t complete in the educational world yet.

But if you are looking for a new eBook platform, the smartest thing Barnes & Noble is doing is the ubiquitous platform launch – simply meaning, they are releasing across many various platform: iPhone, iPod Touch, computers (both Windows and Macs), and Plastic Logic eReader (coming in the future).

The real question to me is… Does Barnes & Noble want a piece of the $5.4 billion textbook industry? IF they do, they already have the inside track to the major universities.

Filed Under: eBooks, Industry News, Mobile Learning