Thing 13 - eBooks and Online Books
Purpose: To learn about the various open source/free online books available on the Web.
Background: Every book now published is first created in digital form. In many cases today, when a book is written, authors publish a book online and in print allowing readers to choose whichever format works best. Some people prefer reading in print format while others like to read on a computer. In addition to print, online and computer, Amazon has recently produced the Kindle which allows books to be downloaded and read. The Kindle is the size of a paper back book and many people find this is a great way to read books in digital form. Anything written in text can be read on a cell phone or iPod and whatever other type of device that may be invented in the future. Also, it is interesting to note that books or textbooks can be delivered via a blog, wiki or through iTunes and other digital delivery systems. And, there are various online tools that will read books out loud to the reader which provides another level of access for students.
Most adults today grew up only reading material in print format while students growing up today only know a world with digital and print. Some find that reading research material online is easier than reading it in print. Others prefer reading fiction material only in print format. Regardless of your preference for reading, online and print formats will continue to change.
In the world of textbooks, publishing continues to change as well. Most textbooks published for students now have a corresponding online textbook version (if the student textbook is purchased) and each textbook has a different format depending on the publisher. Eventually, the publishers will agree on a common format, similar to how movie companies eventually agreed on a common online movie format. In the meantime, it is interesting to learn about the many books and textbooks that are available for free on the Web.
Discovery Activity:
Choose one book/item from each of the following categories and view the information:
READ ALONG BOOKS
WIKI BOOKS
Wiki books - http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Main_Page
ONLINE BOOK PUBLISHING
Create space - https://www.createspace.com
Lulu - http://www.lulu.com/
Scribd - http://www.scribd.com/
PUBLISHER RESOURCES
McGraw Hill/Glencoe - http://www.glencoe.com/sec/medialibrary/
http://www.ntc-school.com/sites/california/student/literature/index.html
Houghton-Mifflin - http://www.eduplace.com/
McDougal-Littell - http://www.classzone.com
Prentice Hall - http://www.mypearsontraining.com/index.asp
Holt - http://go.hrw.com/gopages/ma.html
ONLINE BOOK COLLECTIONS
Identify which of these books could work with a class you teach or could teach.
Blog Post: “Thing 13, eBooks”: Create a blog post about which online books may work for what you teach (label it Thing 13 – e-books). How might these be utilized with a class?
Resources
Harvard University Wiki about e-books:
http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/wealth_of_networks/Main_Page
Comments (0)
You don't have permission to comment on this page.