A professor at the Catholic University of America has been testing a new e-book reader that hasn’t yet hit store shelves but that is designed with textbooks in mind.
The device, called the eDGe e-reader, has two screens, hinged to open like a book. The screen on the left uses the same screen technology as the Kindle or other recent e-book readers — it can display only in black and white, but it is easier on the eyes than a traditional monitor. But because traditional monitors still have important advantages — like the ability to display color and play video clips — the screen on the right uses that conventional technology.
The eDGe is one of many gadgets being unveiled this week at the Consumer Electronics Show, in Las Vegas. It joins the increasingly crowded new category of e-book reader: Amazon has the Kindle. Sony sells the Reader. Barnes & Noble recently unveiled the Nook. Plus several other companies are scheduled to release similar machines in the next few months. Many college officials are watching the changing landscape to see which of these gadgets, if any, might lure students away from their printed textbooks.
When Robert A. Destro, a professor of law at Catholic University, heard about the eDGe, he wanted to try it in his courses. So he convinced the company, called enTourage, to loan him about 20 prototypes to loan to students (it helped that the company’s headquarters are located near the university).
Mr. Destro said students generally liked the device — at least, those who were willing to take the time to try it out. As with many of these new devices, there’s a learning curve to operating it. The touch-screen requires a stylus, and students have to learn how to navigate its menus to open books and take notes — functions that most readers take for granted with printed books.
But Mr. Destro also learned about the challenges of trying to experiment with some of the newest e-book readers. The publisher of the textbook he used last semester did not offer a digital copy, so he could not run the experiement as he had originally hoped. He loaned the devices to students who used them in some other courses where digital copies of textbooks were available.
For an e-book reader to take off in the textbook market, a standard will need to emerge, so that digital formats do not feel like extra homework for professors and students.
8 Responses to Professor Faces Obstacles in Testing E-Reader Device for Digital Textbooks
anne_ellen - January 7, 2010 at 4:10 pm
I appreciate this story, and I agree — for e-books to take off, we need more than reliable readers. We also need reliable collaborative reading options. I attempted to use CafeScribe (www.cafescribe.com) in a graduate course on coauthoring and collaboration, so students could have the experience of sharing all of their annotations as they read. While I was able to get the university press book we were reading in an e-book format that CafeScribe could use, the CafeScribe technical end had so many difficulties, we were never able to use the shared notes function to its fullest capability when we needed to during the semester. Needless to say, the graduate students, who will be those most likely to use this technology in the future, were not convinced of the value of e-books. Those of us who want to support e-books and collaborative reading and notetaking — truly taking advantage of 21st century technology for reading and learning together — need more options!
coloradodan - January 7, 2010 at 5:24 pm
We also need a business model that includes the ability to purchase and then RESELL texts, institutional licensing that allows secure distribution of content, and–perhaps most importantly–short term lending of content via library authentication systems.
wastingtondc - January 7, 2010 at 6:12 pm
Good luck with that, since the professors routinely choose the lastest edition of associate’s, friend’s, classmate’s, relative’s, other faculty union member’s textbooks, at high prices, for their courses, and send non English speaking graduate students to teach their undergrad students. They spend their time thus saved, writing new editions of expensive textbooks, fully expecting the folks whose textbooks they chose, to choose their own vastly expensive new texts. If you don’t think there was a Quid Pro Quo, between Bush 41 and Panama’s dictator, or between and among the rich professor text book writers, then I have a bridge, in NY, that you may want to invest in. Don’t expect undergraduate students to save a dime or lighten their overloaded backpacks, with a single digital reader, that could contain and protect all their texts and references neatly in a single thumb drive, or the reader memory. The profits accruing to faculty text book authors are simply too large to allow the readers to be utilized, and the savaging of the pocketbooks of next wave of undergrads, or their parents, more likely, to be avoided.
finne001 - January 7, 2010 at 6:19 pm
FYI. JRF
drmullen - January 7, 2010 at 6:19 pm
unrelated perhaps, but, why, in a section of the Chronicle dedicated to the Wired Campus, can we not share these articles with our Wired Colleagues via Twitter or other web 2.0 sharing tool?
drmullen - January 7, 2010 at 6:21 pm
Oh my, how embarrasing. I logged in so I could make a comment about sharing, then found, after logging in, that the share button appears after login. My apologies, please disregard my oversight!
emmadw - January 8, 2010 at 4:52 am
wastingtondoc said: “Good luck with that, since the professors routinely choose the lastest edition of associate’s, friend’s, classmate’s, relative’s, other faculty union member’s textbooks, at high prices, for their courses, and send non English speaking graduate students to teach their undergrad students.”I guess that could be the case in some US universities – but I’m from the UK & that’s rarely the case here. Most people I know spend time researching textbooks & select those that cover the material as best as possible, at a price that’s reasonable for students if at all possible. We’re also lucky as our Uni subscribes to a good set of eBooks – though unlike those that need an eReader – you hhave to have a computer/ internet connection. I like the sound of this new one, as I agree that one advantage of ebooks is that you can have video etc., that you can’t in a text book. I’d be more wary of the shared annotations – as I find that others annotations on library books annoy me! And, that’s not just because I don’t agree with marking books – often the bits they have marked are ones I wouldn’t. I’d go for other bits. (And I’d use post-its, so that i can remove them later – but that’s the way I’m doing it, rather than what I’m marking.I guess it would be possible to work with those who have similar ideas on how/what to mark!
btimmons - January 11, 2010 at 3:15 pm
As an experiment, this past fall I taught a leadership course using a textbook in hard copy, on my iPhone, and on my Kindle. I consider myself to be very technology literate. I had a much more difficult time ordering the ebook as a deskcopy than the hardcopy. (I ended up having to purchase it.) Amazing the differences in the formats and ability to locate information. Conclusion to my experiment–towards the end of the class I used the hardcopy.