2024年5月10日发(作者：依静慧)
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Textbooks' Digital Future
教科书的数字化未来
Businessweek
September 12
th
, 2010
Harold Elder is not your typical Apple fanboy. Yet the 58-year-old University of
Alabama economics professor pre-ordered an iPad to make sure he had one of the
first ones. The device is “something that I’ve been waiting for for years,” he
says. And not, to be clear, merely for reasons of gadget lust. “It really has the
possibility of making the learning experience much richer,” says Elder, who is
considering testing a new iPad-ready digital textbook in his introductory
microeconomics course in the fall of 2010.
“Richer” is certainly the right word to use. App developers aren’t the only
ones who greeted the iPad’s release with gratitude and optimism. The textbook
industry, too, sees it as a way to woo customers away from the used-book market,
boost profits, and help students learn better. It’s a pivotal moment for a segment
of the publishing industry that has stubbornly resisted change. Thanks in large
part to the iPad and an expected rush of competitor slates, that resistance is
crumbling.
Of course, it won’t happen overnight. Textbooks today are still bought and
考研自学平台 咋学微信号： 咋学网（zaxueapp）
微信扫描二维码关注启航考研（qh_kaoyan）
sold in much the same way they’ve always been. It may be slow-moving, but it’s
highly profitable. While McGraw-Hill Education’s earnings fell by 14 percent in
2009 because of the recession, college textbook sales actually increased.
There are already digital textbooks available, and their numbers are expected
to grow. CourseSmart, a San Mateo, Calif., company collectively owned by five of
the biggest textbook publishers, has 6,000 educational titles for sale in digital
format. But its electronic books are little more than scanned versions of printed
works. A CourseSmart e-book includes some neat functions, like search capability
and digital note-taking, but for the most part, it has few advantages over a
traditional textbook other than weight and price.
That’s where a company like Inkling comes in. Inkling and its competitors are
working with the textbook publishers to bring their books onto the iPad, iPhone,
and other future devices. The aim, says Inkling’s MacInnis, is to harness all the
advantages of a multitouch, Web-enabled slate. That means chemistry students
won’t just see an illustration of a benzene molecule; they’ll spin and rotate a
three-dimensional model of one. Biology students won’t just read about the
cardiovascular system; they’ll see video of a beating heart, narrated by a
world-class heart surgeon.
Big publishers like McGraw-Hill, Pearson, and Cengage are locked in a
longstanding battle against the used-textbook market. Online textbook-rental
companies offer lower prices than the publishers, and reach a wide customer base.
But traditional publishers think technology will be their salvation. There’s no
考研自学平台 咋学微信号： 咋学网（zaxueapp）
2024年5月10日发(作者：依静慧)
微信扫描二维码关注启航考研（qh_kaoyan）
Textbooks' Digital Future
教科书的数字化未来
Businessweek
September 12
th
, 2010
Harold Elder is not your typical Apple fanboy. Yet the 58-year-old University of
Alabama economics professor pre-ordered an iPad to make sure he had one of the
first ones. The device is “something that I’ve been waiting for for years,” he
says. And not, to be clear, merely for reasons of gadget lust. “It really has the
possibility of making the learning experience much richer,” says Elder, who is
considering testing a new iPad-ready digital textbook in his introductory
microeconomics course in the fall of 2010.
“Richer” is certainly the right word to use. App developers aren’t the only
ones who greeted the iPad’s release with gratitude and optimism. The textbook
industry, too, sees it as a way to woo customers away from the used-book market,
boost profits, and help students learn better. It’s a pivotal moment for a segment
of the publishing industry that has stubbornly resisted change. Thanks in large
part to the iPad and an expected rush of competitor slates, that resistance is
crumbling.
Of course, it won’t happen overnight. Textbooks today are still bought and
考研自学平台 咋学微信号： 咋学网（zaxueapp）
微信扫描二维码关注启航考研（qh_kaoyan）
sold in much the same way they’ve always been. It may be slow-moving, but it’s
highly profitable. While McGraw-Hill Education’s earnings fell by 14 percent in
2009 because of the recession, college textbook sales actually increased.
There are already digital textbooks available, and their numbers are expected
to grow. CourseSmart, a San Mateo, Calif., company collectively owned by five of
the biggest textbook publishers, has 6,000 educational titles for sale in digital
format. But its electronic books are little more than scanned versions of printed
works. A CourseSmart e-book includes some neat functions, like search capability
and digital note-taking, but for the most part, it has few advantages over a
traditional textbook other than weight and price.
That’s where a company like Inkling comes in. Inkling and its competitors are
working with the textbook publishers to bring their books onto the iPad, iPhone,
and other future devices. The aim, says Inkling’s MacInnis, is to harness all the
advantages of a multitouch, Web-enabled slate. That means chemistry students
won’t just see an illustration of a benzene molecule; they’ll spin and rotate a
three-dimensional model of one. Biology students won’t just read about the
cardiovascular system; they’ll see video of a beating heart, narrated by a
world-class heart surgeon.
Big publishers like McGraw-Hill, Pearson, and Cengage are locked in a
longstanding battle against the used-textbook market. Online textbook-rental
companies offer lower prices than the publishers, and reach a wide customer base.
But traditional publishers think technology will be their salvation. There’s no
考研自学平台 咋学微信号： 咋学网（zaxueapp）