GA Considers Replacing Textbooks With iPads

Being a true New England snob I tend to give "The South" a lot of grief, and it's mostly unnecessary. Case in point: as a Massachusetts resident in 2002 I enrolled at the University of Georgia (Go Dawgs!) and was charged the measly Out of State Tuition of something in the range of $10,000 (at present, tuition and fees for out-of-staters is $26,946 according to the CollegeBoard). Meanwhile, when I transferred to the University of New Hampshire in 2003 I paid in the ballpark of $15,000 as a resident. Public Universities in the South have a great reputation for keeping education affordable for their in-state students (and even vagabonds like myself). Moreover, Georgia afforded (and still does, although there's news of cut-backs) its in-state students the ability to attend one of their public universities (including UGA) for free courtesy of the HOPE Scholarship, as long as they had a 3.0 coming in and maintained that average throughout college career. To me, Georgia's HOPE Scholarship represents real forward thinking in terms of students' right higher education and reminds me that it's incredibly ignorant to assume that New England is the Mecca for evolutions in education.

And now Georgia is joining the ranks of schools in New York, Virginia, and California by considering ditching print textbooks in Middle School classrooms and equipping every student with an iPad (story here). While there are concerns over the infancy of the technology and the near future introduction of other tablet products, GA Senator Tommie Williams notes that students are becoming accustomed to learning in a digital environment and schools must evolve to meet their changing needs. Which is more risky: allowing students and teachers to experiment with new technologies and ways of learning or handing students out-dated, sometimes inaccurate content? At least the former provides a learning opportunity for the entire community...a "let's try this together and see what works" approach.

While the Senator and others involved are reportedly just "in talks" with Apple to go through with this initiative, I'm impressed by their willingness to adapt and experiment. The potential success of these initiatives in New York, Virginia, California, and now Georgia should nudge those of us in higher education to ask, "what happens when these students wind up at our institutions in 5-8 years?" How will we evolve and innovate to be able to sustain the learning styles these students will be accustomed to?

I'm Using 16 Books for My Marketing Course and I Didn't Pay for One of Them! Ebook Databases Enable Students to Turn Page on Traditional Textbook Options. Can Publishers Keep Up

Yes, you read correctly...

Using existing electronic library database resources, students are linked to sixteen (16) high-quality ebook sources that support 100% of their Introduction to Marketing course at Southern New Hampshire University.

Embedded Ebook Link Model
Instead of looking for THE textbook that matches with a course, we have taken the course Key Terms and Concepts and have mapped those back to relevant content available via an ebook database (Books 24x7). For this particular course, that means students are seamlessly drawing on 16 different titles via embedded links they can access via a course ebook (PDF file) or via the Blackboard course site.

Using embedded links to this database, students can access the specific content relating to Key Terms and Concepts; decreasing the time spent on wading through chapters of traditional textbook delivered content and increase the time they apply essential content to a variety of activities throughout the course.

Ingredients for the Model
We are in the second semester of this developing model, but we are basically utilizing these existing resources to delivery course content that helps students exceed course learning outcomes without purchasing a textbook.

1. Teaching and Library Faculty
2. Library ebook database - Books 24x7,
3. Blackboard Learning Management System
4. Syllabus

Results
Over 90% of the 130+ students enrolled in my Introduction to Marketing sections have opted for the embedded link model vs. the traditional textbook. In addition, that same percentage of students using the embedded link option enjoyed the opportunity to access has indicated high levels of satisfaction with the embedded ebook links and

Looking Ahead...
Technology has created the opportunity for faculty to provide high-quality relevant content to students in any discipline with very little effort and without relying on a traditional textbook model.

It's difficult to say if this model will gain traction and expand to other courses and disciplines, but it continues to be an exciting project to pursue as publishers scramble to monetize an increasingly challenging environment.

How are you using existing resources to deliver content to your students?

CASE STUDY
Southern New Hampshire University | Forging New Ground by Going Digital

New Ebook Platforms Target the Scholarly Monograph

Article from Library Journal last week on the potential future of the ebook in scholarly culture. Platforms such as JSTOR, ProjectMuse, and Oxford Press, most well known for offering scholarly journal content, are now prepping to offer scholarly monographs in ebook format. This shift represents a more friendly model for academic libraries; not only do these platforms "play nice" with libraries, unlike Amazon, but academic libraries will be able to expand their ebook collections across more disciplines.

Smarthistory.org

Winner of the 2009 Webby Award for Best Educational Site, Smarthistory.org was developed in 2005 by Dr. Beth Harris and Dr. Steven Zucker. The purpose of the site is to provide faculty and students with a creative, open access, and multimedia educational resource as an alternative to the traditional textbook that tends to be too large, too expensive, and disengaging. What's most exciting is that Smarthistory invites you to create your own content and contribute your knowledge to the project. The site also includes tips on how to teach with Smarthistory and provides sample a syllabus.