Day: June 21, 2011

Came across a great article by By Bertha Coombs over at CNBC.com: “Tablets make digital textbooks cool on campus”. Inkling and McGraw Hill partnered with Abilene Christian University and provided several of their classes with iPads and iPad textbooks. This case study was a part of the University’s three year old “mobile learning initiative”.

After the project ended, the majority of students said that they would buy an iPad if the majority of their textbooks were available in this format. Almost all students said they preferred etextbooks for a variety of reasons, mainly citing convenience and the ability to share “in-text” notes and ideas with other students and instructors for instant feedback.

“Just the fact that it’s on the iPad and it’s all on there, makes me a lot more interested,” one student who participated in the initiative stated. That has to be good news to hear from teachers at the very least, as they are constantly looking for new ways to engage their students who are increasingly utilizing modern technology and rejecting traditional learning methods.

Hopefully more big textbook publishers will start participating in these case-study projects, as they clearly benefit the future of all students worldwide in the long-run.

Source: http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/2011-06-17-digital-textbooks_n.htm

Kno’s CEO is Osman Rashid. His name might sound familiar as he is the co-founder Chegg. Kno originally had created a dual-screen tablet, but eventually let the hardware project go in order to focus on providing digital textbooks that are affordable and online textbooks that are accessed through today’s hottest gadgets: Tablet computers!

The Kno Textbook App is receiving a lot of buzz in educational social-circles throughout the U.S. College students are already desperately seeking iPad textbooks and Android textbooks so that they can finally release themselves from the burden of lugging huge, heavy textbooks around everywhere they go.

The main highlights and features of the Kno Textbook App are:

A growing catalog of more than 70,000 textbooks at discounts averaging 30-50%
Course Manager – Quickly and efficiently organize your textbooks and materials all in one organized space
Chapter Preview – A fast method to find the educational content you wish
The ability to highlight content and create sticky notes – Extremely Helpful!
Words to Friends – Share your thoughts with your social network directly from within your etextbooks! Send your classmates relevant study notes directly through Twitter and Facebook!

The best part about the Kno Textbook App is that it is currently FREE TO DOWNLOAD! Once students download the textbook app for free, they can then purchase their online textbooks from the Kno etextbooks store. Of course, students then download textbooks directly through the Kno store platform as well. Better still, right now students can participate in the Kno Textbook App’s Early Bird Program and get a FULL REFUND on their first digital textbook purchase. All that is required is that students “Like” Kno’s Facebook Page and participate in their student-feedback program. On top of all of this, students can feel safe purchasing any number of etextbooks through Kno as they offer a 15-DAY MONEY BACK GUARANTEE on all purchases.

I am hoping that Kno will consider developing innovative iPad Math Apps and interactive iPad Science Apps in the future as well!

Source: http://www.Kno.com
Source: http://www.Facebook.com/goodtokno