Archive for the ‘Textbooks’ Category
CourseSmart launches etextbook Web app no comments
CourseSmarthas launched a new Web app that enables access to etextbooks and course materials on a variety of mobile devices. The Web app presents textbooks in a digital version that is faithful page by page with the print edition.
There is no downloading process to access the free Web app. On supported browsers, CourseSmart users with an active eTextbook account will automatically be prompted to sign into the Web app when they begin reading their eTextbooks. Any future enhancements for the app are automatically updated, eliminating the need to visit an app store to obtain the latest app version.
The app is supported by Amazon Silk, Safari and Google Chrome browsers on the following devices: Kindle Fire, iPad and Android™ 3.0 and higher OS tablets.
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CourseSmart partners with 9 additional publishers no comments
CourseSmart today announced that it has formed partnerships with nine additional publishers: Oxford University Press (USA); Oxford University Press, Canada; W.W. Norton; American Technical Publishers (ATP); BarCharts; ASM Press; Paradigm Publishing; Vista Higher Learning; and University Readers.
With the new publishers on board, CourseSmart now offers more than 20,000 etextbooks from 31 publishers, representing 90 percent of all core higher education textbooks used in today’s curriculums.
"Our new publishing relationships will enable us to continue expanding our footprint and further solidify our position as the world’s largest provider of digital course materials. The additional titles and content to our higher education catalog will allow more students and faculty to enjoy the benefits of our digital course materials, including anytime, anywhere access, cost savings and efficiencies, device agnostic applications and other digital benefits inherent in our offerings," said Sean Devine, chief executive officer at CourseSmart. "We will continue to engage with other higher education-focused publishing houses to ensure we meet the growing demand for eTextbooks and other digital course materials."
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Amazon launches Kindle textbook rental with flexible rental periods no comments
Amazon today announced the launch of Kindle Textbook Rental. The program allows students to pay only for the exact time the digital textbook is needed by choosing a rental length of between 30 and 360 days. According to Amazon a 30 day rental can save up to 80 percent off the list price of the print version. If more time is needed when the initial rental period is over, the rental can be extended multiple times by as little as one day.
Another feature is that all notes and highlights are saved in the cloud after the rental expires. The etextbooks can be read on a Kindle ereader or on one of the free Kindle reading apps.
For more details see the Kindle Textbook Rental store.
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Brainchild Kineo educational tablet adopted by schools in ten states no comments
Educational technology company Brainchild launched its Kineo tablet for the
educational market in February of this year. Today the company said in a statement that it has so far shipped the Kineo tablet to school districts in ten states and sold out of its initial production run of 5000 units. Brainchild says that it will increase the production of new Kineos to meet the demand.
The Kineo is Android-based and is designed to be durable enough for classroom use. Web access is limited to websites that are pre-programmed by faculty, so students cannot use it to distract themselves by freely browsing the Internet.
Using Brainchild’s GlobalSYNC technology, data from a school’s Kineos can be synchronized on demand and syncs only when scheduled. This helps prevent network crashes that can result from continuous data uploads.
“Kineo is an education-only tablet built for the ‘mission-critical’ environment in schools,” said Jeff Cameron, president of Brainchild. “A teacher cannot worry about bandwidth issues, screen freezes or free reign of the Internet. We have 16 years of experience in manufacturing handhelds and training teachers how to use standards-based curriculum. We’ve poured all of that experience into developing Kineo and GlobalSYNC.”
The Kineo ships with Brainchild’s web-based assessment and standards-based instructional program, Achiever!, which is built to match each state’s standards.
The Kineo specs:
- 7-inch LCD touchscreen; 800 x 480 resolution
- Processor: 800MHZ Duel Core
- 2 GB internal storage
- Wi-Fi
- Flash player; MP4 movie player
- Android 2.1
- SD card slot
- I/O: HDMI video/audio out; USB; Headphone jack
- Stereo speakers
- Priced at $299.
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Sharp’s Galapagos ereader to participate in e-education trial in India no comments
Sharp will be participating in a a proof-of-concept trial using its Galapagos ereaders at the Indian Institute of Technology Hyderabad. Besides the Galapagos ereader, Sharp will be providing etextbooks and interactive whiteboard touchscreen LCD monitors. India has a shortage of teachers in its higher-educational system and the trials focus on enabling one instructor to teach multiple remote classrooms.
From the press release:
India has enjoyed extremely rapid economic growth in recent years, and this has led to a rapidly increasing demand for higher education. A shortage of schools and teachers accompanying this demand has become a serious problem. To resolve these challenges, the development and adoption of electronic systems for education, as well as implementing remote e-education based on them, is urgently needed in India.
For some time now, Sharp has been working on a joint industry-government-academia project with the MIC and the Waseda University Institute of Asia-Pacific Studies to explore ways to support a shift to electronic education systems in India.
In the proof-of-concept trial, the content of textbooks to be used in courses as well as curriculum information will be downloaded to the e-textbook terminals via a wireless (Wi-Fi) connection to a dedicated remote e-education server. In addition, electronic whiteboards used during class instruction are displayed on the e-textbook terminals. Interactive classes can be conducted by using a microphone and speakers in combination with an electronic whiteboard connected to the remote e-education server even in classrooms where no teacher is present.
This system aims to enable students who are not able to take courses because of a lack of teachers to attend advanced classes.
Class A attends a course (instructor is teaching class in normal fashion). The same course instruction can also be received by Class B (where no instructor is present).
Teaching materials on the electronic whiteboard of Class A, plus the audio and annotations from the instructor’s presentation, are shared on the electronic whiteboard of Class B located at a distant site, and are also displayed on the e-textbook terminals of the students.
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Free Books from Kaplan at the iBookstore no comments
Kaplan Publishing is letting students try some of its books for free until September 6, 2010. There are 21 free prep guides and study aids offered through the program at the iBookstore:
- Kaplan ACT Strategies for Super Busy Students
- Kaplan SAT Score-Raising Dictionary
- Sharp Vocab
- Sharp Writing
- Kaplan Portable GMAT
- Kaplan Portable GRE Exam
- Kaplan PMBR: Multistate Professional Responsibility Exam (MPRE)
- Kaplan PMBR Finals: Constitutional Law
- Kaplan MCAT Organic Chemistry Review
- Kaplan MCAT Biology Review
- Kaplan NCLEX-RN 2010 -2011 Edition
- Kaplan CCRN
- Kaplan101 Algebra Practice Questions
- Kaplan 101 ASVAB Practice Questions
- Kaplan101 GRE Quantitative Practice Questions
- Kaplan 101 GRE Verbal Practice Questions
- Kaplan 101 MAT Practice Questions
- Kaplan 101 PSAT/SAT Critical Reading Practice Questions
- Kaplan101 Biology Practice Questions
- Kaplan 101 SAT/PSAT Writing Practice Questions
- Kaplan 101 GMAT Verbal Practice Question
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CourseSmart Launches New iPad App; iPad Contest no comments
CourseSmart has launched eTextbooks for the iPad 2.0, “an optimized application that takes full advantage of the iPad’s advanced functionality, provides students with the ultimate mobile solution to access all of the most popular, in-demand textbooks and course materials, anytime-anywhere.”
CourseSmart has also improved its website to help students find and access their assigned course material in less time. CourseSmart.com is also better integrating with students’ social media environment, introducing Facebook Connect as part of the new site and launching a new social media program to ensure students find the best options for purchasing their assigned course materials.
To promote all of the above, the digital textbook seller has announced “CourseSmart’s iPad-a-Day Giveaway,” a new contest which will award an iPad to one lucky winner each day. This contest will run from August 17th to August 30th and is open to students in the US, Canada and Puerto Rico.
You can find all of the details at CourseSmart.com.
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CourseSmart Partners with AccessText and Alternative Media Access Center to Make Digital Textbooks More Accessible no comments
CourseSmart,which makes claim to being the world’s largest digital course materials provider, announced today that it has formed a partnership with AccessText Network (ATN) and Alternative Media Access Center (AMAC) to improve the accessibility of its digital textbooks.
ATN is a national organization that facilitates and supports the delivery of alternative electronic textbooks to the Disabled Student Services offices of colleges and universities throughout the US. AMAC is an initiative of the Georgia University System and works to improve services for students with print-related disabilities in the US.
CourseSmart will work with ATN and AMAC to optimize the digital versions of approximately 80 percent of its most popular etextbooks to increase their functionality with accessible technologies.
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Searching for the Best Textbook Prices no comments
CampusBooks has a widget that you can use to search for the lowest prices on your textbooks. The widget searches almost 40 textbook sellers and returns results for both pbooks and ebooks (you can choose which you are interested in) as well as rentals and used copies. CampusBooks has let me post their widget on the site – you will find it on the eBook Sources page in the textbook section.
eBay announced today the release of an iPhone app that students can use to find textbooks on Half.com, which is owned by eBay. The app lets you scan an item’s barcode and then find it on Half.com. This works not only for textbooks, but for any other items that someone might be selling at Half.com. eBay says that there are over 80 million active listings from more than 700,000 sellers on Half.com, but adds that the majority of items are textbooks – especially in the back-to-school season. The app is available for free at the iTunes Store.
This is why eBay bought RedLaser a couple of months ago. RedLaser was a startup that had developed an iPhone app for scanning product barcodes. Probably an app to search for items up for auction on eBay itself will be forthcoming soon. The app could also be purposed to help eBay sellers list their items easier and faster as well.
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Stanford University Engineering Library Replacing pBooks with eBooks no comments
After outgrowing its old space, 
the Stanford University Engineering Library will be housing its collection in a new library with a planned opening next month. In a Morning Edition segment, NPR reports that the new library will open with only 10,000 books on the shelves – a decrease of more than 85 percent from the old collection. The rest of the collection has been digitized.
When going through the library’s holdings to determine which books should be kept in a paper format on the shelves, librarians found that a majority of the books had not been taken down from the shelves in five years. The digitized editions also provide full text search, which makes it easier and faster for students to find needed information.
This is by no means the first library to convert much of their collection to digital; there have been several similar news stories, but this is probably one of the highest profile libraries to make the move. Don’t forget that Stanford was one of the first libraries that let Google scan its books.
