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The Case for eBooks, an Emerging Technology
Electronic books or eBooks are specialized electronic devices (E.g. iPad, Kindle, Nook)
for reading digital books or the software designed to display the books on PCs or Macs (Looney
& Sheehan, 2002). Project Gutenberg, created by Michael Hart in 1971, introduced open access
to eBooks. Through volunteer efforts, Project Gutenberg converted the text of public domain
works into digital text and made them available over the Internet. Today there are over 36,000
works available (Hellman, 2011). However, most of these eBooks come in the same format as a
hard copy, simply in a digitized format (Houston, 2012). Today’s eBooks created specifically for
reading devices and the Internet come imbedded with rich media (Looney & Sheehan, 2002).
Before 1996, the creation of digital works was reduced because of limited protection of
property rights. The passage of Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) in 1996 made it
illegal to circumvent a digital copyrighted work by making, selling, distributing, or using
circumventing devices or services to illegally access them (UCLA Online Institute for
Cyberspace Law and Policy, 2001). Since the passing of DCMA, attention to electronic
commerce (books, plays, scholarly articles, manuals, textbooks, white papers, course materials,
and distance learning) has multiplied (Looney & Sheehan, 2002). Central to digital copyright is
Digital Rights Management (DRM), which enables “secure distribution and/or disabling illegal
distribution of the data …. by either encrypting the data … or marking the content with digital
watermark or similar method so that the content cannot be freely distributed” (Webopedia,
2012).
According to Pew Internet (2012), America has seen an increase in eBook reading and
eReader use. Pew Internet reported 21% of American adults had read an eBook in 2011; 43% of
those 16 years or older reported reading broader e-content such as magazines, journals, and news
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article on a tablet, eReader, computer, or cell phone. Before 2011 holidays, Pew’s surveys found
that 17% of Americans, 18 or older, had read an eBook, but this jumped to 21% after holidays.
This increase coincided with eBook reader purchases. Owners of readers like Kindle and Nook
increased from 10% before the holidays to 19% afterwards, and the owners of tablets like iPad
and Kindle Fire increased from 10% before holidays to 19% afterwards. Last year eBook readers
read on average 24 books when compared to 15 reading hardcopy books. In addition, of those
who read e-content, 30% indicated they now spend more time reading, especially owners of
tablets and eBooks readers. It appears that the longer a person owns an eReading device, the
more they read. Although e-reading has rapidly increased from 4% in June 2010 to 21% in
January 2012, it still lags far behind the 72% of American adults who read a printed book
(Rainie, Zickuhr, Purcell, Madden, & Brenner, 2012).
Pew Internet’s December 2011 survey showed:
42%
41%
29%
23%
With these facts in mind, are eBooks ready for adoption in education? The 2011 Horizon
Reports, which specializes in researching and setting goals for emerging technologies,
anticipated that e-books will be adopted in education within one year or less. The increased
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availability of reading devices, reading software, and digital content makes e-books a practical
alternative to traditional printed books. However, simply replicating a two-dimensional book into
an electronic book is not what eBooks are all about. It is the accessibility, ease of use, and the
transformative, interactive experience of media-rich interfaces is what makes e-books so
appealing (2011 Horizon Report, 2011). Two examples of media-rich, interactive eBooks are the
Town Musicians of Bremen and E.O. Wilson's Life on Earth and Physics. Electronic books are
exciting, motivating, relevant tools for digital diverse students.
In her article “Digital Books for Digital Natives” Houston (2012) added another
educational dimension, eBook libraries. Educators should not only consider using eTextbooks
for their classes, but also provide access to quality eBooks in their digital libraries. Books
published prior to 1923 are now feely accessible on expansive digital book collections such as
Project Gutenberg and Internet Archive. Much of this open accessibility hinges upon
endowments. Houston (2012) shared that as more and more new books are created specifically
for the Internet and eReaders, Digital Natives will have increased opportunities to interact with
“high-quality digital resources [that] are visually rich and contain beautiful pictures, illustrations,
or graphic design elements.” Because digital works are filled rich media such as text, image,
audio, and video, they can deliver multiple layers of meaning. In addition, hyperlinks and social
networking features allow digital books to be highly connective and interactive (Houston, 2012).
By providing open access to eBooks, libraries are helping to create a community of global
readers (Hellman, 2011). Today, many libraries offer a service called OverDrive which offers
readers with an eReader device or software or cloud services such as Kindle Cloud Reader (used
with Firefox, Chrome, and Safari) to read eBooks.
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Success of eBooks in education depends upon their content, accessibility, and readability.
The quality and quantity of eBooks are the most critical factors in the success eBooks. Content
comes from two sources, the educators themselves and the author- educator-publisher teams.
Electronic books that are easy to find (access), buy, and use for both the classroom and library
are more easily accepted. When using an eBook device readability factors like the general look,
feel weight, size, and screen resolution can make or break eBook success. When using eBooks,
factors like appropriate software, Internet access, operating system compatibility, ease of use,
look and feel are critical. If these three elements are embraced, learning potential is considerable
(Looney & Sheehan, 2002).
Pros to moving to eBooks:
1. Increased availability and ownership of mobile reading devices and e-reading software
increases access to eBooks and other electronic information; 21% of Americans, 18 or
older own an eReader (Pew Internet, 2012).
2. Portability of electronic textbooks (Horizon Report 2011).
3. Decreased costs of eBooks (Horizon Report 2011, p. 9); However, the cost of college
textbooks has been rising on average at a 6% rate since 1987 (Government
Accountability Office, 2005).
4. Electronic books can be updated via the Internet; this insures that materials are current
and relevant (Looney & Sheehan, 2002).
5. Reader technology includes bookmarking, annotation, dictionary access, and other useful
functions (Horizon Report 2011).
6. More are reading eBooks; in 2011 eReaders read an average of 24 eBooks compared to
an average of 12 hardcopies (Pew Internet, 2012).
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7. Text-to-speech is available for vision impaired students, ESL students with difficulties
reading English (Looney & Sheehan, 2002), or those need reading remediation.
8. Appeals to diverse learners.
9. Mobile applications add a social dimension to eBooks, which supports study groups and
teacher-student interactions (Horizon Report 2011, p. 9).
10. Increased availability of free eBooks, especially digitized versions of books published
before 1923 (Houston, 2011).
11. Opens access to rare documents (Looney & Sheehan, 2002).
12. Services like iBookstore for iOS devices and Google play for Android devices offer
eBooks, both free and proprietary.
13. Provides quality materials to a distance learner (Looney & Sheehan, 2002).
14. Blackboard has partnered with McGraw-Hill and two other booksellers for students to
buy electronic textbooks within Blackboard (Horizon Report 2011, p. 8).
15. Adoption has already begun in universities; for example, the University of Phoenix
requires faculty to use electronic texts (Horizon Report 2011, p. 9).
16. It is a more environmentally friendly than hardcopies (Looney & Sheehan, 2002).
Cons to moving to eBooks:
1. Apple, HarperCollins Publishers, Hachette Book Group, Macmillan Publishers, Penguin
Group and Simon & Schuster have been accused of collaborating to fix e-book prices
(Gross, 2012).
2. Open access to quality free eBooks is still limited due to limits in grants (Houston, 2011)
3. Limited availability of academic titles for educational institutions (Horizon Report 2011)
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4. Most eBooks and journals are usually printed text and lack interactive features such as
exploration, collaboration, immersion activities, and engaging approaches to learning
(Horizon Report 2011)
5. eBook titles may only be available on only certain platforms (Horizon Report 2011)
6. eBooks must available not only on readers but on other devices as well (Horizon Report
2011)
7. Publishers place restrictions such as lending or sharing books (Looney & Sheehan, 2002).
8. DRM restrictions slow down eBook adoption (Horizon Report 2011)
9. Copyright violations occur if digital content is used beyond Fair Use (Looney & Sheehan,
2002)
Samples of Educational eBooks:
1. Biology: Raven Biology: “Grab your iPad. Breeze through homework with interactive
quizzes, visual guided tours, and quick reference tools like an interactive glossary. It’s
everything you need for your course.” According to Inkling, it is only available on iPads
for $149.99.
2. Through CourseSmart, Raven Biology book is available for a lower cost--$112.50. They
claim their “catalog includes over 90% of the core textbooks in use today in North
American Higher Education as eTextbooks, as well as the largest online catalog of
eResources and digital course materials available for instant access.” Please keep in mind
that these books are rented, not owned.
Sources of eTextbooks and eBooks for education:
1. CourseSmart allows users to use their electronic textbooks on any Android or Apple
mobile device.
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2. Kno has an eTextbook database of over 150,000 titles.
3. iPad eTextbooks: iBookstore offers “an entirely new kind of textbook that’s dynamic,
current, engrossing, and truly interactive. A textbook created by publishers using a new
authoring tool from Apple. A textbook brought to life by iPad.”
4. 124 Sites For Free Children's Books Online
5. Hathitrust Digital Library works “to ensure that the cultural record is preserved and
accessible” with over 5.4 million digitized books. If you create an account, you can build
a personal library.
6. Google Books allows you to search, browse, buy or borrow books.
7. Open Library is an “open project: the software is open, the data are open, the
documentation is open, and we welcome your contribution.”
8. Online Book Page is a collection of online books from the University of Pennsylvania.
9. Many Books for Young Readers offers a collection of eBooks for young readers obtained
from Project Guttenberg and Project Gutenberg of Australia.
10. International Children’s Library offers “a collection of more than 10,000 books in at least
100 languages that is freely available to children, teachers, librarians, parents, and
scholars throughout the world via the Internet.”
11. New Hampshire Downloadable Book Consortium shows how they lend audio books-note how they include copyright restrictions.
12. International Digital Publishing Forum hosts conferences for the digital publishing
industry.
13. Librophile offers many free and subscription audio books.
Reflections
The activity fulfills the requirement for
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I.B. Integrating technology into curricular planning and instructional design including:

Research on and evaluation of existing and emerging technologies
The activity was to research and evaluate an emerging technology, eBooks. When I first met
Mr. Jordan on March 21, 2012, he mentioned that he is looking into utilizing eBooks for the
District. I referred to the District’s 2011Educational Technology Report for some reference to
eBooks, but did not find any plans for the near future.
Although eBooks are considered an emerging technology for schools across America, it still
takes researching, planning, and financing on the part of a District before such a step is taken. On
April 30, 2012, the School Board approved to bring the high school into a 1:1 student to
computer ratio. This is an important step. By having a ubiquitous environment in the high school,
it brings them a step closer to using eBooks.
The research I conducted gives many good reasons to move forward with eBooks. However,
as I learn about SLSD’s technology resources, I realize not everything is in place for this to
occur. For example, as Mr. Jordan mentioned, the School Board has not yet approved of taking
the1:1 environment beyond the walls of the classroom. So at this point, even if eBooks were
adopted, it would still have a limited use and therefore at this point are not practical.
I recommend utilizing free eBooks. Since reading software can be loaded onto various
devices, it would allow many students to access eBooks from both at school and home.
References
Acker, S. R. (2011). Chapter 6: Digital Textbooks. Library Technology Reports, 47(8), 41-51
Looney, M. A. & Sheehan, M. (2002). Digitizing Education: A Primer on eBooks.
http://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/erm0142.pdf
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Gross, G. (April 11, 2012). DOJ files e-book price fixing lawsuit against Apple. Retrieved from
http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9226094/DOJ_files_e_book_price_fixing_laws
uit_against_Apple
Hellman, E. S. (2011). Chapter 4: Open Access E-books. Library Technology Reports, 47(8), 1827
Houston, C. (2011). Digital Books for Digital Natives. Children & Libraries: The Journal of the
Association for Library Service to Children, 9(3), 39-42.
New Media Consortium & EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative. (2011). The Horizon Report 2011
Edition.
Rainie, L., Zickuhr, K., Purcell, K.,Madden, M., & Brenner, J. (2012). The rise of ereading.
Retrieved from http://libraries.pewinternet.org/2012/04/04/the-rise-of-e-reading/
UCLA Online Institute for Cyberspace Law and Policy. (2001). The digital millennium copyright
act. Retrieved from http://legacy.gseis.ucla.edu/iclp/dmca1.htm
United States Government Accountability Office. (2005). College textbooks: Enhanced offerings
appear to drive recent price increases. Retrieved from
http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d05806.pdf
Webopedia. (n.d.). DRM. Retrieved from http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/D/DRM.html