Monday, July 26, 2010

Future of the Book

Two weeks ago , at the ADE Summer Institute 2010, I had the good fortune to room with Robert Andersen , professor of Humanities and Language at Oakland Community College, Auburn Hills, Campus. Bob and I share a strong mutual interest in film, as well as educational technology. However, he is light years ahead of me in terms of technical skills. Given his professional background in film editing, it was unsurprising that his project group chose him to edit their movie on Final Cut Pro, "Future of the Book". Many of the groups worked late into the night before the projects were due, so I wasn't surprised to find his whole gang gathered in our room after midnight. "Connected . . . . connected . . .connected" I heard played well into the night and bright and early the next day. But they came up with a nice piece:




Within days after returning home, I came across the following news:

* Amazon announced that Kindle books were outselling hardcovers.

* Both Apple and Amazon have already added functionality to the Kindle and iPad that will allow their ebooks to include embedded audio and video as well as other goodies, just as the speakers in the Future of the Book are requesting.

Sounds to me like the future is at hand. I think we educators should start insisting that the book publishers start producing 21st century media for our students.

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A shout out to Bob's project teammates: Jill Burdo, Charlene Chausis, Chris Penny, Bill Rankin, Harry St. Ours

5 comments:

Chris Eldred said...

Great video! Thanks for sharing. Did you have a project for ADE? Did you post it and I missed it?

Detroit Sports Dork said...

Thanks, Chris. The most significant part of our project is happening right now. (Our presentation in Fla was unremarkable). I'm going to post a couple of pieces that I am working on real soon. Thanks for your interest.

Will Knott said...

W.W.R.B.D.? Actually, since he is such a lover of both books and technology, he'd be right in bed with you.

Detroit Sports Dork said...

Hmnn, Will Knot What would a rational bear do? Robin & Batman? Roy [G] Biv? I'm stumped, but if he's a book lover, I'm pleased to share fellowship (but not bed).

Ann Lusch said...

Very interesting video, Larry. In my department, publishers are only now starting to make texts available digitally, and I think only because they're hearing a demand for it. You're right that teachers (and maybe R.B., whomever that might be) will need to make known the features that would be useful in the classroom. This video does that nicely, and manifests a much clearer vision of what books can be than I would ever be able to come up with.

Looking forward to seeing what you have been up to this summer.

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