We also should become (at least experimentally) eBook publishers.ĮPub is an open eBook standard. We live in the era of the “read/write” web, however, so we shouldn’t stop at being simply eBook readers. If we, as educators, are not knowledgeable and conversant about emerging eBook technologies and the literacy issues which surround these electronic texts, who in our communities will be? It’s incumbent upon us to be “the experts” on learning and literacy, and this means being experienced eBook readers. One of my “homework assignments” for educators in Canyon ISD, Texas, this past July was to read at least ONE eBook soon. It’s probably bad news for people who want to perpetuate traditional modes of classroom learning prevalent for the past one hundred years.Īdam Penenberg’s December 2009 article for Fast Company, “ Forget E-Books: The Future of the Book Is Far More Interesting” relates many of the reasons we should be ENTHUSED rather than pessimistic about the rise of the eBook as educators. (Especially the Bible.) Today, the move to electronic texts is a fantastic development for people interested in learning, access to ideas, and publishing. The widespread use of moveable type in Europe in the mid-1400s was perceived as “bad news” for some leaders of the Christian church in Rome, who wanted to maintain their hold own power by perpetuating ignorance and limiting the access “regular people” had to the written word.

Rather than lament “ the death of the book,” we should celebrate. In July 2010, NPR reported sold more eBooks than paper-based books in the first half of the year. EBooks are proliferating, and the trend toward reading more content as bits instead of atoms (in digital rather than paper-based forms) is going to keep gathering momentum in the months ahead.

Calibre epub reader