The recent ASU Education Innovation Summit, which brought together venture capitalists with aspiring ed tech entrepreneurs, created quite a stir in the edublogosphere and the edutwitterverse. A lot of the reaction came from people who were watching from a distance via video. Audrey Watters, for example, wrote an epic rant on her frustrations. There were many angry tweets from a number of quarters. First-hand reporting was relatively scarce, though. George Siemens, who attended the conference live, wrote a thoughtful and nuanced post on the topic. The question of how entrepreneurs can productively play a role in educational progress, innovation, and reform is a topic that I think about a lot. In fact, I already had a post planned in my backblog from an interview I did with the Instructure founders and CEO on this very topic. So now that e-Literate has successfully migrated to a new host, and before Blackboard buying somebody else forces me to write another post series, I’d like to take some time to lay out my thoughts on the topic.
Tag: Rob Reynolds
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Webinar on Textbooks
I just wanted to drop a quick note to point out that the always interesting Rob Reynolds will be running a webinar on the future of the textbook on Friday. Here are the deets:
The Future of Digital Textbooks in U.S. Education (And What That Means for
You)Date: Friday, February 10
Time: 1:00 CST
Open registration — http://bit.ly/x8EGIwTextbooks will be predominantly digital by the end of the current decade
and that means big changes in both the publishing and education markets in
the U.S. In this webinar, Dr. Rob Reynolds will explore the current trends
in the textbook publishing industry, the continued evolution of digital
textbooks, and the rise of open textbook and OER content. His presentation
will feature research from his forthcoming book (The Future of Learning
Content: E-textbooks, Open Content, Apple and Beyond!), and is also based
on his professional experience as an educator, author, administrator,
educational technologist, and publishing executive. Specific topics
addressed in the webinar include:Current and future trends in educational publishing
Top 10 obstacles faced by traditional textbook publishers
Market projections for print and digital textbooks through 2020
The impact of tablet devices on digital learning content and the
curriculum
The evolution of the open textbook and self-publishing markets in
education (and their challenges)
The rise of low-cost, digital-first publishing in education
Trends in e-reader software platforms for e-textbooks
The real impact of Apple, Amazon, and Google on textbooks