Week 1 in Review

Coming into this class, I felt that eBooks were rather silly. Why not just pick up a good book and read it the old fashioned way? I personally rather enjoy grabbing a good book, and either a cool beer or cup of coffee and enjoying reading outdoors. Why ruin an age-old tradition by changing it? My thoughts changed, however, when I started this class.

It started for me with "Alice". Interactive children's books have a bright future, as they keep young children entertained while also teaching them how to read. From there I explored "London" and the galaxy with "Solar Walk". For me, the eBook that really stuck with me, and totally changed my view point was "Our Choice". This was an educational book, complete with videos, interactive graphs, and one really cool windmill that lit up a house when you blew into the mic port. This book was what made me realize that there is a bright future for interactive eBooks. In the reading “What is an ‘Enhanced’ eBook”, they mention an eBook titled “Resonate”, and how it utilizes “multi-touch” to give the eBook a very interactive feel to it

In A Futurist's Manifesto, they discuss eBooks, and how they are crucial to education. In one of the videos we watched, it showed a medical textbook in an interactive eBook format. In the book, there was an image of the heart that you can dissect, highlight certain parts, and leave notes. To me, that was the ultimate seller and had me on the eBook bandwagon. The future of these books is in education.

The article “Interactive eBook Apps: The Reinvention of Reading and Interactivity” discussed eBooks with many examples of different interactive eBooks. One of the many examples they use is Al Gore’s “Our Choice”. Personally, I am not an Al Gore fan, as he has proven to be very hypocritical while on his tour promoting the environmental crisis. That being said, I think the eBook based off his “Inconvenient Truth” is the prime example of enhanced eBooks, and truly is the template all other educational eBooks should emulate.