What stuck out the most to me in the reading was the specific differences between the ebook, the interactive ebook and the app. Having what I would call three separate mediums of storytelling defined allows us to know exactly what to expect from each as well as it's capabilities. And exactly what we are buying. I know now that when I buy an app to expect full user interactive capabilities, with the ability for personal exploration and interactive diagrams, that I can be in control of what i'm learning at different points in time, with an enhanced e book I can expect videos and annimation and interactive diagrams to enhance my understanding of the text, and with an ebook, to expect the actual text with possibly some features such as bookmarking and maybe some animation.
What shocked me the most was the price usually for each of these mediums, how apps are the cheapest, with ebooks racking in the most money. This price value is the opposite for the amount of work and technology that goes into each of these mediums. If the public was more aware of the capabilities of the interactive ebook and apps they would gladly pay more for them. I hadn't thought much of ebook capabilities before attending this class. I thought that all ebooks had what Itzkovitch labels in his article Interactive eBook Apps: The Reinvention of Reading and Interactivity, as Interactivity for the sake of interactivity. Where creators are throwing in features just because they can, but don't enhance the readers experience of the information in the book. I believe many people see ebooks and interactive that way, as a toy but not as a useful tool in giving them a better learning experience.
Changing that perspective would open so many to the incredible possibilities interactive ebooks and apps have to offer. I think the future of ebooks depends on changing that view, and having teachers recommend ebooks and start using them more in the classroom, and for businesses to start using them in meetings and to distribute information to their customer. Catalogs for clothing for online stores would be such an asset as you could put in your specific measurement and have the model changed to one that looks like you, then you could try on clothes virtually. With our ever increasing busy schedules we need the interactive technology to help us save time and get to information we specifically need and want quickly.
Here is a link to pottermore.com an online incteractive book of the series of Harry Potter, where you can unlock new clues and writings from J.K. Rowling who had this site developed for readers who wanted to go even deeper into the story, to give them incites to the expansive world she created, that jumps from the pages in this app. Since it's not on an ipad there are still limitation but my laptop is a touchscreen I am able to drag and move things and interact with the story. Pottermore is free when you sign up for the account that keeps track of your progress in the series. It shows what interactive narrative can do for an amazing popular series.
https://www.pottermore.com/en/explore-the-stories#
No comments:
Post a Comment