Several textbook publishers sign iPad deals

@mplaisance

Regarding iTunes U. I hope that your statement eventually proves to be correct in the case of ePub which is the format required by the iBooks app on the iPad. As far as I can tell, iTunes U is currently confined to audio, video and PDF files and those PDF files are currently invisible to direct access via iPhone and iPod touch - an Apple acknowledged bug BTW.

PDF has been used as an eBook and eText format but it has not gotten a lot of traction in the mobile space. The ePub standard is clearly preferred by the publishing industry. Perhaps they have concerns about Adobe or just want to minimize the risks of dependency. I don't know.

Regarding what publishers want to do with digital media, it is clear that they want to eliminate the secondary (used) market because they see that as siphoning off of their revenue streams. If they can prevent you from loaning or selling your copy of these digital files, they will. If they are successful and it appears that they will be, libraries will have much less to lend. Unavoidable collateral damage in the view of commercial publishers.

@L. Monahan:

I appreciate the value of your experience in the printing industry and the insights you've brought to bear on the subject(s) under discussion here. No doubt, an eTextbook would be cheaper to manufacture than a physical textbook.

However, publishers have many other expenses in textbook creation that will not go away in the digital era. In fact, some of them will actually increase. The textbook writer (often a college professor), editors, artists, web and Learning Management System developers, media developers, programmers, salespersons and others still have to be paid salaries, commissions and royalties. Securing permissions to use images and, now, video clips is not inconsequential either.

Finally, there is the new cost that replaces what used to be spent on printing. Companies like ScrollMotion, an independent iPhone developer, will charge publishers to create an iPhone/iPad app containing the textbook content and locking it down so that it can't be resold or sold outside of the iTunes App Store. The app model could even be used to make the textbook expire at some point, say, end of semester.

Will all of this give rise to alternatives? Probably.

This might be a good time to revisit my old, paper-based philosophy books and refresh my recollection of the Hegelian Dialectic: thesis, antithesis, synthesis. Nah, it's all right there on Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thesis,_antithesis,_synthesis

When you loose the physical media (printed page, CD, DVD or whatever), you may also have lost the "Right of First Sale." This was established a long time ago in England when publishers tried to control the price of a book after they sold it (resale). They lost. Courts have ever since held that when you buy a book or CD or DVD or some other physical medium upon which something is somehow recorded, that particular copy is yours to do whatever you please except make another copy if there is a valid copyright for it.

The right of first sale is what makes libraries possible. It is what makes the so-called secondary (used) textbook market possible. It's what makes it legal to give someone else your copy of a book or a CD or a DVD to someone else.

No doubt we will all miss physical media when it is finally gone. Of course legislation could change that in some ways that might lessen the pain but I wouldn't hold my breath.

"Actually, I am very familiar with that environment having spent 40+ years teaching grades 7-16."

Wow, you taught the 16th grade?

@L. Monahan remarked:
"Wow, you taught the 16th grade?"
... in an apparent attempt to be sarcastic.

FYI, since the last grade in US High Schools is 12, it is conventional to speak of undergraduate college teaching as reaching to 16. With that in mind, let me correct my statement to:

"Actually, I am very familiar with that environment having spent 40+ years teaching grades 7-18." This would more correctly reflect my teaching experience at the graduate school level.

BTW, my field of expertise is teacher education so I continue to be closely associated with K-12 classroom teachers.

@camerontalley :
Actually, I am very familiar with that environment having spent 40+ years teaching grades 7-16.

The idea is for teachers statewide or even nationwide to collectively write grade appropriate and subject appropriate texts using tools very much like we are using here today. It's no more onerous than blogging which many classroom teachers regularly do.

As for standards, most states have them posted online and in great detail. Teachers are expected to teach to those standards so why can't they write to those standards?

@punkassjim:
Perhaps you haven't heard about the various K-12 laptop initiatives that have been so successful for many years now. New Hampshire is a notable example for Apple MacBook laptops.

I do agree with you that teachers are egregiously underpaid and, so, I'd imagine that they would certainly welcome the opportunity to get extra pay or release time as compensation for textbook writing so don't forget to bring that us with your local government. Many teachers voluntarily serve on state textbook adoption committees and many other chores outside of the classroom without extra pay because it advances the cause of better education.

Classroom teachers are an admirable lot.