Textbooks’ digital future

　　Harold Elder is not your typical Apple fanboy. Yet the 58yearold University of Alabama economics professor preordered an iPad to make sure he had one of the first ones. The device is “something that I’ve been waiting for years,” he says. And not, to be clear, merely for reasons of gadget lust. “It really has the possibility of making the learning experience much richer,” says Elder, who is considering testing a new iPad ready digital textbook in his introductory microeconomics course in the fall of 2010.

　　“Richer” is certainly the right word to use. App developers aren’t the only ones who greeted the iPad’s release with gratitude and optimism. The textbook industry, too, sees it as a way to woo customers away from the usedbook market, boost profits, and help students learn better. It’s a pivotal moment for a segment of the publishing industry that has stubbornly resisted change. Thanks in large part to the iPad and an expected rush of competitor slates,that resistance is crumbling.

　　Of course, it won’t happen overnight. Textbooks today are still bought and sold in much the same way they’ve always been. It may be slow moving, but it’s highly profitable. While McGrawHill Education’s earnings fell by 14 percent in 2009 because of the recession, college textbook sales actually increased.

　　There are already digital textbooks available, and their numbers are expected to grow. CourseSmart, a San Mateo, Calif., company collectively owned by five of the biggest textbook publishers, has 6,000 educational titles for sale in digital format. But its electronic books are little more than scanned versions of printed works. A CourseSmart e-book includes some neat functions, like search capability and digital notetaking, but for the most part, it has few advantages over a traditional textbook other than weight and price.

　　That’s where a company like Inkling comes in. Inkling and its competitors are working with the textbook publishers to bring their books onto the iPad, iPhone, and other future devices. The aim, says Inkling’s MacInnis, is to harness all the advantages of a multitouch, Webenabled slate. That means chemistry students won’t just see an illustration of a benzene molecule; they’ll spin and rotate a threedimensional model of one. Biology students won’t just read about the cardiovascular system; they’ll see video of a beating heart, narrated by a worldclass heart surgeon.

　　Big publishers like McGraw Hill, Pearson, and Cengage are locked in a longstanding battle against the usedtextbook market. Online textbookrental companies offer lower prices than the publishers, and reach a wide customer base. But traditional publishers think technology will be their salvation. There’s no such thing as a “used” e-book, and digital textbooks are the center of a whole ecosystem of services—such as homework management systems and video capture technology for recording lectures—that publishers hope will be profitable.

 

　　1. One reason Harold Elder pre-ordered an iPad is that _____________.

　　A. he is crazy about Apples new product

　　B. he just wants a new computer

　　C. he wants to enrich his online experience

　　D. he will use it to help his teaching

　　2. Digital textbooks can help the textbook industry achieve all the following goals EXCEPT _____________.

　　A. boosting profit

　　B. abandoning traditional textbooks

　　C. winning customers away from used book market

　　D. helping students learn better

　　3. Compared with traditional textbooks, CourseSmart e-books may not have advantages in _____________.

　　A. weight and price B. search ability C. digital note-taking D. selling

　　4. Inkling’s digital books are better than CourseSmart’s because _____________.

　　A. they have digital note-taking function

　　B. they have search capability

　　C. they take advantage of a multitouch, Web-enabled slate

　　D. they are much cheaper

　　5. The textbook industry’s attitude towards digital books is _____________.

　　A. skeptical B. optimistic C. indifferent D. negative