­
Publishers and E-books: making haste slowly? — ICT & Computing in Education
  • Front Page
  • Search
    • Digital Education
    • Terry Freedman's Books Bulletin
  • RSS
    • Welcome
    • The "About" Page
    • Testimonials
    • CV/Resumé
    • My Writing
    • Published articles
  • Corrections Policy
Menu

ICT & Computing in Education

Articles on education technology and related topics
  • Front Page
  • Search
  • Newsletters
    • Digital Education
    • Terry Freedman's Books Bulletin
  • RSS
  • Info
    • Welcome
    • The "About" Page
    • Testimonials
    • CV/Resumé
    • My Writing
    • Published articles
  • Corrections Policy
e-stuff, by Terry Freedman

e-stuff, by Terry Freedman

Publishers and E-books: making haste slowly?

May 20, 2021

The following announcement appeared in a newsletter I published in February 2001:

“Educational publishers discover e-learning
According to a recent article in The Bookseller, a number of UK publishers are about to start developing new digital technology and content for education. For example, Nelson Thornes’ owner, Wolters Kluwer, intends to invest at least £1m a year in this area. Hodder and Stoughton Educational has developed a number of websites to support certain courses, while the Oxford University Press offers interactive materials online to supplement its textbooks.

One likely approach by publishers is the subscription model, exemplified by Research Machine’s Living Library and others. If you are concerned about whether your school can afford subscriptions (The Living Library costs £1299 pa), there is money in the pot because 15% of the school’s National Grid for Learning (NGfL) funding has to be earmarked for content. So if your school receives such funding, you may be able to use some of it for online subscriptions or other digital resources.

Interestingly, according to an article by Terje Johansen in Inklings Issue 7.3, Forrester Research in the USA predicts that ebooks will be a big flop for the big publishers. However, they do lessen the gloom by stating that ebooks, Print-on-Demand and digital textbooks will force publishers to issue their wares in different formats at the same time (at least, I assume that is what they mean by “multichanneling”).”
— Computers in Classrooms #8

Gosh! That was twenty years ago, and I still don’t think publishers have really caught up. Unless they are just being really cynical about the whole thing. Why, for example, are ebooks priced at almost the same level as printed books? (I’ve actually seen a Kindle book priced higher than the print version.) Why don’t more publishers and booksellers give you the digital version when you buy the print one? After all, it doesn’t cost them any more unless you count lost sales, and how many people can afford to buy both versions?

Why don’t more publishers produce books that are multimedia apps?

As for the subscription model, not much is being made of that although it does seem to be becoming a “thing”, especially for self-published authors.

Perhaps I’ve spent too long in a darkened room staring at a computer screen and writing my own articles and books, so maybe I’ve missed stuff. But it seems to me that most publishers are nearly always behind the curve when it comes to technology.


If you found this article interesting or useful (or even both!), why not subscribe to my free newsletter, Digital Education? It’s been going since the year 2000, and has slow news, informed views and honest reviews for Computing and ed tech teachers — and useful experience-based tips.

In From the Archives, News & views Tags e-books, ebooks, publishing
← How to create a grade-prediction system in Excel, and save yourself loads of time (Updated)In case you missed them... →
Recent book reviews
Review: Social Media for Academics
Review: Social Media for Academics

This book is very readable, and if I sound surprised that is because it’s not always true of academics!

Read More →
Quick looks: VIBE Coding by Example
Quick looks: VIBE Coding by Example

For the time being, this book is free in Kindle format.

Read More →
Review: The Game Changers: How Playing Games Changed the World and Can Change You Too
Review: The Game Changers: How Playing Games Changed the World and Can Change You Too

Despite the relative paucity of immediately obvious National Curriculum links, teachers will find several of sections of this book to be highly engaging.

Read More →
Review: The Dictators: 64 Dictators, 64 Authors, 64 Warnings from History
Review: The Dictators: 64 Dictators, 64 Authors, 64 Warnings from History

In some respects one could view this book as a single warning repeated 64 times.

Read More →
Review: The Bookshop, The Draper, The Candlestick Maker: A History of the High Street 
Review: The Bookshop, The Draper, The Candlestick Maker: A History of the High Street 

Taking readers from the Middle Ages to (more or less) the present day, Gray charts how the places where we do our shopping and what we buy have changed over the centuries.

Read More →
Review: Extraordinary Learning For All
Review: Extraordinary Learning For All

As a source of potential ideas and inspiration, the book could be very useful indeed.

Read More →
Review: Bad Education: Why Our Universities Are Broken and How We Can Fix Them
Review: Bad Education: Why Our Universities Are Broken and How We Can Fix Them

One has the impression that the main role of the university these days is to maximise profit, while that of the majority of teaching staff is to ensure the ‘correct’ views are passed on to students. All the while, students’ main concern seems to be to seek protection from anything that might make them feel unsafe.

Read More →
Review: Next Practices - An Executive Guide for Education Decision Makers
Review: Next Practices - An Executive Guide for Education Decision Makers

Is a 2014 book on managing the computing provision in a school still worth buying?

Read More →
Still relevant (sadly): How to lie with statistics, by Darrell Huff
Still relevant (sadly): How to lie with statistics, by Darrell Huff

Although this book is over 60 years old, it is remarkably apposite for our times -- and especially in the fields of educational research and assessing pupils' understanding and progress.

Read More →
Quick looks: Bad Education: Why Our Universities Are Broken and How We Can Fix Them
Quick looks: Bad Education: Why Our Universities Are Broken and How We Can Fix Them

It was a great source of pride to me, getting hundreds of students through their A levels and encouraging them to go to university. But for some time I have asked myself a question: would I recommend this route now?

Read More →
Dig+Ed+Banner.jpg

Contact us

Privacy

Cookies

Terms and conditions

This website is powered by Squarespace

(c) Terry Freedman All Rights Reserved