Archive for the ‘Digital content’ Category
Reading a book versus a screen: Different reading devices, different modes of reading?
A book or a screen – which of these two offers more reading comfort? There are no disadvantages to reading from electronic reading devices compared with reading printed texts. “E-books and e-readers are playing an increasingly important role on the worldwide book market. However, readers in Germany are particularly skeptical when it comes to e-books and electronic reading devices. The objective of the study was to investigate whether there are reasons for this skepticism.“
“This study provides us with a scientific basis for dispelling the widespread misconception that reading from a screen has negative effects.”. “There is no (reading) culture clash – whether it is analog or digital, reading remains the most important cultural technology.” However, the result of the study stands in stark contrast with the participants’ subjective reaction. “Almost all of the participants stated that they liked reading a printed book best. This was the dominant subjective response, but it does not match the data obtained from the study.”
What happens to ownership as the world goes digital?
The launch of Amazon’s new “lending library” feature through its Kindle devices this week means that another form of content or media — namely books — is becoming something that we rent or stream, Netflix-style, rather than owning a physical copy of. There are plenty of reasons to prefer renting or streaming over actual physical goods: It’s often cheaper, and you don’t have to lug around heavy books or CDs or DVDs everywhere, since your content is (theoretically at least) available anywhere. But there are also downsides to renting content; moving to a rental model changes our relationship to that content, and not always in a good way.
Like many services that are enabled by always-on connectivity, rental or streaming of content such as books, movies and music has a lot of potential benefits: It can save money and be more convenient, and it can free us from having to worry about where the content is. But at the same time, it also removes certain rights and abilities that we’ve grown used to — just as renting a home instead of owning does — and that is something we are all going to have to learn more about as the world becomes increasingly digital.
Digital storytelling: A tutorial in 10 easy steps
Digital storytelling is a craft that uses the tools of digital technology to tell stories about our lives. Done properly, storytelling can be a powerful, evocative way of communicating themes and stories, often touching us in deeper ways than one-dimensional videos that rarely probe beneath the surface of people’s lives. Nonprofits, especially, can use this technique to convey powerful, emotion-filled messages — by letting the people you’re helping tell their own stories.
If you plan to do it yourself, see our Visual story checklist to make sure you follow all the steps involved in creating a compelling story. You may also want to sign up for a digital storytelling workshop (see bottom), which can last from a few hours to a full day or two and generally costs a modest tuition fee. Either way, follow the following steps and you’ll be on your way.
New Digital Tools Let Professors Tailor Their Own Textbooks
And that’s just one option, along with mix-and-match Web sites from big publishers and libraries of open-source content. For his marketing course at the University of Tennessee at Knoxville, Daniel Flint wanted his students to read a white paper on public relations, a couple of case studies, an industry report, and a chapter of a forthcoming book.
So he created a textbook with just that—more than 100 pages of material in one customized package for his students. Mr. Flint, a professor of marketing at the university, used a new build-your-own-textbook service called AcademicPub, which arranged payment of royalties and compiled the material for publication. His students were given three options for buying the book: Download a digital edition for $14.95, get it in paperback for $27, or go for the hardcover for $45.
Visible Body – 3D Human Anatomy
Visible Body is a content and software development firm that produces award-winning interactive and visual content. The company publishes anatomy and physiology learning products sold through its web site and at the iTunes App Store and produces custom content for many of the world’s top pharmaceutical, biotechnology, medical device, and educational publishing companies. Founded in 1996, Visible Body is based in Newton, Massachusetts. The company also operates as Argosy Publishing.
Being a Responsible Citizen of the Digital World
For most young people today, engagement with new digital media is a routine aspect of life. Through computers, mobile phones, and other handheld devices, youth can blog, tweet, participate in social networks like Facebook, play massive multi-player games, use online information sources, and share videos, stories, music, and art they’ve created. Important skills and knowledge can be gained from such activities, but there are also risks. For example, young people may only rarely consider what it means to be an ethical, socially responsible “citizen” on the Internet.
Our Space is a set of curricular materials designed to encourage high school students to reflect on the ethical dimensions of their participation in new media environments. Through role-playing activities and reflective exercises, students are asked to consider the ethical responsibilities of other people, and whether and how they behave ethically themselves online. These issues are raised in relation to five core themes that are highly relevant online: identity, privacy, authorship and ownership, credibility, and participation. For more information, download the Introduction to Our Space, FAQ, and Road Map. All curricular units and lessons are free and available for download below. The full casebook can be downloaded using the link at the bottom of the page.
Ensinar e Aprender no Mundo Digital: Fundamentos para prática pedagógica na cultura digital
Fascículo 1 da Coleção Ensinar e Aprender no Mundo Digital, produzida pelo Cenpec.
13 Alternative Ways to Consume Your News
How we consume the news has changed dramatically over the years. With the rise of social and information networks like Twitter and Facebook, we now have access to our own crowdsourced news wires. Add to that an army of applications reinterpreting the magazine and newspaper for mobile and tablet forms, and what we have is a news media renaissance that puts the reader’s interests above all else.
Should you prefer to discover news through social connections, you can turn to Flipboard, Smartr or XYDO. If you want to consume news from just the publishers you trust, then you’ll likely develop an affinity for Pulse or FLUD. But if you’d rather your application tell you what to read, Zite may be right for you. And, we’re just getting started. What follows is a collection of 13 different apps and services that provide you with alternative ways to consume news.
Equella 5 Digital Repository Adds Portlets, Dashboards
Pearson has released an update to Equella, a digital repository for higher education and K-12. The latest release, version 5.0, gains new interface enhancements, as well as support for customizing dashboards and building portlets. Equella, aside from serving as a repository for learning objects, also provides content authoring and content management functionality, including a Web-based WYSIWYG HTML editor that can be used to create both static and dynamic HTML pages. The digital repository offers search by keyword, content type, and metadata; hierarchical browsing; and federated search across external repositories.
