Next-Gen Publishing

I am curious to see what the future holds for the good-old-fashioned textbook in higher education. When I was in college, I would not have even considered not buying the required textbook for a class. Now, statistically, one third of all students make that decision believing they can get through the class by getting information from other means (the Internet) or borrowing the text from a fellow classmate.

Educational publishers are also branching out into other industries, most notably distance learning and electronic resources. Many run their own course management system and Pearson now owns eCollege, one of the first course management systems commercially available.

If I could look into a crystal ball, here would be some my predictions for these publishing giants:

• Soft cover books will become the norm and black & white printouts on-demand will be the primary source for hard copy content.
• Textbook content will be available online for students to download—a repository so to speak. These books can be printed, read onscreen or read with an ebook reader such as the Kindle.
• Course management systems will be able to access textbook content virtually. Rather than download the content to a specific university server, the content will be accessed from a site, and appear to be an integrated part of the course.
• The bookstore will become a store for supplies and college branded clothes and paraphernalia as book sales move totally online.
• Costs will go down as advertising revenue begins to supplement profits.
• The relationship with textbook authors will change as they work to make content more elastic - like a living document - where versioning will be unheard of and will include input from teachers and students.

Only time will tell. Use the comment field to provide your own predictions.

The Pace of Change

I am finally moving to a Microsoft Vista machine. I held on to my XP machine for as long as I could and now I am moving to Vista just as Microsoft announces the launch of their next OS.
One of our computer technology teachers stopped by my office today. She is concerned about having to submit a schedule for next January when she can't even identify what version of each of the programs she is teaching will be current.

And, we are just wrapping up the programming of an application that works with PowerPoint 2007 only to hear that the next release of Office is due out within the year.
The joys of technology. The question is not “to be or not be” but “to keep up or give up.” Determining when and if to upgrade is always a challenging decision.

I spoke to an instructor today who said she is in so many beta programs that she is accustomed to seeing a feature here today, gone tomorrow as programmers fine-tine software in its final stages. Personally, I don’t want to be the first person to use something, but I also don’t want to be the last. Timing your entrance into a new technology is as individual as the car you drive.

There are also several ways to find out about all of these new releases. Personally, I like email newsletters. Daily reminders that keep me informed about educational technology as well as general computing. I know others who prefer RSS feeds or good-old-fashion word-of-mouth.

Some of my favorite newsletters include Campus Technology (www.campustechnology.com) and Educause Reports (www.educause.edu) for education. I also find it helpful to sit in on a few vendor presentations (live or webinar) now and then to see what kind of technology is up and coming.

However, even with all of the frustrations of the speed of change in technology, I wouldn’t trade industries for anything. At least there is never a dull moment.

Use the comment field to share your preferred timing for jumping on a new version--early adopter or a laggard?

The Up Side of a Down Turn

An economic downturn comes with both positives and obvious negatives. One of the positives is that people go back to school. They go back to school in order to refine, renew, or explore skills and passions. In many ways, it is like a cleansing of the soul. We get lost in the day to day existence of our work and when we are suddenly faced with the need to revisit our dreams, it can be viewed as an excellent opportunity!

I am currently reading the Passion Test by Janet and Chris Attwood. I am not job hunting or renewing my skills, but looking for that which brings me joy. We are fortunate to have a plethora of self-help books on finding the right job or career--the most famous being What Color is Your Parachute. I also found Finding Your North Star by Martha Beck to have very practical information for discovering and then pursuing your dream.

There are also several online tools for finding the right school. College Board www.collegeboard.com provides a good tool and most states have web sites providing information on local universities and colleges.

We are fortunate in this country to have so many options for education and an environment where innovation and change are not only accepted, but expected.

Use the comment field to share stories about following new careers choices or tools for exploration.