Macmillan's DynamicBooks Lets Professors Rewrite E-Textbooks

nytimes.com:

In a kind of Wikipedia of textbooks, Macmillan, one of the five largest publishers of trade books and textbooks, is introducing software called DynamicBooks, which will allow college instructors to edit digital editions of textbooks and customize them for their individual classes.

 

 

Read the whole story: nytimes.com

Comments

[research]

01:41 AM on 02/23/2010

Will they reference the changes?

Text books are dying anyway.

The proff can just link to existing online content, and write thier own, no publishers needed.

[palehose]

07:15 PM on 02/22/2010

The primary problem students have with textbooks is their cost. DynamicBooks exacerbates this problem by giving book publishers another reason to continue to charge exorbitant prices for textbooks. There already is a Wikipedia for textbooks: Wikibooks.org. It's actually FREE unlike DyanamicBooks! The best move textbook publishers could do to help students is to recognize the state of their dying industry, dissolve their corporations, and encourage academics to publish textbooks online for free.

That being said, textbook publishers probably won't do that. Nevertheless, once Ebook readers become good enough to read a textbook, publishers will have to make dramatic changes in the way they operate their business as piracy will increase and they'll face problems similar to those of the music industry. Then, if they still want to make a profit, they'll have to charge much less for their textbooks and make money through complementary services such as course related materials (quizzes, additional readings) and course related services (tutors, graders, essay helpers). They can also make additional money if instead of serving as a one semester resource for students, they focus on meeting students academic needs for the rest of their lives. I doubt publishers will do all of this. Hopefully, some scrappy start-up will and disrupt the textbook industry.

[CommonTator]

01:43 PM on 02/22/2010

Edit textbooks?

To what extent?

Are they talking about customizing material for classes (like removing sections that aren't relevant to the particular area of study), or rewriting science/history depending on the preferences and views of each professor?

[Aldyth]

10:14 AM on 02/22/2010

All textbooks should be available in an E version. The cost of textbooks is a major barrier to affording college. Any means that will make it more affordable is welcome.