Kno's New IPad App Wants To Kill Textbooks

The worst part about Kno is probably its name. Pronounced like "no" or "know," it is frustratingly hard to talk about with someone who is not familiar with it:

"Do you know what Kno is?"
"Um--no?"
"No: Kno, K-N-O."
"No, I mean I haven't tried Kno. I don't know what Kno is, no."

If you're a college student, and you don't yet know what Kno is, then maybe you should get to...maybe you should become acquainted with it. Kno is a free app for iPad that can be used for reading digital textbooks and taking notes in them. The developers at Kno have rolled out a new release for the iPad and their own website with several excellent new features that are sure to make many college students rethink navigating the campus bookstore; the fact that all of your textbooks and the notes you take are now available from any device via the web and your Facebook account, together with improved note-taking features in the app itself, make Kno one of the most impressive arguments to ditch your backpack for a tablet on the market today. After flirting with making its own "educational tablet" for some time, the Kno team has settled on making software, and the decision seems to have paid off.

Click through the slideshow below to view screenshots of the new Kno app and to see exactly what it is that makes the updated Kno such a compelling way to read your textbooks on a computer screen:

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The Kno Course Manager

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The front screen of the Kno iPad App is your course manager, where all of your textbooks can be dragged and organized into the classes you're taking, and all of the classes you're taking can be dragged and organized by semester.

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The front screen of the Kno iPad App is your course manager, where all of your textbooks can be dragged and organized into the classes you're taking, and all of the classes you're taking can be dragged and organized by semester.

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No big deal. Kno! Big deal!

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Comments

[drleebrew]

09:04 AM on 08/12/2011

I cannot see how an electronic reader can replace paper books for a serious student. The ability to take notes, quickly access multiple sources, and flip quickly from page to page, is invaluable. But, perhaps for students who merely read the text to get the minimum necessary to pass a test, it would be enough. Also, as a bibliophile I simply hate to see it happen.

[Bruce Thompson]

10:52 AM on 08/12/2011

Kill less tree. Costs less for students. 1000 books in the space of 1/10th of a book.

Live in the now man....

[Blarg]

04:55 PM on 08/13/2011

Textbooks are a huge expense, and big discounts on online textbooks would be a big boon to students. School bookstores sometimes run out of assigned texts, which can seriously harm students. And if you've ever had to walk through a long hilly campus with an overstuffed backpack and arms full of books, the idea of carrying a simple tablet instead comes as a huge relief.

Something like this is a massive step in the right direction for education. Ask kids who use computers if they'd like to go back to typewriters and carbon copies.

[drleebrew]

05:27 PM on 08/13/2011

There is an implication that I am some kind of ludite in the responses. I understand the realities of the savings in weight, and the simplicity of carrying a single tablet. As the first in my class to write a dissertation on a computer, I did my graduate work with typewrite and carbon copies, and recognize the utility and value of computers. However, as a professor, I have also seen the tendency of students to do the least amount of work possible increase with a dependence upon the internet, and a lack of ability to use a library and view varying sources at once. (Not to mention the temptation to simply download someone else's work and present it as one's own.) There was also a simple reference to personal preference, which should not be a source of denigration.

[Sunny California]

06:36 AM on 08/12/2011

As a college student I'm not a bg fan of online textbooks. It's too easy to get distracted because you have the internet right there. When I read a physical book, I can shut my laptop off and hide it somwhere, eliminating distractions Lol.

Not to mention, how will I sell the "book" back?

[theveggiedude]

01:42 PM on 08/12/2011

That's part of the problem with education - students selling their old textbooks. When you enter the real world, those books can be a good reference. If this app will make you less prone to be rid of your books, then that is a good thing.

[Acert]

01:34 PM on 08/13/2011

Generally e-textbooks are only rented for one semester.

[TheOuroborus]

09:20 PM on 08/11/2011

Anyone here going on about how wonderful good old decaying books are really need to zip it. Either ride the wave or get drowned by it. And I'm not one of those kids, I'm over 50 and jealous as heck. Man, what a marvel this gadget would've been back when I was in school. ALL my textbooks hidden inside a thin little screen? Wow, sweet.

[Acert]

09:39 PM on 08/11/2011

Anyone as |d|otic as you really needs to zip it. People have been saying technology would replace paper for decades; it hasn't happened yet, and there's no reason to think this time will be any different, especially because many young people actually prefer printed books.

[officiallyforeign]

03:01 AM on 08/12/2011

many young people actually prefer printed books?? Says who??

I'm a college student and I think this is awesome. There's a reason places like Borders have gone under and it's because of the new technology in reading books. You don't have to get on board, but I suspect if you don't you won't have access to as many things a few years down the road.

[Tunghoy]

11:09 PM on 08/11/2011

I'm almost 50, and was thinking exactly the same thing. Especially since I had a lot of heavy books to schlep around in college. I read a lot now, and my Kindle is like an appendage.

[bryanzth]

07:42 PM on 08/11/2011

How do you control the publication? We don't want stuff shifting and changing like Wikipedia. I mean, I like Wikipedia and various online resources like it, but only three words give me the willies on this one:

Texas
School
Board

Oh, heck, get your passports, get out of here while the getting is good. That's not a promise, not a threat!

BZ.

[raechel]

09:36 PM on 08/11/2011

I don't get it. What's wrong with the shifting and updating of Wikipedia? You need certain truth or something? You're dreaming. I trust Wikipedia above most other compiled sources of information for one simple reason -- hundreds of thousands of editors that keep it honest. Wikipedia is the undoing of the Texas machine that selects the dogma to be fed students across the country.

[bryanzth]

11:03 AM on 08/12/2011

Actually, Wikipedia is a positive kind of source, because of its editorial flat structure. I do however distruct those resources that are highly reactive to politics. I don't think we can prevent shifting and updating of the wrong kind in resources that are not truth-based, but opinion-based documentation. Wikipedia on the other hand is still truth-based, even though a few scamps have to be watched and some important pages have to be locked against hacking.

Your last sentence is great. And with regard to history, there are many authors (even of textbooks) who are putting heavy brakes on the Texas School Board nonsense.

So, maybe I wasn't specific enough, or you jumped to conclusions, but heck that is what conversation is, a back and forth way to hopefully come to mutual understanding.

FF'd! :)

BZ.

[Tunghoy]

11:14 PM on 08/11/2011

When I look at the Texas School Board, my reaction is the opposite. The reason those 12th Century knuckle draggers can be so damaging is that textbook publishers will customize content to fit Texas, and not create intelligent versions for other states.

But when textbooks become electronic, the cost of publishing separate versions is much lower. And books can be updated more frequently, since there's no printing done.

[bryanzth]

11:11 AM on 08/12/2011

Yes. Yes, to everything you stated as well as what Raechel said, too.

Wikipedia has a flat enough editorial/production base that information discrepancies can be reviewed and redacted.

But here's a question. There are various credentialing and review boards for content and curriculums. And while I am not enthusiastic about putting something important like history, social studies, science, biology, and even math into the hands of a small group, is there any clearing house, review board or some such that you would trust to recommend electronic textbooks for use in your state?

I have read a number of works by people such as James Loewen (Lies my Teacher Told Me, Sundown Towns, Confederate and Neo-Confederate Reader), E. O. Wilson, Carl Zimmer, etc. who know their stuff and could be on a board of historians/scientists/specialists whose imprimatur (as it were) would qualify textbooks for use in schools.

But there is the push/pull of centralized approval vs. market approval that I think you are aware of and I'd like to know your further thoughts.

BZ.

[John Edward Byrd]

07:25 PM on 08/11/2011

What happens if the power goes out for a long period of time such as during a summer thunderstorm or a hacker manipulates your data while trying to steal your personal info? With a e-reader everything is gone but with a book you can just carry on...

[bryanzth]

07:43 PM on 08/11/2011

A book does not change and still works when you drop it. ;0)

BZ.

[officiallyforeign]

03:04 AM on 08/12/2011

Give me a break... what happens if your backpack gets stolen and your books are taken along w/ your wallet and drivers license?

[Blarg]

05:09 PM on 08/13/2011

What happens if you come home and your dog has peed on the carpet?

Seriously, though, an e-license is not the most secure thing in the world. There are always trade-offs.

[raechel]

07:06 PM on 08/11/2011

I'm 61. I've read tens of thousands of books, and love -- or used to -- the feel and smell of them. Then I bought my Nook. Never going back. This is fabulous!! No more textbooks!! And for those of you who like things the way they used to be, remember when you had to go to the library and paw through the card catalog to find material for a paper? And then read those paper books and journals, taking notes on paper, and typing your final paper several times (no cut and paste, remember) till you got it right? What used to take 100 hours now takes 4. You can have the good old days; don't inflict them on today's college students.

[bryanzth]

07:43 PM on 08/11/2011

Orwell's Memory Hole.

Thank you very much.

BZ.

[raechel]

09:38 PM on 08/11/2011

You think paper is safe?

[Kache]

09:29 PM on 08/11/2011

One of my partners has an attic full of old newspapers. 7,000 newspapers, all from the 1600s, 1700s & 1800s. He spent decades and a fortune buying them. Having helped read and scan them years ago, I have to add one more attribute to your "feel and smell" - the ink stains!

I love spending an afternoon in that attic!

[FreelanceWriter]

06:14 PM on 08/11/2011

>> czs5056: "With books you can spread them out and get informatio­n from them as opposed to having to constantly change tabs."

LOL sorry, I really DON'T see how spreading a whole bunch of books out on a desk or floor or whatever, and then finding yourself thinking "Wait, now I need this piece of info"...at which point you reach for a different book...

...Is really all THAT much different, or even easier, than simply changing tabs on a screen.

Reading many of the comments here is making me laugh. If you like being "old school" and like the "feel" of books and paper and what not, that's cool. But this whole notion that some people are pushing that big, clunky books piled or spread about makes things EASIER than dealing with digital information that's literally at your fingertips on a laptop or tablet cracks me up since that argument is REALLY reaching!

[Kache]

03:50 PM on 08/11/2011

For all the commenter's here who echo "paper is better", you have no possible way to make that comparison statement until you have tried a Kno textbook. There are pluses and minuses.

I signed up as a Kno developer the first month they were in business and bought their two-screen version. Although the hardware is indeed an awesome concept, I'm glad to know they are dropping the hardware in favor of concentrating on tablet software. Tablet hardware is rapidly evolving - particularly in processor power and the expensive (and single purpose) Kno hardware was doomed to not be able to keep up with student buy-ups.

I think the only reason Kno developed the iPad version first is that many of the features are built-in to the iOS app toolkit. But, they are working on a web app version where all of those features have to be built from scratch. Once the web app version is complete, Kno will of course be Android and iPad capable without the iTunes store listing. Since Android tablets can also double as remotePC dumb terminals to Windows 7 computers (and play a MUCH wider variety of games), I expect Android sales of Kno to dominate with college students

[markopolio]

03:27 PM on 08/11/2011

Sweet, now I can buy 80 dollar text books without any chance of re-selling them.

[piratesmvp04]

09:35 PM on 08/11/2011

You get 30%-50% off all textbooks, and you can get a 180-day rental for 50% off. Considering that most school bookstores will only give you up to 50% cashback, this is no different. In fact, this is actually better because you're guaranteed half the cost whether your school decides to go to a new version or not.

[officiallyforeign]

03:07 AM on 08/12/2011

I will say that that is my biggest concern. They offer a discount now, but once this becomes the norm what's the incentive to offer a discount?

This combined w/ the whole "lets change the edition so everyone has to buy them new" racket (when all they've really changed is the page numbers and order of information) is going to get expensive.

[Blarg]

05:15 PM on 08/13/2011

When I went to college, they did the same thing with paper texts. A "new edition" would come out, so very often, every year or so, and what was "new" about it was meritless, as close to nothing as possible.

And the buy-back for most of my textbooks was so ridiculously small that even students without a lot of money sometimes just threw their books away. Everybody was P.O.'d about it.

[PrairieGayCompanion]

12:21 PM on 08/11/2011

Through no fault of my own, I have lived 61 years. For most of that time I have heard "paperless" is now and the future. Never has happened, except maybe in communication. When I used textbooks, it required a lot of flipping around, I can't see that too well on a tablet. Even when I am reading a novel on my tablet, I find it difficult to check back on a passage.

[Blarg]

05:16 PM on 08/13/2011

Books are easier to manipulate, but e-books are infinitely easier to take and coordinate notes on.

[REDSTATEREFUGEE]

11:43 AM on 08/11/2011

I welcome any media which encourage my students to actually READ material, in whatever form. For example, in my composition classes, I have a check sheet, listing all the major writing problems that I routinely encounter, along with chapter references for student use.

When meeting with a student who persists in creating run on, comma spliced, or fragmentary sentences, I ask, " Did you read the chapter concerning these sentence problems? It really is easy to understand and quite helpful." The student response is often this: " Well, I've been meaning to, but I have been busy."

My students are so "cellular addicted" that this new technology may encourage them to study.

[Kache]

04:04 PM on 08/11/2011

You don't mention what grade level you teach. But I think your observation is probably valid for all levels.

I sell a tablet app for children's stories, age 4 through 8 (Nursery Rhymes, Tales, Fables, Poetry, etc.). Parents are amazed that their kids will spend hours on a tablet reading these stories (with good comprehension) but lose interest quickly if it is in book form. Although the motions for reading are the same, children have the sense that they are interacting with a digital device, but not interacting with a book. For example: the page turning effect on a book is real but distinct from the reader, but the page turning effect in a digital book takes place in your mind - prompted by the visual animation on the screen. That is a subtle interaction that kids know and expect from more and more of the world around them. I don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing - but I do know it is here to stay.

[raechel]

07:10 PM on 08/11/2011

Kids are enthusiastic learners -- of what is relevant for them. And they will use whatever method is most effective -- for them. Look at some of Sugata Mitra's work. It will restore your faith in kids and it will restore your faith in technology as a learning tool.

[REDSTATEREFUGEE]

11:16 AM on 08/13/2011

X 165 Raechel.....Thanks for the suggestion. I will find the reference and read it faithfully.

[Nsukuzonke]

10:57 AM on 08/11/2011

Its never going t happen. We've heard 'paperless office' ever since I was a child - the reality is that we need more paper than ever.
Electronic books have their place, but they cant replace print.

[officiallyforeign]

03:08 AM on 08/12/2011

I think Borders book store begs to differ.

[weareallzombies]

09:01 AM on 08/11/2011

I could see text books being replaced if everyone had a piece of technology like a Kindle with a screen that doesn't cause eye strain. I don't see anything negative about replacing heavy textbooks with technology as long as you can retain the digital text after you purchase it, unless they sold a one semester version for a significantly smaller price.

[czs5056]

08:22 AM on 08/11/2011

Paper is better. With online you buy the software and it self destructs at the end of the semester. If you fail the class you have to buy it again at full price. With paper you buy the book and you can keep it forever and reference it (like I plan on doing with my chemistry and organic chemistry paper textbooks)

[ASRock78]

10:29 AM on 08/11/2011

Paper is not better...paper destroys forests and takes away from the natural environment. Just because it is more convenient right now (seeing that E-book companies are still working on the kinks of accessing their books electronically) does not make an antiquated approach better!

[czs5056]

11:41 AM on 08/11/2011

You can use recycled paper to print on so there goes your environment argument. Also just because a technology is old doesn't make it obsolete (the wheel, pipes come to mind). With books you can spread them out and get information from them as opposed to having to constantly change tabs.

[officiallyforeign]

03:10 AM on 08/12/2011

So you need paper because you might fail? You're grasping. Keeping the book for future reference though - that's a valid concern. I'm sure there's a way to keep the book indefinitely - no?

[raechel]

07:13 PM on 08/11/2011

I hung on to all of my college textbooks, too. Never used them again. Certainly wouldn't today -- too much info available online. I did eventually attempt to sell my textbooks, but of course they were all obsolete, so value-less. When I think of how many times I packed up books and moved them ... it is ridiculous. You can always buy the e-book version and keep it if you want, but even that is silly because of the obsolescence problem. Give it up. Trust that you can find information easily when you need it; you don't need to lug it around with you.

[bealebkk]

08:15 AM on 08/11/2011

"I became insane, with long intervals of horrible sanity."
...Edgar Allan Poe