E Book

The Seventh Open Classroom Conference

Incubating Creativity and the Capacity for Innovation:

Open Content, Social Networking Tools and Creative Learning for All

15-17 October 2009Porto, Portugal

Smiraglia Stanislao - Grimaldi Daria - Department of Human and Social Science

University of Cassino - Italy

http://www.eden-online.org/eden.php?menuId=468


E-book for a blended-learning experience 2.0



Description of an innovative ICT solution to be presented in the form of Exhibitions or Demonstration Sessions in 2000 words.

The book is a real instrument, in its codex form, it is the most used artefact in the field of education and we can hardly imagine a cultural development without the written language, but above all without its possibility of being repeated.

Cultural artefact




In 2000 Gallino wondered if the most extraordinary technical product that history had ever known, the book, could be imitated or even replaced by the Network.

We can answer to his question by referring to the fusion of technologies which is culminating into the form of the ebook.

The book and the net




The digital revolution has really invested the publishing sector and the form of the digital book.

Digital revolution




Even if the aesthetic, cultural and also romantically affection value of the traditional book, cannot be estimated, the evolution of publishing cannot neglect these changes, and as the history of the last century has taught us, cultural changes are strongly influenced by development and by the innovation potential of digital technologies.





1.For one way, the ebook is

considered the electronic format of a paper document, to a mere

digital version, at most being a hypermedia text, which can

hardly become an added value in terms of collaboration and

positive development of knowledge.

ebook



We have different way to define what an ebook is.




2.Another possibility for the ebook is that of being more properly called eBook reading device, a hardware having the possibility of containing hundreds of digitalized texts.

The advantage of this sort of liquid portable library, as regards the preservation and spread of knowledge, is enormous, as well as it is in terms of cutting down costs and spaces.

ebook




3.A third way, to think at the ebook is

the “COMMUNITY BOOK” created by Scriptweb.

ebook

http://scriptaweb.eu/Catalogo


In this sense, digital publishing must take upon itself the task of carrying out a total Copernican revolution of approach to texts, absolutely not clashing with the paperback, but providing really innovative services, fully compatible with the coexistence of two absolutely not conflicting, but rather each other integrating technologies.





Up to now the adaptation of didactic contents to new educational online experiences has often limited itself to a simplification through the multimedia language of study subjects.

E-book and learning



Above all, in blended learning, the learning objects are replaced (producing an oversimplification) or simply accompanied (implying a cognitive overload) by the traditional study of the paper handbook.




According to our experience, the ebook, connected to the blog only by an icon, has supported didactics allowing that change of paradigm which has more and more distinguished the on line experience from the mere distance reply of interactions occurred at the presence of learners, mixing in a new way, private study with the construction of knowledge.

Scriptaweb experience


In this sense the choice of adopting the online book completely designed and produced by the publishing house Scriptaweb, has to be interpreted. It is something more than the simple digital version of a printed book.





The project from which Scriptaweb comes, is the carrying out of the integrated system for the publishing and on line use of published works which is based on the availability for each reader of a personal copy to be read on line, which can be looked up from any computer ; a dialectic space in which authors and readers can exchange their ideas in order to make of a cultural product, a team project.

The community book




The highest expression of how the user of the text can personalize it and intervene in it, is the possibility of receiving a paper copy called “MyPod”, in which personal notes, sharing notes and references introduced by the user while reading, are printed on. It is a personal version of the book originally wrote by the author, enriched by the interaction had with whom has written the book and with the other readers.

The community book




The interaction levels to which the ebook by Scriptaweb refers are a lot and take place between the reader and the book, between the readers, between the readers and the author and avail themselves of a lot of instruments:

Tools




http://scriptaweb.eu/lettura/le-vie-della-persuasione-sono-infinite-servsoc#1

Surfing instruments



The book is provided with a dynamic index, rapidly referring within the text, to the post-it cards, introduced by readers or the author and to the multimedia elements. Besides that it avails itself of instruments like the highlighter, a pencil and notes, for facilitating the use of the text. In this way the approach to the text takes into account the personal learning styles of learners, who can reproduce their habit of studying a book, in the online version too, also facilitated by the instrument digitalization


Each reader can decide at which level to expose his observations or questions. He can in particular decide to keep them private (they will be a part of his Dossier), or to share them only with whom has written the book (the author-teacher) or he can make them be visible for all readers.


Reader’s notes




The bleu ones are observations that the author decides to share with readers, which can be integrations or improvements of what has been written in the text, or the publication of fruitful reflections privately had with some readers. In the educational context this becomes a privileged channel of the relationship with the teacher, since it, taking advantage of the lower degree of formality and the seeming virtual character of communication, allows a direct analysis of contents by the mediation of the author of the text himself.


Author’s notes




It is the area of personal notes of each reader. In his dossier it is possible to quote for their own use, as memos, some parts of the text, some analyses, or questions to be completed before sharing them in public or simply personal reflections.


Dossier




The ebook gives the possibility of making the contents of the books interact with the materials existing in the Web by a search instrument which works both within the text, identifying the different points by which an idea is dealt with and outside on all possible links dealing with the subject being deepened in the whole Network.


The book and the network




The book also offers the opportunity of managing multimedia materials in different formats, up to real films, for guaranteeing an immediate communication of particularly important themes which require a special attention. This greatly distinguishes the ebook by Scriptaweb both from most competitors and paperback versions.


Multimedia




As it can be easily understood, this instrument becomes particularly interesting for whom works in the field of education, because it facilitates studying and teaching in a creative and innovative way, not neglecting the attention for the educational process and product.




By using the ebook the teacher has been able of observing the learning style of each student, monitoring the most complex themes and timely intervening on particularly difficult aspects. As regards students, the possibility of asking a distance support within the specific context of the text, has allowed them to develop a positive approach to the construction of knowledge and the negotiation of meanings, really studying with their colleagues in the presence of the teacher.

Conclusion




To deepen the discussion by email:

Smiraglia Stanislao (Associate professor):

[email protected]

Grimaldi Daria (PhD student):

[email protected]

Department of Human and Social Science


Thank you!

mailto:[email protected]

mailto:[email protected]

E Book

Technology

Transcript of E Book