I apologize for the example – it was a picture that existed in my Flickr account from a recent trip and I knew exactly where the picture was taken. If you try the link, you will see me with a “trophy” fish. In the annotation associated with the picture, you will find a link (the geotag) that will take you to the map location of the lake where the fish was caught.
Now that we have learned how this works we intend to generate a Flickr account for Cindy’s trip to Europe and geotag some of her images.
With a little creativity, this capability would seem suited to lots of educational projects. Even the tool for linking to precise map locations can be used to generate the code necessary to embed a link to a specific location – e.g., my office (courtesy of BeeLoop SL – the Mapware & Mobility Solutions Company). My office is initially difficult to see – click the + button on the slider a few times and the building will become visible.
Google appears to bundling several of their apps (gmail, calendar, chat) and promoting them to educational institutions. If I understand the promotion, it appears that institutions are allowed to create an interface that would feature the school logo, etc. as a way to “brand” the site for the school. The sites will feature the familiar google ad words.
This promotion will put Google in competition with companies or initiatives of many institutions to create a portal through which alumni, students, future students, etc. will experience an institution online. Perhaps the approach will appeal to some smaller schools. However, I must admit I wish my institution would offer me the same email capacity, secure browser-based email, and spam control quality as Gmail.
The NY Times “Your Money” section carried a piece on ad-supported textbooks. The columns is informative for those interested in the “cost” issue and primarily explores one solution – ad supported texts. Among the other options explained is Pearson’s ebook subscription plan (access is for a fixed amount of time).
The Times column seems to indicate that instructor independence in selecting textbooks has been an obstacle to innovation. I certainly understand why profs would not like the department or institution telling them which book or which “plan” they were to assign. I also would be somewhat concerned about requiring students to adopt an ebook. Perhaps those occasions on which both a book and ebook are available would provide the way to ease into allowing students options.
It started innocently enough. I arrived in class early to make sure that the technology was up and running and I could provide my “old school” lecture. I was able to get the projector system working and connect to the Internet (my lectures are based on web pages so students can view them before or after class) without difficulty. I had some time to kill and staring at this group of 80 who were all 25-35 years younger than me was getting a little uncomfortable.
An impulsive thought crossed my mind and I loaded my email and clicked on a link. The connection was to YouTube and a cover of Outkast’s “Hey Ya.” Immediate attention.
“How did you find that?”
“I saw it this morning while reading my email. It was an email from a listserv.”
“You get a list of interesting things to watch on YouTube?”
“No, I follow several lists that consider educational technology topics and someone just passed this link along because the song of was interesting and creative. I think the idea was that YouTube is not all junk and there may be some potential there.”
I turn back to the screen to watch the end of the video and notice the connection to another version of “Hey Ya” done by an accordian player at “Burning Man.” Out of curiosity I click on the link and play a few seconds. Interesting, but not of any great musical quality.
My mind connects with “Burning Man” and I tell the story of when Sergi Brin and Larry Page go to Burning Man and add a simple stick figure of a man to the Google icon so people in the know would understand that the Google people would not be around the office that week. Not sure they followed the story or understood the idea of adding symbolic additions to the Google logo, but the word Google did seem to be familiar.
“Have you been to Burning Man?” (perhaps they thought it was a new version of Woodstock and this was the type of thing we old folks do).
“No – I originally heard the story when listening to the audiobook version of “The Google Story.” I listen to audiobooks on longer car trips or when I am doing mindless things in the office. Sometimes I listed to podcasts.”
More blank stares.
“I’ll put a link in the show notes,” I said.
They seem to think I speak a different language – they having rewired brains and being digital natives and all.
Every time I encounter a piece on the cost of college textbooks I read it carefully. I am interested in the issue and agree that costs are too high. The most recent article comes from campustechnology.com and among other issues seems to be pushing ebooks.
I have nothing against ebooks. I wish our book was available as an ebook. Since this post is about cost containment, I think it is fair to claim that companies tend to invest in multiple versions of a book (a paper version, an ebook version) when the demand for a book is large (large course books) and when instructors encourage the adoption of all versions. Companies tell me the adoption rate of ebooks has yet to get to a level at which they are encouraged to go in this direction. I know there is an ebook version available for the Intro Psych book I use and it makes no difference to me as the prof which version students use. I have yet to find a student who has decided to purchase the ebook. Personally, I find it very difficult to read an ebook, but others can read for extended periods of time from a computer screen and that is great.
The part of the post that concerns me is the position of the State Public Interest Research Group (perhaps student chapter) that appears to identify book publishers as the culprit in the escalating cost of books.
Textbook publishers are the primary reason textbook prices are so high; they often add expensive “bells and whistles” such as CDROMs to their textbooks and frequently issue new but substantively similar editions that make older editions obsolete.
This or some version of this claim may be true. However, the appropriate question is why would they do this. Is it because the publishers and their authors are greedy and have found a way to rip off students? I don’t think so – in a competitive environment (trust me – the book business is competitive) a company would break ranks in an attempt to increase market share. If lowering the price would allow company to capture a high proportion of the Introduction to Psychology market, it would happen. Why are textbooks so expensive when a “trade book” with similar production requirements costs half as much? It is all about resale – companies only make money on the initial sale. Trade books are seldom resold – you may sell a few at a garage sale, but there is no industry built around the resale of such books.
Who do I think is at fault for the high cost of the books students buy? Everyone must share in the blame – publishing companies/authors, instructors, distributors, and anyone who resells a book. Who do I think takes the most inappropriate share of the inflated cost? I think it is the distributor. This may translate as your local college bookstore. This may translate as the guy in the funny van who parks on campus during finals week and buys back your books.
Here is a typical scenario. You buy an Intro Psych book for $100. At the end of the course, you sell it back to your bookstore for $50 (but only if a prof has committed to using that book the next semester). The bookstore then puts a new tag on the book ($75) and puts it back on the shelf. Very little risk (the book will be used again) or effort for $25.
In contrast, a publishing company has to look for “talent”. Encourage the talent to write a few sample chapters. Pay faculty members around the country to review the sample chapters in an attempt to deterimine if anyone will use the book for a course. Make a decision to move ahead. Provide the talent a few thousand dollars to spend the time necessary to generate the first draft of the book. Pay a reviewer (often now outsourced to cut costs) to go through the drafts. Iterate a few more times between the author and the paid reviewer. Hire a photographer for a few pictures. Send the raw material to an editor that makes the entire thing look nice. Pay someone to generate margin notes, develop an index, etc. Print the book. Pay marketing people to promote the book. Give hundreds of copies away at no expense to faculty hoping some may adopt the book, but realizing that many may also sell the book to that guy in the van I described above. Send book representatives into every nook and cranny of the country, etc. attempting to convince college faculty to buy books. etc., etc., etc.
Do students, who pay the cost, need all of these things done? Of course not. However, students don’t make the decision to adopt the book. This decision is made by the instructor and the companies must compete to get the instructor to select their products. If publishing companies don’t participate in the game, they have no opportunity to sell their product to students no matter what the cost of that product.
A few books sell. Many don’t. The book companies make money on the first sale of the successes. The same is true for the authors. I have had experience with both success and failures. I will tell you as fact that it is possible to write a book for what ends up being the personal satisfaction of writing a book. This opportunity is available to anyone. Develop a wiki if you are unable to interest a publisher.
In contrast to publishers and authors, the resellers have little risk and little overhead. The $25 they make on the buyback and resale of the $100 book comes for doing a short list of things at little risk – purchase the book from the student, store it on the shelf or in the back room until next semester, put a new price on the book, take the money from the student.
I think the campaign against the book companies is misdirected. What if students bought books directly from companies? What if students sold used books back to the campanies so the company could make the proft on the second or third sale? Competition between companies would then bring the cost of books down. Perhaps some new and creative use of the Internet will allow such selling and reselling to occur. I like my local college store (Barnes and Noble) – I purchase many books and lots of coffee there. However, I also understand what the markup is on original and also resold books.
Perhaps the world is a more complex place than you or I would like. I welcome your comment on this post (you must create an account).
Cindy provides this account of yesterday’s adventure.
The schools in our region have agreed to form a consortium in order to secure prof. development resources from the state. They bring in some external “trainers” for some things and rely on local people for others. Cindy was a local person involved in providing sessions on new technology opportunities.
So – Cindy is doing a session on teacher and student blogging. Those of you who have done tech training in an unfamiliar setting can probably appreciate how this goes. She decides to begin by showing them a blog aggregator and explain how to locate and follow useful blogs. It turns out bloglines.com was blocked by the state filtering service.
“I tried showing the the blogspot site I created when I spent the summer in Japan,” she said. It was blocked. “I thought it might be an objection to blogger.com, so I tried showing them the .mac blog I created this summer. It was blocked too.”
“Maybe the Internet wasn’t working,” I volunteered.
“This makes no sense to me,” I said. “Do you think the group responsible for the banned list knows that Anderson Cooper works for CNN.” (previous caustic comment on filtering)
“Can’t you unblock sites.”
“Sure,” she responded. “But they can’t. They would have to locate the person that has that authority and ask that it be done. Teachers, particulalry those less interested in technology, often won’t do this. It works or it does not and they just move on.”
“So, what did you do to fill out the time allocated for your session.”
When I first read that another software provider offering a product within a crowded field of competitors had secured a patent, I thought the message was a spoof of the Blackboard patent. Red Herring reports that Friendster has secured a patent in the “social network” space.
Perhaps this situation offers a solution to those who object to MySpace. It may be determined that MySpace has violated Friendster’s patent. 😉
It is time for the software providers of yesteryear to rise up. I checked and the University of Washington still maintains PINE. I see PINE is a registered label, but has the Univ. of Washington secured a patent on email? There are probably earlier products, but PINE is about the limit of my personal experience.
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