Advantages and disadvantages of e-book

When we discuss the advantages and disadvantages of e-book, we can find that there are numberous advantages or benefits of e-book. However, e-book is as same as the other technology that always has pros and cons. So these are some brief of advantages and disadvantages of e-book.

Advantages of e-book

1. E-books can contain not only text and images, but also audio and even video. Moreover, some e-books even have flash applications that allow the reader to interact with the contents. Or in other words, e-books have multimedia format.

2. There is no need to ship any physical product halfway around the globe, because we can simple download e-books from the web. Therefore, there is no shipping cost for e-books.

3. Many e-books sport a search button, which allows the readers to quickly jump to the page containing the word they are interested in. So e-books' searchable make this type of book look more interesting.

4. E-books are easy to be updated. Because e-books are the electronic documents so the author can edit and save the updated version and then informs customers about the new release more easily. This means e-books are low updated cost books.

Disadvantages of e-book

1. It is painful to read off a screen, and if that e-book is quite long, printing cost will be more expensive for some people who prefer to read text on paper.

2. It is easy to be piracy. Because e-books are the electronic files so they can be emailed or sent to someone in the other places more easily.

3. It is not convenient to read. Because readers have to sit in front of their computers for hour when they want to read this type of book by using computer, but with printed books, readers can easily read even while standing.

Ref: http://www.manuelviloria.com/

My Reflection on Blogging

Since this course is online course and blogs are one of the important technology tools for this type of learning. I really agree that blogs are the good way for individuals to reflect on what we are learning and to get feedback from other people. There are many advantages I received from blogging.

Firstly, it gave me a chance to write what I learnt for sharing. According to this, knowing in depth what I wanted to publish is very necessary. This event helped me learnt more how to analyse and synthesize the information I studied to write in my blog. Secondly, comments from the other people helped me knew what my weakness, what my strength and what to do better. More importantly, they gave me more visions about what I wrote. Thirdly, commenting on others' blogs made me learn in depth the knowledge that I wanted to comment, because good comments can be occured when the commentator really understands what bloggers post. Therefore, I learnt more knowledge by this way.

Finally, blogging gave me a chance to communicate and exchange my point of view with the other people that helped to promote a learning community outside the classroom. In my opinion, I really agree that this technology tool is appropriate to use in this online learning course because it can help learners to improve their critical thinking indeed.

Finding free e-books

There are some places that we can find free e-books which can be downloaded in various formats and converted if necessary. These are some examples places to find free e-books.

1. FreeBookSpot (http://www.freebookspot.com/): is an online source for free e-books download with 4485 free e-books in 96 categories like scientific, engineering, programming, fiction and many other books.

2. 4eBooks (http://4ebooks.org/): has a huge collection of computer programming e-books, field like .Net, Actionscript, Ajax, Apache and etc.

3. Free-eBooks (http://www.free-ebooks.net/): is an online source for free e-books download, e-book resources and e-book authors. Besides, free magazines also can be download.

4. ManyBooks (http://manybooks.net/): provides free e-books for PDA, iPod or eBook Reader. There are 21,282 free e-books available here.

5. GetFreeEBooks (http://www.getfreeebooks.com/): is a free e-books site that provides all legal free e-books to download.

6. FreeComputerBooks (http://freecomputerbooks.com): consists of a huge collection of free online Computer, Programming, Mathematics, Technical Books, Lecture Notes and Tutorials. In addition, it is very well categorized by topics, with 12 top level categories, and over 150 sub-categories.

7. FreeTechBooks (http://www.freetechbooks.com/): lists free online computer science, engineering and programming books, textbooks and lecture notes, all of which are legally and freely available over the Internet.

8. Scribd (http://www.scribd.com/): the online document sharing site which supports Word, Excel, PowerPoint, PDF and other popular formats.

9. Globusz (http://www.globusz.com/): is a unique ePublishing house, specializing in free e-book downloads. They also provide an excellent Star Rating Showcase for new and evolving authors.

10. KnowFree (http://knowfree.net/): is a web portal where users are able to exchange freely e-books, video training and other materials for educational purposes and self-practice.

In addition, there are the other places to find free e-books, they can be found in the refference below.

Ref: http://www.hongkiat.com/blog/20-best-websites-to-download-free-e-books/

Finding and buying e-books

As an e-book is a book in a digital form. When we think to buy this type of book, we may have to know where to find and buy it. There are some sources that can help you to find e-books more easily.

1. Fictionwise.com - secure Mobipocket, eReader, PDF formats. Moreover, multiformat books, which are usually non-DRM (Digital Rights Management) books.

2. eReader.com - is actually powered by Fictionwise. But this is a separate site carrying only eReader/.pdb format.

3. bn.com(Barnes&Noble) - even through they bought Fictionwise in March 2009, e-books in eReader/.pdb format are also available through bn.com.

4. Books on Board.com - a mixture of EPUB, Mobipocket and eReader formats.

5. Mobipocket.com - Mobipocket format (owned by Amazon).

6. Amazon.com Kindle Store - Kindle format only.

7. http://www.ebook.com/ - Microsoft Reader, Mobipocket, secure EPUB formats.

8. EPubBooks.com - a list of places to find EPUB format books.

9. Wizz-e.com - a site that focuses on e-books for children.

10. Diesel ebooks - Adobe, Mobipocket, eReader, Microsoft formats.

11. eBook Store from Sony - Sony format (BBeB) for Sony Reader.

12. Penguin eBooks (U.S.) - Microsoft Reader, secure Adobe PDF and secure eReader formats.

13. Penguin eBooks (UK) - secure EPUB format.

14. WHSmith eBookShop (UK) - secure EPUB, secure Adobe PDF, secure Mobipocket, secure Microsoft Reader.

15. Waterstones (UK) - for Sony Readers, utilizes secure EPUB.

To summarize, according to this data, we can find that buying an e-book is very easy. Because now we can buy e-books either from a bookseller's or a publisher's website.

Ref: http://www.whenihavetime.com/where-to-buy-and-find-free-ebooks-and-learning-resources/

http://www.jisc.ac.uk/uploaded_documents/PromotingeBooksReportB.pdf

E-book Readers

Now e-book can be read through many different devices. Or in other words, there are many e-book devices to use for reading e-book that come in different formats. However, they can be cassified into 3 main categories.

1. Your Computer: A simple solution since almost all e-book formats have software that is installable on Windows and Mac operating systems.

2. Multifunction/Smartphone: This group is perhaps the most interesting, because, if you have one of these devices in your possession, you can set up it to read e-book very easy. Blackberry, Treo, iPhone (and iPod Touch) are all examples of Smartphones. Many e-book formats have ways to read content from Smartphone.

3. Dedicated e-book readers: There are a lot of e-book devices out on the marketplace now. The feature that characterizes these devices is that most of them are utilize E-Ink technology, which is a non-backlit electronic display that simulates text printed on paper. These are some well-known e-book readers in this type:

- Amazon Kindle: now it is in the third generation (Kindle 3). E-book formats that can be read on this device are AZW(Kindle format), PDF, TXT, MOBI, PRC, HTML and DOC.

-Sony Reader: the PRS-700 is the most recent version with a touch screen. E-book formats that can be read on this device are Sony's e-book format (BBeB), PDF, EPUB, HTML and TXT.

-Barnes & Noble Nook: B&N released the Nook in October 2009. This tool is a relatively new contender in the e-book reader marketplace. It supports eReader format, EPUB and PDF.

Ref: http://ebook-reader-review.toptenreviews.com

http://www.whenihavetime.com/where-to-buy-and-find-free-ebooks-and-learning-resources/

E-book Formats

Since an e-book is a book in a digital form, it can exist in different formats. For this reason, there are many e-book formats that appear in the e-book world. These are some popular e-book formats.

1. Mobipocket/.prc/.mobi - is now owned by Amazon. It is available to be read on several devices.

Features: can be used on any PC or mobile device. Includes bookmarks, table of contents, and more.2. Microsoft Reader/ .lit - Microsoft's e-book format which is readable on several types of devices.

Features: clear type display technology, book-like reading environment, bookmarks and annotations.

3. eReader/ .pdb - originally developed by Palm. Or in other words, it is a program for viewing Palm Digital Media electronic books.

Features: can be used on many popular mobile devices. Includes bookmarks, table of contents, and more.

4. PDF/ .pdf - is widely available and readable on several types of devices.

Features: Windows, Mac, device compatible. Bookmarks, single or double page view. Zoom in on pages.

5. EPUB/ .epub - is created by the IDPF (The International Digital Publishing Forum). Features: Windows, Mac, device compatible. Bookmarks, single or double page view. Zoom in on pages.

Ref: http://www.ebookmall.com/choose-format/

http://www.whenihavetime.com/where-to-buy-and-find-free-ebooks-and-learning-resources/

The history of e-book

A brief history of e-book is:

- In 1971, the first "e-book" was born. Michael Hart was the creator of this innovation and founder of the Project Gutenberg of lllinois University, a public library of digital books, which houses 20,000 free books, and over 100,000 books are available through their partners.

-In 1981, the first e-book with commercial aims (a dictionary by Random House) was launched on the market.

-In 1998, the first e-book Fair took place in Gaithersburg, Maryland in the U.S. At this event, the Norm Open e-book, a series of regulations to standardize the format of electronic publication was presented. Moreover, libraries began to pay attention to e-book in this year when NetLibrary, a Colorado-based firm began to provide content.

-In 1999, the specification Open e-book Publication Structure was established, which set HTML (Hypertext Markup Language) and XML (Extensible Markup Language) as the stnndard platforms for this type of books.

-In 2001, the e-books boom started when "Riding the Bullet", a Stephen King' s well-known novel, was launched exclusively on the internet. This digital work was a resounding success, with a great amount of copies sold in only 2 days at a very affordable cost-$2.50.

Additionally, one of the first genres to become successful in the e-book field was that of the romance story. Because e-book romances were easy to shop for and easy to read, so romance novels were perfect for e-books.

Ref: http://www.myebookdesign.com/History-Of-E-Book-Design.aspx

http://www.ebookweek.com/history.html

What is e-book?

For the second half of the semester, I will be blogging about e-book that is one of technology tools can be used for educational world more effectively. E-book or ebook or digital book is shortly said of an electronic book. The easy way to understand the meaning of e-book is to write it as a formula as e-book = electronic + book. There are many definitions available of e-book, for examples:

1. E-book is a book whose contents are in an eletronic format.

2. E-book is a small, portable device onto which the contents of a book in eletronic format can be downloaded and read.

3. E-book is a portable electronic device with a video screen, for reading such text.

4. E-book is an electronic version of a traditional print book that can be read by using a personal computer or by using an e-book reader.

5. E-book is a text- and image-based publication in digital form produced on, published by, and readable on computer or other digital devices.

To summarize, the term of e-book is used to refer to either a written work in a digital format, or a hardware device used to read books in digital format. However, the second meaning is disapproved by some users. They think it is accurate to use e-book device insted.

Ref: http://www.yourdictionary.com/e-book

http://searchmobilecomputing.techtarget.com/definition/ebook

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E-book

The Future of E-learning

According to the report "The Worldwide Market for Self-paced elearning Products and Services: 2009-2014 Forecast and Analysis" by Ambient Insight, it is found that:

1. In 2009, e-learning reached a dollar volume of $ 27.1 billion, and by 2014, e-learning will reach $ 49.6 billion, representing a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 12.8 % over five years. The dollar figures in the research included expenditures in five categories of electronic learning technologies: packaged content, custom content development services, learning platform and tool hosting services, authoring software and tools, and installed learning platforms.

2. North America is the largest region for eletronic learning, the growth is being driven by academic institutions, both preK-12 and higher education. The largest expenditures for packaged content in 2009 were made by the preK-12 and higher education buyers, which accounted for 43 % of all North America purchases. the higher education segment will be the largest buyer by the end of the forecast period driven by the robust expansion of online programs in both non-profit and for-profit institutions.

3. North America will continue to be the largest e-learning market for the next five years while Asia, with a "breathtaking" five-year CAGR of 33.5 %, will edge out Western Europe by 2014 to take the No.2 slot.

4. In higher education, particularly in career and vocational programs, the current economic situation is helping to fuel the growth. For-profit institutions are dominating online education, owing partly to this trend.

5. In preK-12, growth is being fueled by the proliferation of online virtual schools that are part of state and local education systems and online charter schools that operate independent of these systems in many cases. Both are helping preK-12 experience a 17 % CAGR over the five years.

6. The United States is unique in the world, even in North America, in the organization of its online preK-12 programs:

-The virtual school and the cyber charter school phenomenon is a distinct US trend.

-Virtual schools in the US are administered by the school systems and many offer full time programs to students.

-In 2009, there were over 200,000 students enrolled in virtual schools in the US.

-Many virtual schools in the US purchase content and services from commercial "education management", and the trend of purchasing growth rates are impressive. For example, from 2008 to 2009, K12's purchasing grew by 35 %.

-There are over 185,000 children in the US enrolled in cyber charter schools in 2009, and by 2014, 1.5 million US children will be taking online class in cyber charter schools.

In conclusion, e-learning appears to grow more rapidly in the future, because it mainly takes the form of online learning that tends to increase more in the educational system in the near future.

Ref:http://campustechnology.com/Articles/2010/03/03/The-Future-of-E-Learning-Is-More-Growth.aspx?Page=3

The advantages and disadvantages of e-learning

E-learning can provide more obvious advantages for using in this present-day. However, there are some disadvantages occur when we consider e-learning in the opposite side.

Advantages of e-learning

1. Flexibility and convenience: students can access an e-learning course anywhere, anytime and learn as much as they need.

2. Travel costs and savings: there are no travel costs for bringing remote students to a centralized place.

3. Ease of updating information: it is very easy to change the information, because the changes are made on the servers storing the program or courseware.

4. Inexpensive worldwide distribution: there is no need for a separate distribution mechanism and internet is widely available to use for e-learning nowadays.

5. Increase of number of students without demands on extension of teaching capacities: students are able to proceed through a program at their own places and instructors are not held by geographic boundaries.

6. A possibility of exploitation of new forms of communication: an e-learning course gives students to have opportunities to share experiences among students as well as between students and instructors.

Disadvantages of e-learning

1. Bandwidth limitations: long waits for download that can affect the ease of the learning process.

2. Loss of human contact: students only move towards more computer usage for an e-learning course.

3. Too static: the level of interactivity in the e-learning course is often too limited.

4. Not all courses are delivered well by computer: some learning topics are not best served by computer based learning and require a more personal touch.

5. Progress of e-learnong quality: the quality of many e-learning courses are still not better than many years ago. Because focus is often on how to develop a lot of courses and not on how to improve the quality of learning.

6. Confusion about technology: as e-learning is delivered to students via a computer using internet technologies, some students who lack of ICT skills may have the problems in this type of learning.

Ref: http://www.namahn.com/resources/documents/note-e-learning.pdf

http://www.e-learnmedia.sk/en/main.php?menu=102

E-learning tools

When thinking of e-learning tools today, it is very clear that there are many tools include to use in e-learning courses beside computers that always use to take online classes. In other words, e-learning tools nowadays include many advanced technology tools that are using in this type of learning. These are some of e-learning tools that are popular to use today.

1. Blogs: a form of personal journal written online.

2. E-mail or text message: exchange messages or communicate with other students or teachers.

3. Chat and instant messaging: allow teachers and students to carry on a text-based conversation in real time.

4. Discussion forums or discussion boards: discuss the topics being studied with teachers and other students in the class.

5. Podcasts: audio files containing voice recordings that can be downloaded to students' PADs, smartphones or MP3 players, and video recordings that can be downloaded to students' iPods or smartphones to review anywhere and anytime.

In conclusion, now is the era of mobile technology. So mobile technology is became a part of e-learning. This is very useful to help e-learning more interesting nowadays.

Ref: http://communication.howstuffworks.com/elearning12.htm

http://www.horton.com/toolslists.aspx?CatName=Collaboration

Strengths and weaknesses of using e-learning in the past

Overview of using e-learning in the past, we found that there are some strengths and weaknesses that can be considered to 2 aspects.

1. Strengths of using e-learning in the past. These include:

- E-learning enable students to use a wide range of sources than learning in traditional ways of teaching.

- E-learning tools create learning communities where students can study topics and learn skills that nobody in practice is able to teach them.

- E-learning teaches students to become more aware of the need for source criticism.

- E-learning enhances libraries, archives and collections to make their materials available to the publics.

- Students learn ICT skills by using e-learning technologies.

2. Weaknesses of using e-learning in the past. These include:

- There is a chronic shortage of intermediaries transferring pedagogical ideas into technical solutions.

- There is little appreciation of the possibilities offered by e-learning. Because of this, e-learning courses tend to resemble classroom teaching.

- E-learning courses are not easy to stand, since they tend to demand the constant involvement of a tutor.

- Available digital materials is still rather limited, so the demands of all courses do not meet.

- Lack of standardized technology limits transferability and the re-use of courses.

Ref: http://ehlee.utu.fi/Introduction_TOC.pdf

The history of e-learning

When we disscuss the begining of e-learning, it is necessary to refer to the history of distance learning. Because a brief look at it will give more clear about the origin of e-learning.

The concept of distance learning predates the computer area by almost 100 years.

In 1840's, in England, distance learning used mail for communication. It was the best way at that time, and because of the postal service improvements, this type of learning became more popular in the early part of the last century.

In the late 1950's, television and radio were the technologies that added to use for this type of learning. However, these tools still lacked of ability for two-way communication between instructors and learners. So these tools still did not good enough for this type of learning.

During the early 1980's, experimentation with online bill-board system (BBS) and e-mail were brought to help distance learning more effectively. These technology tools provided a framwork for online learning that is still used nowadays.

In the early 1990's, the term "e-learning" was coined. It specifically referred to include the internet technology or other interactive or electronic media to use in distance learning to enable true two ways communication.

In this present-day, there are many high technologies can be used in e-learning, for example, internet technology, multimedia and packaged software programs. Therefore, using e-learning in education world now tends to increase rapidly because of its useful and convenience.

Ref: http://apps.hct.ac.ae/ewb2005/2005/ewb_newsletter_04_10.pdf

http://ezinearticles.com/?A-Brief-History-of-E-learning-and-Distance-Education&id=496460

What are the types of e-learning?

Since e-learning is the term generally used to refer to using electronic-enhanced learning, or in other words, e-learning is not the only term used to refer to using computer-enhanced learning. E-learning can be classified into 3 types by using the criteria time and distance.

1. Asynchronous e-learning: communication does not occur at the same time and uses technology tools such as blogs, discussion boards, and e-mail for activities. The main idea of this e-learning type is learners exchange the ideas or information independently from the other learners involvement at the same time.

2. Synchronous e-learning: communication occurs at the same time and uses technology tools such as chat, audio or video conferencing for learners' participation activities. The main idea of this e-learning type is every learner joins participation in activities at the same time. Additionally, instructors and learners do not meet physically, but using these technology tools for communication instantly.

3. E-learning of blended learning: combines e-learning tools with an actual traditional classroom to guarantee maximum effectiveness. The main idea of this e-learning type is using only e-learning is not to make sure a learner has actually completed a course, and learners' gaining the benefits of interaction with the others are essential. Moreover, face-to-face interaction is the good way to help learners get more social learning than using only online learning.

Ref: http://www.namahn.com/resources/documents/note-e-learning.pdf

What is e-learning?

Electronic learning that is shortly said e-learning, is one of the new, modern forms of education now. There are many definitions available of e-learning, but I present here only a few of them to gain some understanding about it.
Definition of e-learning:
1. E-learning is the learning or education program by electronic means.
2. E-learning covers a wide set of applications and processes such as web-based learning, computer-based learning, virtual classrooms and digital collaboration. It includes the delivery of content via the internet, intranet/extranet, audio and videotape, satellite broadcast, interactive TV and CD-ROM.
3. The main characters of e-learning is delivery of the digital content.
According to these definitions, it can be concluded that e-learning can involve a greater variety of device than online learning that involves only using the internet and intranet. Or in other words, e-learning courses can consist of multimedia presentations, video and audio sequences, etc.

Ref: http://derekstockley.com.au/eindex1.html

http://www.namahn.com/resources/documents/note-e-learning.pdf

http://www.chengzhi.net/english/index.htm

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