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