Technology in the Classroom: The Big Brother E-Book
Students are often faced with pages upon pages of reading as part of the curriculum handed to them by there professors. Traditionally, in order to gauge whether or not students are reading books and articles, professors either turn to asking questions in the classroom or assigning papers and essays on the allocated material. With the use of new classroom technology from CourseSmart, however, it has become a lot easier to tell whether or not students are skipping out on their reading.
CourseSmart is a library of eTextbooks and digital course material available to
instructors and students. With CourseSmart, professors can evaluate eTextbooks
and students can rent them instead of purchasing in order to save money. CourseSmart already provides over 40,000 titles from fifty
publishers and is used in over 100 institutions, according
to Good E-Reader.
Senior vice president of marketing at CourseSmart, Cindy Clarke, says that the programs is
also compatible with other digital learning portals used by colleges and
universities, such as Blackboard, Desire2Learn, Pearson LearningStudio, and
Moodle. CourseSmart was launched last year and many universities
across the United States plan to adopt the technology for the fall semester.
With Coursework, students are given the option of reading eTextbooks on the
computer or
downloading CourseSmart Apps for iPads, iPhones, and
Android devices.
Other than provide cost efficient renting of eTextbooks, CourseSmart also gives
professors and publishers eyes into whether or not students are reading, taking
notes, or making highlights into the digital material. By using an engagement
index, CourseSmart offers profiles to professors of how students are using the
material, and whether or not they are regularly reading the material or
accessing the eTextbook the night before the course. “It’s Big Brother, sort of, but with a good intent,” said Tracy
Hurley, the dean of the school of business at Texas A&M, in an interview with the New York
Times.
Students do not have access
to their engagement index and there have been concerns over the issue of
privacy. As the New
York Times points
out, students can also interfere with the data collecting process by
highlighting paragraphs at random or by opening eTextbooks and leaving them
open while they do other non-class work related things. Tori Floyd, a blogger for The Right Click,
also questions whether or not the data collecting attempts are accurate
considering that students differ in how they learn and take notes, with some
students still opting to take notes on paper or in the classroom as opposed to
highlighting in eTextbooks.
In a blog post about CourseSmart,
Mercy Pilkington for Good
E-Reader wrote, “It’s no
longer enough to create a digital edition of a standard academic textbook;
today’s learners and educators want all-in-one solutions that allow access
anywhere, while also providing self-evaluation and feedback on curriculum
engagement.”
CourseSmart is far from perfection, but it does provide a far better glimpse
into how students are utilizing their textbooks than before. It also gives an
idea about what classrooms will look like in the future, as technology becomes
the norm and hardcopy textbooks less common. At the very least, and as college textbook prices continue to
increase, eTextbooks,
for purchase and rent, will create a cost efficient option for students if the
option is available.
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