I’ve been working through David McFarland’s book on JavaScript and jQuery the last week or so and while the book itself is great (e.g., clear explanations, good tutorials), I’ve got a usability quibble with it.
I bought the digital version from Amazon. However, with no Kindle Reader, that meant the experience would be delivered through Amazon’s Kindle-for-Mac tool. But when I got to the sample code snippets, the font size was so small that it rendered it practically invisible.
From a learning standpoint, the code samples seem just about as important as the explanations that surround them. I guess in this sense, maybe it’s more than just a (usability) quibble.
Perhaps this is just a Kindle-for-Mac issue, but it would be nice to at least have a toolbar option for modifying point-size.
The O’Reilly Tools of Change site has an interview with Matt McInnis of Inkling who talks about what they see going on in the digital-textbook market. For instance, McInnis mentions students’ preference for downloading specific chapters rather than entire books. Feature-wise, he mentions they integrate Google Search and Wikipedia. On this latter point, it seems like another good addition would be Wolfram Alpha. What student wouldn’t want a quick, reliable reference for checking anything that can be quantified?
On the ebook reader front, Plastic Logic unveiled a promising new leap forward at this year’s DEMO conference. Although the device won’t be officially available till next year, they showed off some features that seem to give the Kindle a run for its money. Here are some that caught my attention:
Instant on (great for those times when you just want to quickly check a document for one small detail)
Readable in bright daylight
Plastic rather than glass screen so it’s very durable
Touch-screen for entering annotations, notes or comments
Battery life that’s measued in days not hours
Although Plastic Logic is aiming this at a business audience, I certainly see possibilities with education (e.g., students using it to read and mark-up course materials outside on a bright, sunny day). Perhaps textbook publishers are already looking at this. I’m sure there will be lots of coverage by the tech and biz press when this device is officially released next year; it will be interesting to see what the reviewers have to say. Perhaps someone from Educause will get one and write a review through an educator’s prism.
