“As an increasing number of states and educational institutions declare their commitment to moving to digital-only platforms for educational texts, it seems wise to consider a fundamental question about the future of educational materials, in terms of both content and delivery:

Why is a book the best metaphor for envisioning this future?”

I think Michael Mayrath, Priya Nihalani, and Scott Perkins nailed it here. This question comes out of a study they ran at Abilene Christian University in which they developed a mobile app for students in a general level Statistics class.

The whole article is worth reading, but I’ll just focus on one part that kind of lingers with me. For designers involved with this kind of work, approaching them as Apps rather than ebooks seems like it could also influence their thinking at a subconscious level, since when you think about it, the word ebook still has a whole lot of analog connotations and as a result, might still constrain their vision for designing something more genuinely innovative.

Many people are familiar with Lawrence Lessig’s Creative Commons as a reasonable and constructive way to address copyright concerns in a digital age. In perhaps a nod to Lessig, Bryan Sinclair describes the notion of a Commons 2.0 from an academic library’s perspective. He sees it as something that

brings together a wide range of elements to foster student learning in new and creative ways. It is not a static computer lab; rather, it incorporates the freedom of wireless communication, flexible workspace clusters that promote interaction and collaboration, and comfortable furnishings, art, and design to make users feel relaxed, encourage creativity, and support peer-learning.

Besides collaboration, another element that catches my eye in this description is his phrase, flexible workplace clusters. As mobile technology adoption continues to grow, flexibility seems central to any plans for designing academic work spaces. For him, this means moving away from a hardware-centric approach that relies on rigid rows of desktop computers to a more flexible, modular approach that features things like kidney-shaped tables to promote collaboration and docking stations to accommodate laptops and mobile devices. And not to downplay the theoretical, he notes how this kind of design applies constructivist principles where learning is decentered and co-constructed.

Image credit: Brandy Shaul