On Jan 27, 2012, at 2:26 PM, James Daley wrote:
quick question what is the difference between a text book anyother book like a manual or reference guide?
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Excellent question-- obviously, there's a semantic issue here. In this conversation so far, by "textbook" I've meant a somewhat comprehensive resource, intended primarily for use in a specific academic course (ie Geometry, or American literature, or a particular section of history). These tend to be largely driven by text and images, though my personal definition of an electronic textbook would definitely include software applications available for student use, as well as multimedia content (that, at least, is part of the point of it being electronic, and not a print resource).
Whether or not this is a good model for what we *ought* to be building (or, rather, whether we can leverage recent technologies to reinvent how learning happens, or how academic content is organized) is, perhaps, an elephant in the room.
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