Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2010/02/05

[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]

Subject: [Leica] iPad and textbooks
From: ricc at embarqmail.com (Ric Carter)
Date: Fri, 5 Feb 2010 11:35:45 -0500
References: <3694213.69631265383906729.JavaMail.root@sz0102a.emeryville.ca.mail.comcast.net> <916B730B-9D39-4D0C-8727-C017524378A9@usjet.net>

<http://www.tuaw.com/2010/02/03/several-textbook-publishers-sign-ipad-deals/>

<http://mashable.com/2010/02/03/textbook-publishers-embrace-ipad/>

<http://news.cnet.com/8301-13579_3-10446865-37.html>


ric



On Feb 5, 2010, at 11:02 AM, Robert Meier wrote:

> Why on earth would textbook publishers grant Apple the rights to make 
> their books available on the ipad?
> 
> 
> On Feb 5, 2010, at 9:31 AM, rickfloyd at comcast.net wrote:
> 
>> 
>> 
>> My kids undergraduate texts books are $500 - $600 per semester.  That's 
>> about $125 to $150 per book on an average.
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> ----- Original Message -----
>> From: "Spencer Cheng" <spencer at aotera.org>
>> To: "Leica Users Group" <lug at leica-users.org>
>> Sent: Friday, February 5, 2010 10:20:21 AM GMT -05:00 US/Canada Eastern
>> Subject: Re: [Leica] iPad and textbooks
>> 
>> 
>> On Feb 5, 2010, at 9:41, Lawrence Zeitlin wrote:
>>> Why so many college textbooks at $50 a pop? Many colleges, including 
>>> mine,
>>> look for a magic number in evaluating professors for promotion. Our 
>>> college
>>> counts the number of papers published in academic journals as a major 
>>> index.
>>> Three peer reviewed papers equal one textbook. Judging from personal
>>> experience it is quicker, and often easier, to write a textbook for
>>> undergraduate courses than to do the research for a substantive paper.
>>> Naturally the publishers want to sell co-pies of the books that they 
>>> print
>>> so the professors are encouraged to require all students to buy the 
>>> latest
>>> edition of the book. The iPad, using books accessed from the internet, 
>>> will
>>> kill that market. The colleges will be forced to use a different metric 
>>> than
>>> "Publish or perish."
>> 
>> $50 a pop? Not even when I went to school a longtime ago. :)
>> 
>> Engineering and computer science textbooks are more likely to be 
>> $100-$200 today. I've bought a technical book for work once that was 
>> about $1/page.
>> 
>> Publish or perish still applies though. How else will they judge if 
>> someone is worthy of a professorship?
>> 
>> If I am in school today, I would happily buy anything that would allow me 
>> not to carry around 5Kg of paper every day to/from class. I have computer 
>> so an extension like an iPad would not be a problem.
>> 
>> Regards,
>> Spencer
>> 
>> _______________________________________________
>> Leica Users Group.
>> See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information
>> 
>> _______________________________________________
>> Leica Users Group.
>> See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information
> 
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Leica Users Group.
> See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information



In reply to: Message from rickfloyd at comcast.net (rickfloyd at comcast.net) ([Leica] iPad and textbooks)
Message from robertmeier at usjet.net (Robert Meier) ([Leica] iPad and textbooks)