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OLLI Course: E-books

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Course Description

2012 Spring; Medford (HEC226); Course #81; Fri, 3:30pm-5pm, Apr 6 - May 4
2011 Fall; Ashland Course #41
Sessions: 5
Course URL: http://communicrossings.com/olli-course-e-books



Are you curious about electronic books (e-books): what they are, how they work, when they arose and why you should care? We will learn about E-book history and formats and how to assess current eInk and tablet devices, such as Kindle, Nook and iPad. There will be ample time to discuss impacts of E-books (newspapers, magazines, ...) on readers, authors, publishers, bookstores, libraries, schools and society. Depending on class interest, we will explore self-publishing trends, tools and resources.

  • "We'll soon buy books and newspapers straight over the Internet. Uh, sure." ~Clifford Stoll, 1995

  • "E-books are here and here to stay. Later than a lot of people, I for the first time downloaded e-books and it’s miraculous for travel and for children in particular. I feel great about taking Harry into this new medium." ~J. K. Rowling, 2011

  • "I hate them [e-books]. It’s like making believe there’s another kind of sex. There isn’t another kind of sex. There isn’t another kind of book! A book is a book is a book." ~Maurice Sendak





About the Instructor

steve with coffeeSteve Weyer has been fascinated by "hypertext/media" and electronic books for several decades. His 1981 PhD dissertation ("Searching for Information in a Dynamic Book") evaluated the use of an electronic history book by 5th grade students; he subsequently researched interactive encyclopedias. In 1995, he developed and distributed a hybrid book reader / web browser -- Newt's Cape -- for the Newton MessagePad. Now, he enjoys multiple reading options on his Apple iPad.

Steve has 40+ years experience with computer software, including research and development for Stanford University, Xerox, Atari, HP and Apple on programming languages, education environments, electronic books and artificial intelligence. During the 1990s, Steve consulted on enabling technologies for pharmaceutical research, including document management. After moving to Ashland in 2006 (after first visiting in mid-70s), he’s been enjoying non-technical activities such as hiking, rock climbing, reading, theater, improv comedy, volunteering, and OLLI classes; at OLLI, Steve has offered CROSSWORDS and YOU, Evolution of the Internet, and an Internet Issues Community Lecture.



Course Materials

Feel free to peruse the following pages now for a general idea of scope and topics. These pages will be revised and updated before the next course begins. Suggestions welcome.

These online pages will be used for course presentation & resources:
http://communicrossings.com/olli-course-e-books

You will also find this link on the OLLI site: Course Materials (at least for the current semester & course number). This online version allows you to explore items that we skim/skip or that you miss -- look for links to articles and other web sites; it also allows me to update the course easily with new or revised items.

There will be no PowerPoint slides or paper handouts; however, the end of each page will display a [.pdf] link for downloading a PDF version of the page (printable, with links); and, of course, you can Print any page from your own browser or use the Printer-friendly command (link at bottom left of each page).

I welcome feedback -- during class or via Contact Us (link at upper right) -- about particular topics/issues you'd like to discuss, about the pace and level of detail, etc.

For most topics, I generally refer to Wikipedia, New York Times, vendor sites and other sources -- as good starting points (though certainly not the only ones) for exploration. Note: any images or other media provided on this site are for instructional/personal use and should not be redistributed; you can click on most images for a larger version. Photo galleries (under iPad and Self-publishing) should display properly in most modern web browsers (Internet Explorer (IE) users may experience problems and see a warning message). Access to some article links may be limited by site, e.g., monthly quota imposed or login required.

[updated: 9-Feb-2012] [.pdf] (this section)
  pdfs for all 29 sections [.zip] [10.3Mb]