Power and Possibility of Interactive e-books

I am on a bit of a mission at the moment around the idea of interactive e-books and I came across a great article by Keith Stuart at guardian.co.uk posted Sept 2010. This is the direction I would love to see the development of textbooks and novels used as prescribed texts go. I think I have said - it would be impossible to stop them from reading with this sort of interactive and immersive experience on offer. I have also posted this over on my other blog Appsineducation because of the iPad crossover.

" What impact will digital books have on the experience of the written word – apart from the form factor, and the ability to store hundreds of works on a single ebook reader? Will the rise of gadgets like Kindle and tablet computers like iPad actually contribute to the medium in a creative way?

This is a question that design consultancy IDEO has grappled with, producing a Vimeo clip to show three possible book-reading applications for tablet computers and ebook readers: Nelson, Coupland and Alice. It's the third (from 3:03 onwards) that interests us. Alice, the narrative informs us, is "an interactive reading experience that invites the reader to engage with the story-telling process [...] Stories unfold and develop through the reader's active participation."

For example, clues could be unlocked by shaking the screen so that most of the words 'fall off' revealing hidden codes. Other narrative elements could be unveiled by opening the book while in a specific geographic location. The video also mentions the possibility of receiving text messages and emails from characters in the book. I guess Silence of the Lambs would be a bit more scary if you started getting texts from Buffalo Bill asking what your dress size is.

But these are more like reading enhancements than truly interactive narrative features. Later, the narrator talks about the reader adding to the narrative, co-developing the story, thereby gaining access to secret events, character backstories and new chapters. "In time a non-linear narrative emerges, allowing the reader to immerse themselves in the story from multiple angles." 

Interactive Books

I first saw this over at ilearntechnology by Kelly Tenkley. This is an interesting book that has had sound and video added to the conventional e-book. The best thing about a publication like this is that it opens people eyes up to the very real possibilities. This is still a simple e-book but it has started to add interactivity to the way it delivers information. This will be excellent for younger students who struggle to read, or are still learning to read, but it is just as promising for any teacher who wants to customise a text for their students.

http://ilearntechnology.com/

This is very possible for anyone to do using Pages on a Mac. We could all start to produce e-books like this with cool sound effects that add to the mood of the story or text that is read allowed when a different character enters the room, or even sections of video to explain a concept or to illustrate a skill. It is as easy as dropping this media into a Pages document - many teachers are already using this technology within their classrooms. 


Have a look at a site like issuu. This is a textbook and a site that I have posted about before but is worth mentioning again in this context. Create your text, save as a PDF and upload to the site. Easy as ABC.

Open publication - Free publishing - More van gogh