Several criteria that will be evaluated through the class, including creation, distribution, consumption and the usefulness of electronic course materials in an academic setting. It is hoped that such a study will lead to the creation of an “ePublishing ecosystem” that would serve all faculty students and staff by making the creation, distribution, sharing, reading and annotation of eMaterials simple and inexpensive.
“eReaders are quickly being adopted for reading mass market literature, but also align well with the desire of higher education faculty and students to promote sustainability by reducing paper use,” says Paul Turner, manager of Academic Technologies in Notre Dame’s Office of Information Technologies. “But there are a wide range of issues we want to understand in order to decide when and where mobile wireless devices like the iPad can best replace textbooks and other paper-based course materials. Working with research faculty such as Professor Angst gives us the opportunity to study how students in multiple disciplines adopt and adapt to using eReaders.”
You won’t be surprised to learn that the 40 students in the class will NOT be allowed to keep the iPads after the course is complete, however they are encouraged to “show them off and play games and music with them, in addition to developing brilliant ideas to improve society.” Some students get all the luck…
