Emerging Technologies

E-books
        
        An electronic book (also e-book, ebook, electronic book, digital book) is a book-length publication in digital form, consisting of text, images, or both, and produced on, published through, and readable on computers or other electronic devices. Sometimes the equivalent of a conventional printed book, e-books can also be born digital. E-books are usually read on dedicated hardware devices known as e-Readers or e-book devices. Personal computers and some cell phones can also be used to read e-books.
        
        On the side of differences, e-books increasingly take on a number of interactive features, unique to the dynamic environment technology allows. E-books can have built-in dictionaries and pronunciation guides. The e-book is not limited to static pictures; it can also integrate video, audio, animation, and even interactive simulation. 







Why Use an e-Book?
Advantages of the Format
  1. Compared to standard media, e-books offer the potential of alleviating the most significant disadvantage of instructional technologies such as CD-ROMs and Web sites: lack of portability.
  2. Common problems such as access to electrical power, the difficulty of viewing laptop LCD screens, busy signals, and other Internet traffic delays can frustrate student users, particularly commuting students who wish to use their travel time in productive study.
  3. On e-books, students can emulate most of a standard text's features, such as underlining, bookmarking, writing in the margins (although the current writing interface needs improvement), and looking up words in a glossary.
  4. Learning curves associated with new technologies often act as serious impediments to their widespread implementation, but e-books are single-use, simply designed devices
        Public-domain Web sites can be downloaded into an e-book, and provide a rich source of materials for subjects such as classic literature. Finally, instructor-written materials, when available, can easily be converted to e-book format.

WEB 2.0 TOOLS
        Web 2.0 is about revolutionary new ways of creating, collaborating, editing and sharing user-generated content online. It's also about ease of use. There's no need to download, and teachers and students can master many of these tools in minutes. Technology has never been easier or more accessible to all.
        Web 2.0 technologies are changing the way messages spread across the Web. A number of online tools and platforms are defining how people share their perspectives, opinions, thoughts and experiences. Web 2.0 tools such as weblogs, RSS, video casting, social bookmarking, social networking, podcasts and picture sharing sites are becoming more and more popular. One major advantage of Web 2.0 tools is that the majority of them are free.


Picture of Web 2.0 Tools
         
        There are a large number of Web 2.0 tools, some of the more popular ones are:
  • Blogger
  • Wordpress
  • Myspace
  • Youtube
  • Metacafe
  • Del.icio.us
  • Digg
  • Furl
  • Twitter
  • Flickr

Using Web 2.0 Tools
        Many people will have already used some of these Web 2.0 tools, and a good way to explain the concept of Web 2.0 tools is to consider an example of how they can be used.
  • Podcasting


        If an individual was interested in video games, they might search a podcast submission Web site (like Podcast.net) and download an audio review of a game to listen to on their computer. A Podcast is syndicated audio, or video produced by traditional media such as radio and television or by individuals passionate about a particular subject.
  • Blogs


        They may then decide to comment about this audio review on their Blogger or Wordpress blog. A blog or Weblog, is a chronological, online diary. Individuals can subscribe to a person's blog, which allows them to read it and to write comments in response to blog posts.
  • RSS


        If this weblog has an RSS feed in place, subscribers to the blog can choose to be automatically notified of this new blog post. RSS (or Really Simple Syndication), is a method for delivering regularly changing Web content. Many blogs and Internet publishers syndicate their content as an RSS Feed to allow people to subscribe to it easily.
  • Social Bookmarking


        This individual may decide that they would like more people to be able to see and remark on the blog post. They could do this by submitting the blog post to a social bookmarking site like Del.icio.us. Social bookmarking sites are Web sites that allow shared lists of user-created Internet bookmarks to be displayed and commented on. Social bookmarking sites allow you to organize your bookmarks by allocating a number of 'tags' to them. This makes it easy for other people who may be interested in a particular group to find related bookmarks. For example, if the tag 'games reviews' was added to a bookmark, people searching the bookmark site for 'games reviews' information could easily find it.

References
Anderson, P. (2007). "What is Web 2.0? Ideas, technologies and implications for education". JISC Technology and Standards Watch.


Doctorow, C. (2004). E-books: Neither E, Nor Books. O'Reilly Emerging Technologies Conference


Pastore, M. (2008). 30 Benefits of E-books. Epublishers Weekly


Rusak, S. (2009). Web 2.0 Becoming An Outdated Term. Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.A.: Progressive Advertiser
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