E-Book Readers – The Future or a Damp Squib?

There’s been a lot of hype about Amazon’s new e-book reader, the Kindle.

Amazon Kindle

There are already many sites talking about the device (and that’s just a random selection), so I’ll let you read up on it elsewhere if you don’t know about it already. But I was wondering just how practical something like this would be for the student population in the UK.

For many years, I was excited by the possibilities of having a device the size of a book that held many electronic books. Certain devices suggested the future was just around the corner, but nothing gained momentum. If I wasn’t particularly bothered by what was happening, I can’t imagine how bored the uninterested people were!

Recently, a number of news stories have been whipping up as much frenzy as they could about e-book devices and electronic ink. The frenzy didn’t whip up much to be honest, but it was obvious that both gadget and book lovers alike were keeping their eyes open for something that stopped them in their tracks. Maybe the future was arriving, albeit slowly.

And finally, succeeding in creating more column inches than all the previous e-book offerings put together (he said totally unscientifically and with no proof whatsoever…), the Amazon Kindle comes along to save the world and stop the relentless destruction of trees for entertainment purposes.

At this point, I realised something surprising.

I still wasn’t excited.

Not one ounce of me craved one of these devices. It just didn’t seem right any more.

I considered why I’d had such a sudden change of heart. Yet deep down, I had to be honest with myself and say that I never had been that excited about the prospect of an e-book reader. It was something I thought I should be interested in.

Don’t get me wrong. My ambivalence wasn’t due to the love of hard copy. I didn’t crave the smell of paper from a new book purchase. It had nothing to do with books in that way.

It was more to do with the ease of reading anything I want from a computer anyway.

And I don’t think that’s missing the point. If I wanted to read electronic text on the train or bus, I’d use a laptop. And while on holiday, I don’t expect to be reading several hundred books. If anything, I’ll read one or maybe two. Not exactly a big deal when you consider packing an e-reader would be about the size of a book anyway. And holidays for many people are about getting away from technology. Going a bit old-school!

With an e-reader, would any changes occur to student life? Well, I can’t imagine this device would help browsing through a textbook or flicking through several tomes to grab some quick ideas. And so what if you can do a text search within the e-book? It just doesn’t fit in with study. Well, not mine anyway.

Maybe I’m being too harsh and not embracing the possibilities. But the more I think about it now, the more I believe I was misguided in my thoughts a few years back at uni.

I don’t buy many newspapers and magazines any more, because I read them on the web. That includes subscriptions, so I’m not just scouting for freebies either. Despite enjoying the reading of electronic material, as opposed to the printed word, I’d still rather do so from a computer screen rather than a small, handheld screen. And if I want to search some text books, I hope that I have access to them as PDF documents. It’s not generally the case, but I don’t usually need to search many text books anyway. It’s never the way I’ve liked to study.

Maybe that’s it. Perhaps I just study and read differently to some others who would adore the Amazon Kindle. Or maybe we’re all in the same boat. How do you feel about e-book readers?

And what would you like to see on a customised e-reader to suit your lifestyle? Would ANYTHING win you over?

Am I just being a spoilsport, or do you agree with me?

EduLinks – Talking, Persisting, Flaming, Aging

When I was ill, the EduLinks took a bit of a setback, because I wasn’t spending much time at the computer, reading and checking out the goodness out there. I’m better now, but have had lots to catch up with, so here are 10 links, with a little less of my commentary than usual. Still good links though!

1. Science Daily – Ten Minutes of Talking Improves Memory and Test Performance

[It’s good to talk. Headline says it all, really.]

2. Mirror – Weird and wonderful foreign phrases…that just don’t translate

[I’m sure you’ll find some of these words and phrases interesting. You won’t be able to make much use of them all, but it’ll raise an eyebrow at times.]

3. FT – Why Dad’s not as clever as you

[The story of intelligence…”If, by present-day norms, the average IQ score in 1900 was between 50 and 70, are we to accept that most of our ancestors were, literally, mentally retarded?”]

4. Guardian – How to be a student: The art of keeping parents happy

[Be good to your parents. On the flipside of it probably being your first time living away from the parental home, it’ll be the first (and quite possibly ONLY) time your parents will be losing you. A little bit of communication can help them feel a lot better about you being miles away.]

5. Ririan Project – Are These Mental Roadblocks Sabotaging Your Success?

[That’s right, it’s not just other people who are causing you problems. Time to improve the person staring at you in the mirror.]

6. Life Optimizer – 7 Sure-Fire Ways to Develop Persistence

[Another great article from Donald Latumahina. Keep things up the way he suggests and you’ll be able to get a stunning degree pass and be on the road to all sorts of great things. It’s not always easy, but with hardcore persistence, why would you care about that?]

7. New Scientist Technology Blog – Don’t flame me, bro’

[Looking into the psychology of online behaviour. A good article here, and one that must be of interest to most of us, because the internet isn’t going away. It really has changed the way we all do things. And our reactions!]

8. Lifehack.org – Becoming Self-Taught

[Since university has a big self-taught element to it, this post should keep you pointed in the right direction. In fact, the author (Dustin Wax) ends by explaining how “even formal education is a form of self-guided learning”, so don’t shy away from this advice.]

9. Wired – The Why-You-Get-Old Chart

[Wow.]

10. Alex Shalman – Overcoming the Biggest Roadblock in Life Design

[Can’t decide on something? Don’t know what choice to make, no matter how big or small? If so, check out the link and get that focus sorted.]

Everything I Learned so far Applied to Everything

ABC Teddy (photo by weirdvis)

It’s my belief that, deep down, we work on a relatively basic level. That’s not a bad thing and my statement alone is not enough (i.e. it’s too basic and is subject to many interpretations), but I think we can take a great deal from seemingly unrelated topics and use them to our advantage elsewhere.

Not only that, but I think we do it all the time. Almost without noticing.

I’ll explain. From an early age, I read up on many different topics. And each topic I would study in newspapers, magazines, books, and beyond. It needn’t be factual. I read a lot of fiction too.

With all this reading, I picked up on an important thing. The ideas and opinions being thrown around could just as easily be thrown elsewhere. In a completely different topic altogether, in fact.

The best recent example is in blogging. Many posts can work in situations that are quite alien to the subject being spoken about.

For instance, I read a guest post on the popular ‘make money blogging’ website, John Chow dot Com. It was a guest post by Gary Jones entitled “Everything I Learned in Kindergarten Applies to Blogging“.

Gary uses various common points, regular happenings and clichés surrounding kindergarten to explain aspects of the blogging world. Things like ‘Share everything’, ‘Say sorry when you hurt somebody’ and ‘Take a nap every afternoon’. Then he’s crafted them in a completely different way.

It works very well. It helps the reader to understand. It builds upon our associations and links them in a new manner.So as an experiment, I’ve decided to take blog posts and news that don’t specifically feature academia and see if I can turn them into something relevant to TheUniversityBlog and Higher Education.

And why not start with the post I mention above? Thus, in TheUniversityBlog style, I present to you:

EVERYTHING I LEARNED IN NURSERY APPLIES TO UNIVERSITY

– Share Everything
Your degree is not a competition. Sometimes it pays to work with others. While many smart students don’t study in groups, that doesn’t mean they isolate themselves from everything without engaging in debate and sharing ideas. Far from it.

Your confidence in your own thoughts and findings can be let out. If you don’t share the goods and prefer to hoard them, who knows what other treats you might be getting if you were to share and swap?

– Play Fair
Plagiarism is still an issue up and down the country. I don’t understand why, because you get caught. You’re not going to be lucky and beat the system.

It’s still going to happen, no matter what I – or anyone else – says. Whether it’s a sheer act of desperation, or a genuine belief that you can plagiarise without being spotted, there are still people who decide to do it.

Anything is better than that. Cheating is pointless and upsetting for other people and it always ends up biting you on the bum too! Steer clear.

– Don’t Hit People
When thousands of Freshers descend upon the campus, it’s inevitable that all the excitement can lead to frayed tempers. Shouting matches are bad enough (and there are plenty of those at the end of the night when the union shuts), but it’s even worse to participate in a violent brawl.

Don’t Hit People = Stay Calm & Compromise

– Clean Up Your Own Mess
Yes, it probably is your first time away from the family home. No, there isn’t anyone around to sort your life out in the same way now.

It doesn’t matter how independent you think you’ve been in the past. Uni is usually the first REAL time doing your own thing.

If you’re not doing it already, it’s a time to keep everything in order, do your fair share of housework (even if it’s just tidying your own space and washing your own dishes), and managing your time reasonably so you can work, socialise, eat, and sleep!

– Don’t Take Things That Aren’t Yours
So the cliché of taking ‘For Sale’ signs and traffic cones after a few drinks is still apparent. Naughty, naughty!

– Say You’re Sorry When You Hurt Somebody
If you do end up in a difficult situation through those frayed tempers, be prepared to get it sorted. An apology is not difficult, but a stubborn attitude causes the belief that it is. Get off your high horse and SAY SORRY. And mean it!

– Take A Nap Every Afternoon
With so much going on, it’s not unreasonable to give yourself a break. Invest in a power nap so you can carry on and make the most of the nights out too!

I’m still here. And with some more overheard comments…

Thank you (photo by kikashi)

Thanks for bearing with me while I’ve been ill. And thank you for the kind comments both on and off this site. But sorry I haven’t been able to post.

Although it looks like I took the right week to be ill and not post much…

Strangely, I’ve just logged back on to WordPress for the first time in a couple of days and noticed a huge skyrocket in people visiting the site. It appears one of my articles is being found through StumbleUpon. So my thanks go out to whoever put my link there. I might have to log on and see if I can find out who it was to thank them personally.

It might be Friday night, but I wanted to give a small update and explain that I am still here. Bear with me!

Looks like things should return to normal for next week’s posts and I might just keep you updated on things over the weekend. It’s just great to feel close to normal again. In the health sense, at least!

As a special treat, I’ll tell you a few things I overheard when walking around the campus where I work. I’m convinced that it’s possible to overhear enough stuff to fill several books if you hang around for a couple of days on a campus. I’m sure any campus would do. And from what some of you have told me, you frequently hear all sorts of weird and wonderful stuff.

Well, here are three things I overheard on the one day I was actually in work this week:

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1. “I’m sweating my tits off and I need a beer. You probably won’t see me tonight.” – spoken at 9.45am! I presume the two sentences were unrelated, but I kinda hope they weren’t! Not that I’m promoting excessive drinking or anything…mumble, mumble…

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2. A girl was crying. She was sat on a step and shouting unhappily at a man standing one or two yards away. “Why do you keep buying me all these presents? It’s not even my birthday. Why do you do this to me?”

The man tries to speak. He got as far as “…” when she started again with, “I can’t take this kind of relationship!”

People nearby looked scared and stepped slightly further away than they needed. [Okay, that bit’s a slight exaggeration for effect, but still…]

I thought presents were usually pretty good to receive. Maybe he was just rubbish at buying gifts.

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3. A girl walks past a guy. They both acknowledge each other. As they walk on, the girl stops, turns around, and calls to the guy, “I’m really hard for you. Downstairs…you know what I mean?” and then she laughed. The guy smiled and looked a little confused, saying only “See you later” and walking off again.

I wonder what she DID mean. I think he does too!

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If you’re lucky, I might just pop by once more during the weekend as a treat and let you know a couple of the childish things I said on purpose to confuse members of the public when I was in town with friends. I was a cheeky so and so, was I.