Presentation delivered in a MILAGE Erasmus+ project meeting at University of Extremadura, Caceres, Spain.

1. EBOOKS AND
DIGITAL MEDIA
INSIGHTS
JOSÉ BIDARRA | UNIVERSIDADE ABERTA | 2016

2. ANALOG > DIGITAL

3. BOOKS AND PORTABILITY…

4. ACCESS AND MAINTENANCE…

5. What has
changed?

6. READING IS (STILL) AN INDIVIDUAL ACTIVITY…
Movie The Reader, 2008

7. ACCESS TO KNOWLEDGE MOVED ONLINE…

8. CHANGES IN THE
CURRENT
FRAMEWORK
1. The pace of knowledge evolution
is now faster than ever. New
ideas and practices appear
online every day;
2. There is a reversal from
information scarcity to
information abundance;
3. There is a blurring of the
distinction between reality and
virtuality;
4. There is a shift from the primacy
of entities to the primacy of
interactions;
5. Social networks impose a
process of transformation of the
digital identity (the digital self).

9. AN IMPORTANT QUESTION
• What it means to be “Human in a Hyperconnected Era”?
• The question of Onlife instead of Online
• “The deployment of information and communication
technologies (ICTs) and their uptake by society affect
radically the human condition, insofar as it modifies our
relationships to ourselves, to others and to the world.”
• The Onlife Manifesto (Luciano Floridi, Oxford, 2015)

10. WHAT IS DIGITAL READING?
• Digital reading is a vague and multidimensional concept.
We're talking about books and newspapers, but also
short texts written and shared on social networks, Twitter
messages, which have a maximum of 140 characters,
emails and other textual content.
• Readers are simultaneously consumers and producers
(RWP-Read-Write-Post online content).
• The "new forms of reading" create "new individual
readers", which, although not necessarily reading books
or newspapers, reach these contents through other
formats: blogs, tweets, e-mails, Facebook posts, etc.
• O Livro, o Leitor e a Leitura Digital (Gustavo Cardoso,
Lisbon, 2013)

11. STUDENTS, COMPUTERS AND LEARNING
(PISA, OECD REPORT, 2015)
“This analysis shows that the reality in our schools lags considerably
behind the promise of technology.”
“The results also show no appreciable improvements in student
achievement in reading, mathematics or science in the countries that had
invested heavily in ICT for education.”
“One interpretation of all this is that building deep, conceptual
understanding and higher-order thinking requires intensive teacher-
student interactions, and technology sometimes distracts from this
valuable human engagement.”
“The impact of technology on education delivery remains sub-optimal,
because we may overestimate the digital skills of both teachers and
students, because of naïve policy design and implementation strategies,
because of a poor understanding of pedagogy, or because of the
generally poor quality of educational software and courseware.”

12. Currently reading in
digital format also
implies “continue
reading on paper”
DIGITAL WORLD

13. The analog to digital
conversion follows a
general trend;
The ebook, like the
printed book, is still
an economic,
educational and
cultural object;
The ebook may be
acquired online in a
virtual shopping
site;
The ebook may
include multimedia
and unique
interactive features.
The reader in the
digital era is always
connected to the
network to access
information anytime
and anywhere;
The current reader
has many online
activities that are in
competition with
each other (using
time and resources);
The act of reading is
still compulsory for
most activities
related to the digital
media of today.
Reading may occur
anytime and
anywhere, in any
context or activity,
so the use of mobile
devices is
necessary;
Digital books are
easily available
through sites, online
shops and
institutional
repositories;
New ways to interact
with tablets and
smartphones
determine how
EBOOK READER CONTEXT

14. TRENDS IN DEVICE OWNERSHIP 2004-2015 (USA)

15. TIME SPENT ON SCREENS (HOURS/DAY) 2010-2015

16. MEDIA CONSUMPTION TRENDS IN 65 COUNTRIES

17. GROWING EBOOKS MARKET SHARE (USA & UK)

18. PRINT AND EBOOK CONSUMPTION 2010-2015 (USA)

19. UNIT SALES OF EREADERS WORLDWIDE 2010-2015

20. EBOOK DOWNLOADS TO SMARTPHONES 2014-2015 (USA)

21. EBOOK CONSUMPTION BY AGE GROUP 2011-2014 (USA)

22. READING IN A DIGITAL FORMAT (COUNTRIES)
Gustavo Cardoso, 2013

23. READING IN A DIGITAL FORMAT (AGE GROUP)
Gustavo Cardoso, 2013

24. READING IN A DIGITAL FORMAT (EDUCATION)
Gustavo Cardoso, 2013

25. VALUE OF EBOOK WITH ONLINE ACCESS (PLUS)
Gustavo Cardoso, 2013

26. VALUE OF EBOOK WITH ONLINE ACESS (MINUS)
Gustavo Cardoso, 2013

27. EBOOK DESIGN AND EDITING COSTS

28. EBOOK DISTRIBUTION COSTS

29. THE OPEN EBOOKS INITIATIVE

30. Authoring
solutions...

31. SOLUTIONS TO EBOOK PRODUCTION
Beth Bacon, 2014

32. BOOKS IN APP FORMAT

33. EBOOKS FOR E-LEARNING (INKLING)

34. EARLY PROTOTYPE FOR THE IPAD

35. EARLY PROTOTYPE FOR THE IPAD – TEXT +
IMAGES

36. EARLY PROTOTYPE FOR THE IPAD – GOOGLE
MAPS

37. EARLY PROTOTYPE FOR THE IPAD – VIDEO +
TESTS

38. EARLY PROTOTYPE FOR THE IPAD – PUZZLE GAME

39. CULTURAL EBOOK (INTERACTIVE GUIDE)

40. CULTURAL EBOOK – MAPS + IMAGES

41. CULTURAL EBOOK – MEMORY GAME

42. SOLUTIONS TO EBOOK AUTHORING

43. AUTHORING WITH “SIGIL” (FREE)

44. AUTHORING WITH “PAGES” (APPLE)

45. CONVERTING WITH “CALIBRE” (FREE)

46. MATH IN MICROSOFT ONENOTE

47. DESIGN AND MULTIPLATFORM ADAPTATION

48. RESPONSIVE WEB VS. NATIVE APPS
• One of the first decisions product designers have to
make when they begin focusing on mobile is whether
they are going to just make a web product “friendly” for
mobile screens or are going to invest in developing a
mobile application.
• Responsive Web:
• Requires an Internet Connection;
• Poor Performance (Browser Limitations);
• Lack of Natural Navigation;
• Lack of Push Notifications;
• Lack of Other Functionality (QR codes, voice
recognition, AR, …).

49. RESPONSIVE WEB VS. NATIVE APPS
• Native Apps:
• Internet Connection Not Always Necessary;
• Better Performance;
• Increased Functionality;
• Enhanced Security for Users;
• Brand Awareness and Accessibility;
• High investment in time and money.

50. • Support the emergence of learners that are:
always connected,
in constant interaction,
accessing vast information,
making fast decisions,
integrating different media.
• Develop inclusive models:
about being onlife instead of just being online,
respecting diversity and Personal Learning
Environments (PLEs).
WHAT FUTURE?

51. THANK YOU!
JOSÉ BIDARRA
JOSE.BIDARRA@UAB.PT
CIAC – UALG – UAB