Way back in November 2004 my Auricle posting A filling station model of e-learning? proposed that, instead of the institutional monolithic model of e-learning, we need to think in terms of: … an emergent model in which various sites on the internet become almost like resource ‘filling stations’ for mobile multi-function devices. Sony’s latest gizmo may well help things along nicely … unless of course the usual DRM, IPR issues (which arise so rapidly in this space) find a way to snatch defeat from the jaws of potential success.
CETIS’ Scott Wilson added the comment to my November 2004 post about the fuel for the ‘filling station’ being, for example:
– RSS (news feed links, podcasts)
– Atom (blog entries)
– iCalendar (schedules, timetables)
– FOAF (people networking)
– IMS Enterprise (course structures, enrolment)
– IMS RLI (reading lists).
I also followed up on this theme with a series of related postings:
New tools for making use of the e-learning filling station?
Filling up experiences at the online filling station (continued)
Filling up experiences at the online learning filling station
Fuel tanks for the e-learning ‘filling stations’?
A ‘filling station’ model of e-learning? – The Sony mix?
The forthcoming Sony Reader is the latest in a line of contenders to become the e-book device of choice. As usual, it looks more promising than previous generations of such devices and early indications are that Sony has addressed the human factors issues, e.g. good resolution, simple interface, ensuring fast page ‘turns’ and refreshes to maintain the reading flow, and, hopefully, none of the poorly conceived rights restrictions and time limitations given form in the earlier Sony Librie. My Auricle posting Come in book number 3! … your time is up considered how an interesting device like the Librie was compromised by the desire to protect the ‘rights’ of the publishers. The publishers preserved their rights and the potential customers kept away in droves … there’s a lesson here, let’s hope Sony and others in this space are beginning to learn it.
So let’s look at the small print on the Sony Reader site. A six inch screen, weighs 9oz, plays MP3, internal memory has room for 80 ‘books’, memory stick and SD external storage if you want more books or audio. And what do you know? It can apparently display:
Adobe® PDFs, personal documents, blogs, newsfeeds, and JPEGs with the same amazing readability, so you can take your favorite blogs and online newspapers with you.
But look at that footnote. You’ve first got to convert these into the proprietary ‘BBeB’ format using the supplied software. Hassle factors rising at this point.
But where are the ‘books to come from? Think iTunes and the Apple Music Store. No sorry … I meant the Sony CONNECT store which you are expected to connect to with the CONNECT software on your PC (too many disconnects here). Oh… and it only wants you to connect using Microsoft Internet Explorer. So yet again, here’s a promising device aiming to lock users into a monopoly service. No likelihood of a market in ‘second-hand’ Sony Reader titles here then?
But as Apple has proved with its iTunes Music Store users may be prepared to trade some loss of freedoms if the affordances outweigh the constraints.
Perhaps what we need here is for the likes of Sony to demonstrate to other companies what is technically and aesthetically possible, fail miserably because the constraints outweigh the affordances and thereafter those who have learned the lessons at Sony’s expense come in with a better deal.
I’m trying to bend my head around whether a Sony Reader type device would be high on my list of potentially useful learning tools. On the surface, yes. It’s light, the same weight as a paperback but yet can display multiple ‘paperbacks’, can play MP3 audio, and its ‘e Ink’ technology is probably as good as it gets in terms of quality of display, albeit, monochrome. But, yet, it’s that hassle factor in converting non Sony content to that proprietary ‘BBeB’ format that will be the decider. In my ‘filling station’ model it’s got to be really easy for students to download material into their device; that’s why they do it, it’s easy. So, unless there’s some hidden restriction there, I guess we could convert educational resources into this proprietary BBeB format for students to download.
It’s the ‘e Ink’ display technology which contributes so much to the battery life (7,500 page turns). So if your paperback has got, say, 400 pages then there’s enough juice to read around 19 of them before recharging. Playing lots of MP3 audio files will undoubtedly reduce that considerably. Another thing I’m not clear about is what’s the battery technology used (I suspect lithium) and whether this will be user replaceable and at what cost. Early users of the Apple iPod found out to their cost what the problems can be with integral batteries that didn’t last as long as they should have and needed an expensive return to Apple to be replaced (under pressure, Apple later accepted the need for a more reasonable replacement cost).
I’ve used several portable devices over the years and would really like to only carry one and at most two. The reality is my travel case contains MP3 player, laptop, mobile phone, and a PDA because each device offers something better than the others. If I use my phone to play MP3s it can’t store that many – and it sucks up battery life, I like my PDA because it’s great for playing movies and brief browsing of the web via its integral WiFi, I like my latop because the screen and keyboard are big enough to do prolonged work. So would my e-book (whether a Sony Reader or not) just become another device I’ve got to carry or it could it replace one or more of those I’ve got to carry?
The ideal could be something the size, weight and display resolution of the Sony Reader with incredible battery life, which could play audio and video, connect to the Web via wireless, could interface to a light weight keyboard and external display and other devices, and could cope with a multitude of document formats … a bit like an uber laptop really. There would need to some pretty dramatic breakthroughs in battery and display technologies but as we know these are ‘just around the corner’. So meanwhile … dream on.
There’s not doubt, however, that devices like the Sony Reader and acceptable (to the user) means of distribution are eventually going to get ‘good enough’. What then the impact on those warehouses of knowledge, the libraries and the librarians who staff them?
Visualize the following. Instead of floors and banks of books and periodicals there is warehouse full of servers with only a few technicians to be seen.
Couldn’t happen? Mmmm … why not revist Stanford on iTunes or visualize the hardware infrastructure and personnel that drives Google or Yahoo. Note, that the former hires engineers not librarians. On the former, sample this from the Apple Education iTunes U site which offers us a powerful example of new warm shiny cuddly ‘lock-in’.
Instructors can easily post and change content on their own without impacting the IT department and allow students to upload their own content to share with professors or with the class. All content is stored in an Apple-hosted repository that can be browsed and searched, and configured to provide open or secure access as needed … iTunes U delivers on the promise of mobile learning in higher education by extending teaching and learning beyond the classroom.
Note, I’m not saying I support the above, but that we should learn from it.
It’s inevitable that the advent of mobile devices that are ‘good enough’ when coupled with quality content that’s easy to find, access, download, or stream will dramatically reduce the need to visit a physical space to extract a physical artefact. Whether that’s a good thing or not I can’t comment, but it’s a process that’s already started, and so we are all going to have to adapt.
Still not convinced?
Then consider one of last year’s HE ‘hot’ stories in the UK, i.e. the University of Bangor’s proposal to make eight of their Subject Librarian’s redundant. I wrote a brief piece of commentary Bangor bins librarians? at the time, but Lorcan Dempsey’s blog perhaps adds a broader perspective than I can.
So although I’ve built this posting around the forthcoming Sony Reader device I think the issues and potential social changes go far beyond the latest gizmo produced by a ubiquitous technology and media corporate. For, at least the part of the world which is ‘wired’, we are fast reaching a point where we no longer need to visit physical spaces to acquire much of what we want or need. That, in turn, will change the nature of the physical spaces that are required and the roles/location of people who are required to support and service them. That raises the question of whether it’s the computer/network analysts/engineers and information scientists who now best placed to assume the mantle of being the apothecaries of the information age?
It also raises the question of whether our current assumptions about being always needed to be connected to the network to participate in ‘e-learning’ are appropriate. Sometimes, yes, but not always.
The internet as ‘filling station’ model is a world away from a total focus on the ‘must be connected’ Blackboard, WebCT et al view of e-learning. Devices like the forthcoming Sony Reader and content archives automatically accessed and devices updated via an iTunes or Podcast like applications, e.g. iPodder or RSSOwl, suggest that there are alternatives to the current way the majority of institutions approach the e-learning business. Some lateral thinking along the lines of iTunes at Stanford could perhaps replace, particularly, the content repository functions for which, undoubtedly, the majority of VLEs are currently being used.
If I was a major VLE vendor I would, in the near future, be wanting to re-engineer my product quite dramatically so that it’s capable of supporting mobile devices. I would attempt to make my product the e-learning ‘filling station’ of choice. But, of course, that’s a lot lot harder to achieve than the present simple ‘lock-in’ we currently have; especially when if there are so many other alternatives. Unless of course I could strike up a deal with another big technology/media player who is itself attempting to become the filling station of choice:)
P.S. The Sony Reader will be launched in the US later this year. Wider distribution depends on success in this key market, so I guess we will just have to wait until our US brethren give their verdict.
