Textbook publisher Macmillan is hip the ways of the internet, see! They’re rolling out a new product/concept/news item called DynamicBooks , which lets instructors change the content of online textbooks, even if they didn’t write them. And why not? The practicality of the DynamicBooks concept will almost immediately be overshadowed by kneejerk criticism, so let’s just get that out of the way now: Yes, the editing method resembles Wikipedia, and yes, a professor could conceivably replace a passage that conflicts with his research, partially out of genuine belief but more out of spite against the guy who got his work published in A Comparative Gender Theorist’s Guide to Infant Osteopathy instead of said professor, but that’s not what DynamicBooks is for, or what it will be used for. In reality, it represents a ceding of control by a notoriously stodgy and monolithic industry, which an only be a good thing. Think of it this way: With DynamicBooks, an instructor can order the chapters in the book to fit a practical syllabus; he can supplement the textbook directly, with links and extra material instead of disorganized handouts; he can essentially assemble an entire class worth of material atop the skeleton provided by the textbook, which is what professors do anyway , albeit in a much more complicated, ad-hoc fashion

ScrollMotion’s been tapped to to transmogrify textbooks published by McGraw-Hill, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt and every standardized test-taking student’s favorite, Kaplan. The WSJ says that education was indeed a “focal point” in the iPad’s development, which we reported months ago. If you’re over-analyzed the iPad keynote as much as we have, by now you’ve probably gotten the distinct sense that something felt like it was missing. One of those things, apparently, were Apple’s ideas about re-inventing the textbook. (Not to mention magazines.

The hype, and hope, on the Apple Tablet is ridiculous right now, and the WSJ is just piling it on with talk about it revolutionizing television, textbooks and newspapers like the iPod changed music. Let’s all just calm down here. WSJ says Apple’s been researching e-textbooks, as well as newspapers and magazines (which we knew, and we knew that they’ve been talking to various people in the publishing industry). But, what we didn’t know is that apparently Apple’s been talking to CBS and Disney to get a monthly TV subscription deal going, and working with EA to demo how well games would work on the tablet. The Journal also reinforces the Bing on iPhone rumor we heard yesterday, making it seem like Apple’s really taking an anti-Google stance. Another bit we didn’t know is that the tablet is supposedly shared among various people in the house, complete with sticky notes that you leave to other people.

Bad news for Amazon, who’s hoping that in the future all college students will read their textbooks through the oversided Kindle DX : the first students to use it, at Princeton, are not fans. Students taking part in the pilot program have all sorts of complaints about the device, mostly centering around the fact that it’s a huge pain to take notes and “interact” with the text. Here’s what student Aaron Horvath has to say about it: “I hate to sound like a Luddite, but this technology is a poor excuse of an academic tool. It’s clunky, slow and a real pain to operate. Much of my learning comes from a physical interaction with the text: bookmarks, highlights, page-tearing, sticky notes and other marks representing the importance of certain passages - not to mention margin notes, where most of my paper ideas come from and interaction with the material occurs

We have no idea who would choose an iPhone app over a real, honest-to-goodness textbook, but if you really want to spend marathon cram sessions hunched over a 3.5-inch display, a company called CourseSmart has just made its entire catalog available for viewing with its eTextbooks app. Certainly, it seems that the company’s selection is nothing to sneeze at — electronic access to over 7,000 titles from 12 publishers — so if you’re already using the service, additional on-the-go access to the books (as well as the handy search, notes, and bookmarks) might prove quite worthwhile. Keep in mind that you’re not actually downloading the books — so your mileage will vary, depending on the quality of your Internet connection. Maybe this device is actually marketed to students who need a helping hand (or, in this case, handheld) during finals? Regardless, this is further evidence that the electronic textbook market is one to keep an eye on — if only someone could figure out how to do it right. Now, if you’ll excuse us, we’d like to get back to Knife Music

They’re hugely different devices , sure, but could the iPhone be stepping on the Kindle’s toes again ? CourseSmart, which offers subsciption-based, notes-capable eBooks online, has released a full-featured iPhone app for their subscribers. In other words, yes . The app is free, but you’ll need preexisting subscriptions to textbooks in order to access any. It’s actually a shrewd, if somewhat obvious move for CourseSmart: lots of college kids have iPhones and iPod Touches, and while taking notes and reading long passages might be a little cumbersome on such a tiny screen, the ability to carry all your books in-pocket, complete with search and bookmarking capabilities, is a pretty big value-add. As far back as May, it was clear that Amazon was pursuing CourseSmart for e-textbook content, an effort that may have culminated in a wimpy partnership with McGraw-Hill—a CourseSmart partner—which netted the ebook reader, and specifically the textbook-reader DX, about 100 regular old e-textbooks

The “New” Democratic Leadership Council in Washington has proposed that the government buy a Kindle or other “eTextbook” for each of the 56 million K-12 schoolchildren in America. It’s a nice sentiment, but as a plan, it’s holey. I am certain this gave Amazon honcho Jeff Bezos one hell of a tingle when he saw the report, but in spite of the repeated mentions of Amazon and Kindle, I’m pretty sure he had very little to do with it himself. Here’s why: The DLC—’scuse me, NDLC—estimates the up-front cost of materials to be around $200, but could fall to $80 by 2012. Since the government now spends about $109 per student on text books, the initial investment seems in line. However, I don’t think they’re looking at the appropriate model

The image associated with this post is best viewed using a browser. Good idea or terrible idea? Sheet music on the Kindle. The catalog has 20,000 titles and they’re cheap, about $3. Or you can always read a bunch of law textbooks

Ross Rubin ( @rossrubin ) contributes Switched On , a column about consumer technology. Amazon’s Kindle DX includes a few tweaks such as automatically rotating the orientation of the screen when it is placed in landscape mode and adjustable page margins because… well, CEO Jeff Bezos seems to like the feature. Literally, though, the biggest change is the new 9.7-inch electronic ink screen, which displays two and a half times more content than the 6-inch screen on the Kindle 2 and Sony Reader. The expanded display allows more detailed graphics to be seen without zooming or panning, and is better suited to a wide range of source material including maps, technical diagrams, and sheet music. But textbooks and newspapers were singled out as two printed sources that are particularly significant for the forthcoming device.

In Austin, creationists have managed to include several amendments aimed at casting doubt on the theory of evolution. The amendments may affect the content in science textbooks across the country. While the creationist groups did not manage to get the bulk of their agenda included in the State Board of Education’s legislation, they did pass a few amendments casting doubt on the theory of evolution. Some tricky language, like an amendment requiring students to “analyze and evaluate scientific explanations concerning any data on sudden appearance and stasis and the sequential groups in the fossil record,” is more insidious than it seems. When new textbooks come up for review in 2012, the board can reject books that they feel does not adequately address the issue, a key creationist talking point