Learning Innovation

Is the Economist getting into the concise non-fiction e-book business? Will the Economist be the latest organization to trade on its brand and stable of thought leaders to challenge traditional publishers with an e-book only strategy?

What is your vote for the book that you think every student on your campus should read before the election?

I have never been a huge fan of the iPad. Too expensive. Too heavy. Too limited. Maybe good for watching videos, but not great for reading. And don't get me started on the problems with typing on the thing.

If I ran an edtech company the first thing that I'd do is move all of our infrastructure to Amazon's Web Services (AWS).

Brian Kibby is president of McGraw-Hill Higher Education This e-mail interview was inspired by his 8/3/12 IHE Views piece "Digital Deadline". What I found interesting is Kibby's willingness to make strong statements in print, namely that in 36 months higher ed should be completely digital.

A colleague sent me a note today wondering if the news of for-profit EDU financial difficulties and the concurrent rise of the massively open online courses (MOOCs) are related. Correlation or causality?

What do you think of Pearson's purchase of EmbanetCommpass?

Why School? is part of the wonderful new TED Books series. Have you read any of these TED books? We are in the middle of a concise nonfiction renaissance, made possible by e-book readers, tablets, and new software platforms such as Atavist. The primary concern in Why School? is K-12.