The Flat World Knowledge case study discusses how the traditional textbook publishing model is changing because of disruptive advances in technology that have essentially created the digital publishing market. Although I believe that Flat World Knowledge will be recognized as a successful contributor to the disruption in the textbook publishing market in five years’ time, I view online learning – accented by the evolution of digital textbooks – as the disruptive force that has changed the model for the education industry. In many ways, online learning (or e-learning) has created new experiences for teaching and learning, which also includes a new format of publishing through digital textbooks, eBooks, and digital media. E-learning has …show more content…
SWOT Analysis of Flat World Knowledge Strengths * “The First and Largest Publisher of Free and Open Textbooks” (www.flatworldknowledge.com) * Strong initial adoption: 12 published books earned 480 college adoptions, with 40,000 students using FWK; by the end of 2011 FWK was adopted by 2000 institutions and 300,000 students * Adoption from bookstores ahead of expectations in 2009, > 60% of FWK revenues derived from transactions in bookstores * Educators have complete control over textbook content (due to the open source model) * Strategic Financing in place – FWK has completed 3 rounds of venture financing totaling $25MM+ * At a time when the higher education industry is embracing technology and innovation, adopting a digital textbook (like the FWK offerings) aligns with the current strategy * Average savings for use of open-licensed textbooks: 80% or more | Opportunities * Future growth – As of the end of 2010, had an established pipeline of 50 new book titles, and 100 new author contracts * Gaining traction among large higher education systems (like University of Minnesota, University System of Ohio, Virginia State University, Indiana University, MIT) * Reaching beyond economics and business subjects and developing textbooks for subjects like English, mathematics, public speaking * Premium services, especially printing and FLYX study tools, are paid supplement
Cathy N. Davidson suggests an innovative education system, providing an emphasis in today’s digital era, and claiming that the existing education system needs to be renewed according to the new expectations of the digital era. Davidson states that,” In the last half century, many changes have occurred in the technology field, however, classrooms and educational methods have remained fairly steady for the past years as well in consequence students are not being prepared for the future advances of society.” That being said, it is important to improve and to give a change to the current educational methods, adjusting them to the existing demands of the era that we are living and taking advantage of the resources that it provides. “What if we continued to the lesson of internet itself,
In earlier times, the acquisition and spreading of knowledge was not used to improve society. Instead, it was used to have control and to exclude certain groups. It may have been agreed that there needed to be a change in the way that the education system was set up. In her essay, “Project Classroom Makeover”, Cathy Davidson discusses how the “one size fits all” model of learning hinders students from learning in a new and modernized way. She suggests the notion that using technology to teach and learn can be effective in many ways. Davidson shows that using technology presents the opportunity for a traditional classroom to become more inclusive and creative. The “democratization of knowledge” is the improvement and modernization of how information is taught and learned. Having a modernized and advanced learning system is a vital point for students because they gain insight and experience with what is considered a society dominated by advanced technology. Since technology has become a dominant resource in the 21st century, it should be used as a teaching tool in order to produce educational, professional and overall success.
Q1A) In what ways does the biological constitution of a living organism determine, influence or limit its sense perception?
Many educators are embracing the use of electronic textbooks for a variety of reasons. Ken White, an instructor at Everett Community College, points out that some older students may have a hard time transitioning to e-textbooks but younger generations of students will be much more successful at making the conversion (Moving towards virtual textbooks). The trend seems to be that electronic devices of all sorts are becoming more and more popular. As these devices continue to permeate our culture, integrating them as soon and as frequently as possible into the classroom will help students adjust to using them now and in the future. White even uses the new textbook format because, “[Electronic textbooks] make me really look at my teaching” (Moving towards virtual textbooks). As a teacher, he is adopting the trend of going digital. By re-evaluating his teaching method, he will be able to approach his subject from a different angle that might be more
Marc Presnky argues that college should ban the use of physical books to encourage the use of electronic books. He gives three reasons to support his argument. The author of the article “College Should Mandate That All Textbooks Be Digitized” states three main advantages of having a bookless higher education. He believes that society should move beyond “physical books of the past” in order to move “education into the future” (Presnky). By employing the use of digitized books, Presnky believes that people will have features not quickly available to physical books such as comments or analysis about a book. Lastly, Presnky believes the biggest advantage of fully transitioning to e-books is the liberation of ideas from printed pages. He thinks
Their publications cover various topics, from those that are more apparent like that of “Collective Action and the Financing of Innovation: Evidence from Crowdfunding” discussing the rise of the sharing economy to topics more obscure like the specific mechanizations of the shipping war between the two major shipping couriers in the United States in the article “Package War: FedEx v.
Once again, encourage as many instructors as possible to utilize the book in their curriculum. (This was especially successful in the past with the English and Human Services departments.)
Pankaj Ghemawat believes we do not live in a globally flat world. In his work Why the World isn’t Flat he speaks of how this greatly wide spread globalization is more of an idea than the truth. Ghemawat claims that while globalization is a hot topic, it is talked about in more ways than it is actually used. According to the US library of Congress’s catalog, the rate of increase in the writings of globalization have been doubling about every 18 months since the 1990’s. While many more people are expressing their ideas of globalization we are not partaking in the actual actions of globalization nearly as much as these writings make it seem. Of course most of the ways we interact, as the writings suggest, are being done “we only interact in a way that is a fraction of what we could do”. A whooping 90 percent of all phone calls, web traffic, and investments are still only local interactions and plenty of the over seas transactions are still done with domestic companies that simply have operations in foreign nations. Since they are domestic all benefits from that operation will eventually, if not instantly, return home. It is said that “investment knows no boundaries” but if these investments are done with locally based companies located in an international location the geographical ground will not reek the benefits. While technological advances have made global interaction come with ease, it is a huge step to believe increased communication will take away the effects that
for higher education. From this wide array of papers I have learned and grown in my
The digital revolution has given us the ability to easily copy and replicate things in which universities look for when uploading work. Another example of how digital age has changed is that in today’s education individuals have to hand their work in threw email or online forums; this has changed massively within the short space of five years.
The seller of digital textbooks will also be saving money over producing hard copies. 32% of the cost allocated to paper, printing and editorial can be completely eliminated along with 22.4% of costs related to bookstore operations and personnel. Bookstores as we know them could become obsolete or transformed into stores that sell tablets, e-readers and software packages on campus. Publishers or sellers will now be able to tap into a more global market with electronic textbooks as the information can be translated into many languages quickly.
Knowledge is defined to be facts, information, and skills acquired through experience or education. There are two categories that fall under knowledge; personal knowledge and shared knowledge. Shared knowledge refers to what “we know because.” It can also be defined as communicated and constructed knowledge; within culture, social norms, and semiotics. Personal knowledge refers to “I know because.” An expanded definition of personal knowledge refers to personal experiences, values, and perceptions. Shared knowledge changes and evolves over time because of methods that are continuously shared. It is assembled by a group of people. Personal knowledge, on the other hand, depends crucially on the experiences of a particular individual. It is gained
Some may think that the only customers of textbooks are the students but that is not the case. There are a variety of customers that buy the textbook before it even reaches the student, someone has to decide what textbook the students are going to be using for which particular course. Business school curricula is changing and therefore their textbooks needs are changing, they want textbooks that cover a variety of information and data in one single, easy to transport textbook. Some school that were moving the modular course structures wanted books that were easy to cover in a course that lasts sometimes as short as a week long. And now, more and
Moreover, textbooks tend to give students some specific knowledge, so its content must be evaluated and logically organized by authors, and it must take a long time to collect thousands of useful and reliable information to edit in the textbooks. Therefore, textbooks should be very hard to create. (Storey, 1998)
We live in a strange and puzzling world. Despite the exponential growth of knowledge in the past century, we are faced by a baffling multitude of conflicting ideas. The mass of conflicting ideas causes the replacement of knowledge, as one that was previously believed to be true gets replace by new idea. This is accelerated by the rapid development of technology to allow new investigations into knowledge within the areas of human and natural sciences. Knowledge in the human sciences has been replaced for decades as new discoveries by the increased study of humans, and travel has caused the discarding of a vast array of theories. The development of