CIT has been keeping an eye on some of the many “players” in the e-textbook and open course materials arena, and we have reported on some of these in our blog over the last couple of years. One such company is Kno, which offers electronic versions of thousands of textbooks for iPad, Web and Facebook (the latter two formats are in beta development now). The iPad version of a Kno textbook, though, can include many interactive features, such as highlighting text, creating sticky notes for highlights or for pages, zooming in on photos, links to related instructional materials such as videos or images, notetaking/journaling, self-quizzing which turns diagrams into multiple choice quizzes, and sharing with classmates. The textbook becomes more than just a reading experience, but an interactive learning device.
If you’re interested in trying Kno, check out the Kno site. If your textbook is available, get in touch with CIT and we’ll work with you to see how we could set up a pilot for your course. If you don’t see your textbook, let us know anyway, and we’ll check whether it’s possible to get your textbook into Kno.