Skip to content
Surprising Science —

E-Academia?

How will the introduction of e-book devices affect academics and fit into the scholarly ecosystem? And is the book as an artifact dead?
Sign up for Big Think on Substack
The most surprising and impactful new stories delivered to your inbox every week, for free.

Despite initial tentativeness on the part of consumers, it seems that e-books are here to stay. But while lots has been said about what the electrical devices replacing the printed page will have on the publishing industry, not so much has been said about how this change will affect education and academics. “How useful are these devices for academics and how do they fit into our own personal scholarly ecosystems?” asks Alex Golub of Inside Higher Ed. “Let’s face it: at heart, the Kindle is designed to let you read mystery novels, not academic books. It is small, light, and has terrific battery life…The Kindle is remarkably freeing — suddenly your porch or the beach is a workspace…In fact, I must admit that I think the book as an artifact is already dead.”

Sign up for Big Think on Substack
The most surprising and impactful new stories delivered to your inbox every week, for free.
Related
A bearded man wearing glasses and a plaid shirt speaks with a microphone clipped to his collar in front of a purple background with white dots.
The Well
How Rainn Wilson discovered sacredness
The hospital where Rainn Wilson’s wife and son nearly died became his own personal holy site. There, he discovered that the sacred can exist in places we least expect it. During his talk at A Night of Awe and Wonder, he explained how the awe we feel in moments of courage and love is moral beauty — and following it might be the start of our spiritual revolution.
▸
13 min
—
with
Rainn Wilson
Up Next
Surprising Science
Gene Genie
An application to challenge the patenting of human genes that could hamper diagnostic research has been upheld by a federal judge in New York.