What is an EBook? An EBook is an electronic version of a traditional book that can be read using EBook reader software. You can use this software on a computer, on some PDAs, or on a portable, book-sized EBook reader, such as the RCA eBook demonstrated by Guy Devyatkin. The portable EBook reader is what many of us imagine when we think of EBooks, partly because this is most similar to a print book. EBook reader software enables users to interact with the text in a variety of ways. You can highlight and save portions of text and go back to them later, you can search the whole text for names, dates, or places, and you can make notes and bookmark individual pages. In addition, some EBook readers include dictionaries and allow readers to change the font size and style. EBook readers can also store a large amount of text, so you can have multiple texts on one reader at the same time. You can buy EBook texts on CDs, but the most usual way to get EBook texts is to download them directly into the reader from Web sites, such as the RCA EBook Web site, and from other commercial retailers, such as Barnes and Noble.com (http://ebooks.barnesandnoble.com). Some texts are available free of charge. The ebook Library at the Electronic Text Center of the University of Virginia (http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/ebooks) has over 1600 volumes that you can download for free. You can find out more about EBooks at EBookWeb (http://12.108.175.91/ebookweb/). The EBooks primer on this site is particularly useful, which gives a great overview of the development of EBooks (http://ebookweb.org/basics/ebook.primer.htm). QuickTime Required Guy Devyatkin  I THINK THAT ONE OF THE THINGS THAT STRIKES ME AND I'M SURE OTHER TEACHERS WILL BE USING THESE AS TEXTBOOKS. YOU COULD PROBABLY TAILOR-MAKE TEXTBOOKS FOR A SPECIFIC COURSE. YOU MIGHT HAVE A MIXTURE OF PHYSICAL AND EARTH SCIENCE, OR YOU MIGHT HAVE A MATH/SCIENCE COMBINATION BOOK, OR YOU MIGHT DECIDE YOU WANT TO HAVE A BOOK TAILORED TO A SPECIFIC STUDENT'S NEEDS, THAT HAS REVIEW TEXT OR SOME MULTIMEDIA FEATURES THAT MIGHT ADDRESS READING DIFFICULTIES. YOU COULD HAVE LARGE TEXT. . .I SUPPOSE DOWN THE ROAD THEY'LL EVEN HAVE AUDIO-VISUAL FOR STUDENTS THAT ACTUALLY CANNOT READ, THAT MIGHT BE HEARING OR SIGHT IMPAIRED. SO THESE BOOKS HAVE A LOT OF POTENTIAL. What are some educational uses of EBooks? The primary educational value of EBooks lies in the potential for teachers to customize their textbooks. As technology improves, and as more and more titles become available electronically, teachers may be able to use EBooks to streamline course materials, and potentially expose their students to more original content. Teachers may also be able to customize texts for particular students, by using larger text, for example, or by annotating sections of text and highlighting and explaining specific terms or concepts. With an electronic textbook, updates can be incorporated far more quickly than with a traditional textbook. For a detailed discussion of the potential and value of electronic textbooks, look at the essay "The Virtual Textbook," made available by Indiana University's Center for Excellence in Education (http://cee.indiana.edu/publications/vtexts.html).