Transcriber: Kevin Vick Reviewer: Denise RQ
This is a historic moment,
and it's historic not just because we're here at TEDx,
but because this is the transformation of the book.
And it is something that we've been waiting for all our lives.
And around the world, thousands of people are working on
- and these are booksellers, educators, and librarians, and authors, and agents -
are working on the promise of digital books.
What more can a book be?
So when Gutenberg created his extraordinary bibles,
they looked a lot like the hand calligraphy from the monks.
So too, when we created digital books,
they looked a lot like their print counterparts.
But today, we're actually beyond that.
We're actually creating something new,
something that's beyond the physical version.
And the eBook's revolution has had this amazing effect,
it's not only-- you know, I hear a lot
in fact, I heard it back there:
"Are books dead?" "Are print books dead?"
No, print books aren't dead.
In fact, we're seeing a revitalization of books,
and it's coming because of eBooks.
Today, the question we're asking is: "What more can digital books be?"
And there are thousands of people working on this.
What I'm going to focus on is four major trends,
four things that people are doing, and I'm just going to report back to you
some of what's going on.
Look at making books.
Today we're making books that are more interactive,
that are smarter, that are more social, and that are more personal.
These are books like you've never seen them before.
So let's talk about it.
Let's talk about more interactive books.
What do we mean by that?
So interactivity, it means that you can actually touch the content.
When you talk about interactive books in physical form,
they kind of look like that, right?
They look like pop-up books.
When you talk about interactive books in digital form,
they exist in a lot of different ways.
One of the biggest books that was launched was actually launched at TED,
and it was "Our choice", it was done by Al Gore,
it was the sequel to "An inconvenient truth",
and it has some extraordinary videos that were swipeable,
and some amazing data displays that you could actually touch,
and play with, and they would relate to you in different ways.
What's really cool is
today we're taking those kinds of interfaces,
and we're putting them into the books that you can read,
and into the books that we use to teach you and your children.
So, I'm going to use as an example of interactive books
the problem of Shakespeare.
Now you probably don't know that Shakespeare has a problem,
but indeed it exists.
And when a teacher goes in to teach Shakespeare,
they'll frequently face a class that looks a little like that.
What's interesting is, and I think you know this,
that Shakespeare contains a lot of swear words,
a lot of sex, and a lot of violence, right?
So what's wrong with these students?
Why aren't they more engaged with something that is so exciting?
The answer is that.
So this is the text we use to teach Shakespeare,
and when they look at that text,
part of the problem is they don't understand it.
They actually don't know what Shakespeare is saying.
Now, teachers tell us that it takes about three weeks
for students to actually get into Shakespeare,
and actors tell use the same thing; that from the stage they can tell
when an audience is finally getting it,
like when they're actually beginning to understand the text.
And it takes an audience usually about 15 to 20 minutes.
The problem that they're having,
and particularly, the problem that the students are having,
is they don't understand the text.
And the text is actually getting between them and the art,
and getting between them and the learning.
There are a lot of people working on this.
This is our version of Shakespeare, it's called Shakesperience,
but there's a lot of different people working on this.
This was built in iBooks Author, and what we've done
is created an interactive book where you can touch the text
that you don't understand, and it'll pop up,
and tell you what that text means.
So you don't have to look it up anymore, you don't have to go anywhere,
no back of the book, no down the book, this is just immediate.
And the other thing that we've done, that we heard from teachers,
and this is really interesting, it came from them,
was that students have problems understanding
that Shakespeare is a performance text,
that how you experience Shakespeare
is actually based on the performer, the actor,
and that different actors will actually create Hamlet for you in different ways.
So how do we explain that to somebody?
Well, what we did is we embedded for scenes, for very specific scenes,
we actually embedded performances, great performances.
Kenneth Branagh, Sir John Gielgud, Sir Laurence Olivier,
so that-- and we embedded multiples of them,
so that you can see that, how an interpretation might vary.
I'm going to demo this for you right now.
So you're going to see the meaning pops up here.
By the way, Sir Derek Jacobi is your narrator.
(Video): Derek Jacobi: "In the following two excerpts,
Paul Robeson is eloquent and elegant.
John Kani's Othello is very much a foreigner."
Paul Robeson: "Most potent, grave, and reverend signiors,
my very noble and approved good masters,
that I have ta'en away this old man's daughter, it is most true."
D. Raccah: So that was the Robeson, this is the Kani.
John Kani: "Most potent, grave, and reverend signiors,
my very noble and approved good masters."
DR: Very different.
F.S.Fitzgerald: "Most potent, grave, and reverend signiors,
my very noble and approved good masters, that I have ta'en away..."
Raccah: And by the way, that third reading that we had there
is a bonus track that we tossed in,
that happens to be F. Scott Fitzgerald reciting that scene from memory.
And you can actually tell that it's from memory,
because a little further down he doesn't quite get it right.
If I could only get through that much, it would be great.
What's interesting about that kind of an interactive book though,
and what we're experiencing,
is that students understanding the language faster,
immersing more quickly into the text,
and having audio and visual support really gets them into Shakespeare faster.
But there are other ways to do this.
This, by the way, is Bobo Explores Light.
It's an app, but what it actually is is a science textbook,
very cleverly disguised as an app.
So if you try this out, it's a lot of fun.
Interactivity: it has a lot of uses.
This, over here, is the Nook.
This is Barnes and Noble's Nook.
What's interesting about it is it has a read and record function.
That means that you can read the book, and it will record for you.
When you give it to children, they very quickly start using it.
When they start using it, they discover something right away.
They don't like their reading,
so they're going to do it over and over again,
until they become satisfied with how that reading is.
What's incredible about that is
that it helps students learn so much faster how to read, right?
We have a lot of data coming in on interactivity,
but it's very, very early.
The early data suggests that having children use content,
actually physically manipulate the content, creates more immersion,
and creates a way for them to spend more time and be more engaged.
And I think it's the engagement that really matters.
We're putting feedback and analytics right inside the book.
This is interesting, because this is a geometry book
much like the kind of geometry book that you had, probably in high school.
But here's what's different.
When you look at that problem, and you solve that problem,
you're going to see the answer immediately appear for you.
What's wonderful about that is not only are we giving you immediate feedback
but we're also creating a methodology where we can pull the content forward.
If you don't understand that piece,
we're going to take you to exactly the pages that you need to review.
Now that changes a lot of things
if you think about your own learning experience, right?
That changes a tremendous amount.
We're doing this in all areas.
You're seeing people develop these kinds of platforms
in terms of early learning.
This is Storia, from Scholastic, this is Capstone's Early Reader.
Both of them are giving feedback to teachers, to parents, and to students.
This is the Capstone reporting system.
The teacher is getting information about the amount of time,
which books the student is reading, how are they doing on the language,
which level are they at.
This is a tremendously useful tool for the teacher to actually understand better
what the student can, and can't do, and then to help that student, right?
We're seeing adaptive learning being built into books.
Now this is really interesting
because I think at some point in the future,
you're going to see textbooks be different for every student,
so that if you're a visual learner, we'll give you that text,
we'll give you that information visually.
If you happen to love videos, that's the way we're going to create it for you.
Every student will have a slightly modified version of the textbook.
Every education megatrend has this kind of new breed of book built in.
The book itself is becoming smarter.
We're also seeing books that are more social.
Now, sharing and social have always been really important in books.
Here is a bedtime experience that, you know, parents love.
This is a bedtime experience that you can have even when you're away.
This is a story before bed,
and what it does is it allows you to read and record the book
for your child to play it while you're away.
This is Moby Dick.
I've been trying to read Moby Dick for a lot of my life.
(Laughter)
This is Kobo.
What is does is, you can see the numbers by the side?
Can you guys see the numbers on the side?
Well, what those are are comments that people are making about the text
so that they can explain, we can discuss, we can have a conversation about the text,
but that conversation, it's embedded in the book.
These are book stats.
You can see that 895 people have actually finished Moby Dick on Kobo,
it's a little bit daunting.
Similarly, 21 people were reading the book at the same time that I was.
And, in fact, you can get badges.
This is the book made far more social.
In fact, what we're doing is we're creating a social experience,
and we're embedding it inside the book.
We're also making books more personal.
Now, books have always been great gifts.
We give them to one another, and we use them to express how we feel.
Today, we can do so much more.
We're going to make books so much more personal for you.
We're going to show you right here an app that we're going to be launching
called "Put me in the story".
There's a lot of people working on this space,
but what it allows you to do is to insert the name of your child,
and insert their picture into best-selling picture books.
This is "Put me int he story".
(Music)
(Over music): So it's Aidan's Night Night Book, right,
all of a sudden.
(Music)
You get it.
So what's amazing about this is
that it's a magical experience for kids, and for parents.
And what's really extraordinary is
that down the road you'll be able to print that book.
You'll be able to personalize that specific book and give it to Aidan.
What's revolutionary about what's happening in digital books today
is the shift we've made.
We've moved from being concerned about books and content
to being concerned about readers.
We're really focusing today on the reader experience.
How can we help you connect with that book better?
How can we help you learn that information better?
How do we help you immerse, interact, engage with that content differently?
How do we make it more fun?
You know, all of those questions are being asked today
in the history that's being made in digital books.
Our first experiences with books occur when we're children,
and with textbooks, but our children are going to have all new experiences.
They're going to have books that talk to them.
They're going to have books that are experiential,
books that are social, books that are personal,
books that are new.
This is the boundary of what the book can be.
And today, we are just beginning
to explore the possibilities of the future of the book.
Thank you.
(Applause)