iPad instead of primer - will Schwarzenegger's visions soon come true?

Invitation to a panel discussion at Leipzig School of Media

eBooks and new terminals - challenges for textbook publishers, education policy and society

Debates on heavy school bags will become a thing of the past - at least if it were up to Arnold Schwarzenegger. The Californian governor wants to replace the classical textbooks by eBook as quickly as possible. "Printed books can only be replaced every six years by current editions," said Schwarzenegger. However, digital books can be updated constantly. In addition, the pupils would learn interactively in this way.

But printed books also have many advantages, as their defenders say. Printed books do not need electricity or access to the Internet, they do not require expensive terminals, you can take them everywhere with you.

So, there are many questions left unanswered:

  • Are eBooks appropriate at German schools at all?
  • How could contents for eBooks look like?
  • Which terminals are there?
  • How much would it cost for schools and parents?
  • What does politics say about this issue?

The Leipzig School of Media would like to discuss these issues which are not only important to education policy.

Participants in the discussion:

  • Matthias Heubach (heubach media/iPhone and database programming)
  • Leander Wattig (consultant content-press and blogger at Ichmachwasmitbuechern.de)
  • Karl Wilschky (e-media manager, Ernst Klett textbook publisher)
  • N.N. (politics)

Presenter: Michael Geffken, Leipzig School of Media

When: 4 June, from 6:30 p.m. to 8 p.m.
Where: Leipzig School of Media, "Media Campus Villa Ida", Poetenweg 28, D-04155 Leipzig
Further information: www.leipzigschoolofmedia.de

We are asking for a short notice by e-mail to info@leipzigschoolofmedia.de.

The Leipzig School of Media is a subsidiary of the Media Foundation of Sparkasse Leipzig and is operated as a public-private-partnership together with the University of Leipzig and the Leipzig University of Applied Sciences HTWK. The Media Foundation also supports journalistic research with currently four PhD scholarships at its site.

Press contact:
Michael Geffken | Kathleen Bendick
Phone: +49 341 – 562967-01 oder –06
geffken@leipzigschoolofmedia.de | bendick@leipzigschoolofmedia.de