What is an e-book?

Boy is that really hard question masked in a simple question!  At first its just an Electronic Book, right?  Well...true, but more to the point, what kind of e-book?  All HTML text and images? All PDF text and images?   XML with CSS?   Flash?  What? 

Well, even within the framework of just those few choices we also have what platform, Laptop, iPod, PDA, eReader?  And the permutations and cost differences are all over the place.  Made many calls this past week trying to track them down.

I've mentioned XplanaBook before, but here's a link to it.  I rather like their use of Flash to make it work.  Their site doesn't really do it justice as they've updated it.

Great eLearning Site

This Macro-Adobe site has some real awesome lectures and topics on eLearning.  Very skewed for Macromedia products, but between the sales its still awesome.

Mister Rogers at the Senate

I've always been a fan of Mr. Rogers.  When I was younger, I actually considered him a friend.  Its been a long time since I've considered him especially since I've been a teacher and an instructional designer, but having seen this speech by him in front of Congress, I've got a newfound respect for his work.  If I can ever get back to the K-12 space I think I want to bring back that touching the spirit of the child that Fred states he tries to touch with his show.  What's interesting is how he views the technology as both very powerful and can also be misguided.  His concern really did pan out, between the RockStar Games and the Power Rangers, we really haven't progressed, but have regressed since this speech.