從 Kindle 2 到在港引入電子教科書

政府最近在研究在香港引入電子教科書。

我不經常在香港看新聞,一兩周前正好看電視晚間新聞,訪問一個眼科專家,說「電子書」對學童的眼睛不好。他的理論是,傳統書本上的文字,邊沿是銳利、黑白分明的,但在電腦上,字體的邊沿是化開的,眼睛會不知道怎麼對焦,做成眼睛疲勞。

我固然不能挑戰這位專家就視力方面的專業意見,但這個說法起碼有兩個問題:

一、電子書不代表就是桌面/筆記本/上網本,也可能是其他專門的電子書終端等等;

二、電腦字體的邊不一定是化的,很多人都知道,把電腦字體的邊沿利用灰階平滑掉是anti-aliasing技術的一個應用,也叫作font smoothing,用意跟專家說的正好相反,是讓電腦上的字好看點。

個人覺得anti-aliasing字體的確好看得多,相信Steve Jobs也同意這點,因為Mac的畫面、網頁顯示比Windows好看得多,正正是基於anti-aliasing的運用,Steve Jobs甚至在Standford畢業禮那個著名的演講裏也特意提到Mac上的字體。

扯遠了一點。不是想說Steve Jobs對而眼科專家錯,重點是,anti-aliasing如果的確對眼睛不好,不用就可以,不應該就此否定電子書。事實上,Windows也是在Vista/IE7才用上ClearType(所以才那麼難看),況且不喜歡的可以關掉。

本來只是想說一聲Amazon的電子書Kindle剛推出2.0而已,可能因為害怕這種「電子書=每人背一台筆記本電腦」、「電腦輔助教學=將筆記變powerpoint」的概念,一不小心寫了以上的一堆文字,唯有把標題也改了 -.-

Kindle 2 & Obama Kindle 2 and pencil
Kindle 2 & books

不過自問嗜好太多,不太敢去關心這個事情,有興趣、有熱誠的朋友可以聯繫莫乃光,他有一個小組在關注電子教科書。

另外還有一些教育界、教育局該看看的電子書設備:

雖然筆記本型的電腦現在都叫作“notebook”(聽到“notebook”,難道你還會聯想到黑色封面紅色角落的硬皮簿嗎!?),但請教育界不要把電子教科書想像成為一大台電腦,否則將會淪為爛gag一個。


Comments

在〈從 Kindle 2 到在港引入電子教科書〉中有 5 則留言

  1. Thank you….just doing my small part to try to consolidate from ideas from the frontline, about this so-called ebooks, or else, the Govt will just listen to the “stakeholders”, i.e. the headmasters and the publishers, and you know what will then happen.

    Thanks again,
    Charles

    1. ya, can imagine..

      But, well, listening to stakeholders is itself right though not enough. Maybe what can be done instead is to talk to the stakeholders?

      i got a friend working in a local publishing company for years, who said they have the “e-content” available for long. It’s just that they are worried about not getting pay from pirated copies, that they have to insist in selling physical books while giving away the e-contents. Perhaps the ICT can contribute ideas on how publishers may still get pay.

      i wish i can sell “physical game” and give away our “digital games” ;p

  2. By the way, anyone interested in this topic or ICT in general, please contact me directly 🙂

  3. last week, I saw a lady reading e-book on her Bookeen in MTR.

  4. it’s rare.. it’s always NDS i thought..

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