The future of textbooks? Oxford produces its first interactive iBook of research
21 March 2012
Oxford may be the oldest University in the English-speaking world but its researchers have harnessed the most innovative technology to produce an interactive iBook to make their graphs and data more widely understood by the public. The iBook, entitled Geographies of the World’s Knowledge, aims to be more aesthetically pleasing than your average research paper. It also allows the reader to pick and choose how much detail they want to read, through using the special interactivity functions of the iPad. It is now freely available to the public and can be downloaded from Apple’s iBookstore http://itunes.apple.com/us/book/geographies-worlds-knowledge/id508820339?ls=1.
Instead of the traditional page layout of an academic journal or its online equivalent, researchers at the Oxford Internet Institute have produced an iBook that is almost page-less. It contains moving graphics, such as a timeline animation on global maps. The user can also select the pieces of the picture they want to zoom in on to glean further information. For example, if they might want to know more about a specific country’s literacy rate and the information is not visible from an overview map of the world, they tap on the selected country to reveal a pop up label containing more detailed information. The zoom facility works rather like a magnifying glass as what was not visible suddenly appears to the reader on selection.
The global maps are not limited to the dimensions of an ordinary A4 or A3 sheet of paper as the iBook has a ‘page-less’ quality that allows the user to scroll through the material pulling out relevant material as they go.
Professor Viktor Mayer-Schönberger, from the OII, said: ‘By offering interactivity so that readers can explore detail and change over time goes far beyond what would be available in print. This iBook, Geographies of Knowledge, shows that stunningly beautiful electronic books do more than please the eye – they offer readers the flexibility to discover their very own, individual path of learning. We at the OII are thrilled to be able to make our research available to the general public free of charge and hope they will find this format more appealing to look at.’
By using and extending ‘iBook Author’, the software provided by Apple for users to design iBooks, the OII researchers custom-made their own interactive elements in order to push the boundaries further than the default widgets provided. The new iBook incorporates everything that makes electronic reading on iPads special: from paging gestures to direct navigation to particular pages, but OII researchers have also developed ways for readers to interact with the visualizations, for example, to see how data changes over time.
Information Officer at the Oxford Internet Institute, Kunika Kono said: ‘We wanted to use cutting edge technology to make Oxford Internet Institute research more accessible to a much wider readership than you would generally find through traditional publications. We went beyond the structure that underlies the ordinary iBook because we wanted to build in more interactivity and hope this provides a new path for educational materials. The information revealed in our iBook is determined by the particular interest of the reader. Graphs and maps that might otherwise look boring and off-putting are brought to life with some animation, in some cases, and extra pop up information where the reader demands it.’
Professor Mayer-Schönberger said: ‘This is a format that makes research more accessible and easy to understand without the risk of “dumbing down”. Indeed, it encourages readers to interact, by making decisions about what they want to know and in how much depth and detail. We hope this prototype will provide a new benchmark for other iBooks and will help to revolutionise learning tools for a general readership.’
The iBook, entitled Geographies of the World’s Knowledge, contains visualisations of where and how knowledge is distributed across the world, based on research carried out by the OII. It is based on an original 28-page booklet published in 2011.
The electronic book has been made possible thanks to funding from the Convoco Foundation. Convoco is a charity whose mission is to share ideas and thought through communication.
For more information, please contact the University of Oxford Press Office on 01865 280534 orpress.office@admin.ox.ac.uk