Some News Items about E-learning

As I don't have any new news about anything related about the EASL spaces at Auburn (ok, so I just sent out all my emails with the survey), I thought I would instead point folks to some recent news items that are connected with some form of e-learning.

You may have seen this article about "Still in Favor of the Flip" in reaction to an apparently lonely study out there suggesting that flipping the classroom does not work well:  http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2013/10/30/despite-new-studies-flipping-classroom-still-enjoys-widespread-support.
Note that the majority of studies, of anecdotal evidence, of stories, suggest that flipping the classroom increases student learning, student engagement, student ownership of the classroom and of the materials -- but I can see quite a few people being uncomfortable with that kind of student role.  And of course we should not underestimate, understate the increased faculty involvement with that course if flipping is done well and meaningful activities happen in the classroom.
Note also that the study itself is emphasizing its findings as preliminary, with the sense that quotations were taken out of context, thus distorting the findings.

But what about having students get e-books?  Well, apparently at least young folks in the UK prefer paper books over digital books, according to http://www.theguardian.com/books/2013/nov/25/young-adult-readers-prefer-printed-ebooks
We have seen similar research in this country as well, though the sense is, I believe, that folks distinguish between reading for pleasure and reading for work -- and with reading for work, aka studying, the possibilities for annotation and sharing of annotation are growing in leaps and bounds.