I loved the You-tube video about minerals. I have always liked earth science, in fact it was one of my favorite classes in high school. Seeing something that I've always been interested in come to life on the i-Pad really got me excited about this technology. I like how the man who had the minerals collection tried everything to communicate his idea, from place mats to posters to books. Yet, as he said, they were still all flat. I agree that the i-Pad is "about as close as you can get" to really seeing the elements. I liked the data sidebar and how you can rotate the objects simultaneously by touching them. I don't feel like anything about the book was lost through putting the information on the i-Pad. My previous fear was that putting books on tablets would make them too sterile, but I don't really feel that way now. Reading is still reading, no matter what medium it's on.
When I saw the Penguin Youtube video, I immediately thought of the kindergarten students I tutored a few years ago in California. They loved to read "Spot" and would fight over the version with the pop-up element. They would go crazy for the "Spot" book on the iPad! I also appreciated the human body book that had a 3-D image of the heart. I had an anatomy book when I was a kid but it was hard for me to understand. Seeing the organs in 3-D would have helped me a lot.
Penguin did a lot better with the kids books than with the adult books. I do not want a screen on the sky when I'm stargazing. Some things are just good the way they are. I always thought the point of stargazing was to find the constellations yourself. This is just going to far! I guess I just won't use that function if I ever get an iPad.
After looking at these videos, at least I can relax because I know that the joy of reading has not been lost through the transition between print and tablets.
As a final thought, when I was a kid it was easy to transition through all the technologies, but for some reason now that I'm twenty-five I have to examine everything before I can accept it as useful. Maybe that's because people have a tendency to get used to the way things are in the past, or maybe it's because I like to be more analytical now as an adult.
