Macmillan's DynamicBooks offers editable digital textbooks

Macmillan has just announced a new tool called DynamicBooks that allows professors to edit the publisher's massive repository of textbooks and provide them to classes in a digital format. I couldn't dig up any info on whether the format is proprietary, open, or uses an existing eBook standard, but Macmillan says its books will be viewable on computers and iPhones, with iPad and Android versions on the way.

I can't even count the number of times I had to buy binders full of photocopies because a professor couldn't find a text he liked enough to teach from. I should probably refrain from venting to Download Squad's readers about the time a law professor stuck us with one of those binders at a cost of $75, but I think it illustrates the following point nicely: customizable digital textbooks are a very good thing. Even better, a DynamicBook looks like it will be 1/3 the cost of the equivalent paper textbook.

Fewer wasted trees? Check! A cost savings to students? Ding! No extraneous chapters that the professor won't even assign? Booyah! Professors can even add their own media and supplemental reading. It almost makes me want to go get another useless advanced degree. Now, if only other textbook publishers would follow Macmillan's lead ...

[via After Dawn]

Tags: android, college, dynamicbooks, ebook, ipad, iphone, macmillan, professors, textbooks