New technological innovations such as interactive multimedia and the Internet raise questions about their possibilities of creating a more effective learning environment and thereby bringing a fundamental, positive change in education. One way of util...
New technological innovations such as interactive multimedia and the Internet raise questions about their possibilities of creating a more effective learning environment and thereby bringing a fundamental, positive change in education. One way of utilizing these new thchnologies in education is to create digital textbooks. Howere, lit is very uncertain at this point that what a digital textbook is and how it should be designed and used. This research is primarily intended to answer these basic questions from an instructional designer``s point of view. Emphasizing that effective uses of innovative media do not depend of the media themselves, but rather on how they are designed and used, this research discusses thmeaning of a digital textbook and its roles and functions and examines related examples and cases. In addition, it discusses how to introduce digital textbooks into educational context in digital textbooks should pursue the same educational goals as those of traditional textbooks, they should be designed and used in a way that they can reach those goals which have been pursued but couldn``t be achieved by traditional textbooks. Finally, some further research is suggested.