A new type of digital textbook is being tested by students from De Anza College, California, to see if this is the direction education institutes could be heading.
Laboriously leafing through intimidating tomes, students often come across obscure and bewildering terms that leave them with eyes crossed and mouths agape. Common practice at this point is to dive into a dictionary in the hopes it will all become clear, but this is a time-consuming hassle that everyone could do without.
That’s why developers at SRI International came up with “Inquire”; a system designed to make reading and understanding textbooks that much easier, especially for students.
The Inquire system allows you to highlight words and terms in the text that you want more information on, and then presents you with a list of possible related questions. Selecting the question that most resembles the one you are asking yourself, Inquire whisks you away to a Wikipedia-like page full of information on the subject, where you more than likely will find the answer.
Creator David Gunning says the aim of Inquire is to provide students with the world’s first intelligent textbook. When tested by the students of De Anza College, it was found that those who used the Inquire system scored better on average than those who didn’t.
The system is still in the developmental phase, with only half of one textbook, Campbell Biology, already loaded, which is expected to be completed by the end of 2013. For all its convenience, Inquire still has a long way to go before it could put the beat down on your favourite textbook.