IT and Education: Innovative platform for digital textbooks around the corner

Inkling (USA), a company that develops an innovative digital textbook platform, has received a multi-million dollar investment from educational content giants Pearson and McGraw-Hill.

Inkling develops digital interactive textbooks that include the ability to collaborate, add multimedia and communicate with content. The startup Inkling adds another layer to online textbooks by adding 3D objects, video, quizzes and even social interaction within the content. Inkling’s sync technology lets students collaborate in real time by sharing their notes and highlights with one another. And students can see comments from their friends and professors right alongside their own notes.

Last year the company launched an iPad app to show the power of its platform. The app, which featured a photography textbook, includes over 100 videos, interactive diagrams to help you understand the effect of lighting and equipment settings, workshop videos, high resolution images, and the full text of the original book. Within the book you can watch videos from the author’s lighting and photography workshop and commentary on his photography and how he captures his image.

McGraw-Hill, the largest publisher of educational books for higher education, is going to offer the top 100 undergraduate titles via Inkling, as well as medical education and reference content. Pearson will be using Inkling to feature its MBA curriculum as well as a number of undergraduate arts and sciences titles.