ENTER the MARTIAL ART
E-BOOK
…Vitally New and Innovative
Educational Tools for the Martial Arts Industry. Although the digital electronic e-book is not altogether new it has been
pretty slow to gain a foothold in the martial arts industry. It’s still too early to tell if other genre
markets are experiencing this same malfeasance but it’s safe to say that this
electronic technology will eventually find a niche in these ancient
traditional cultures that has been inundated with countless thousands of
conventional trade paperback books. And, it could very well become a staple
in supplemental education for the karateka of the future like nothing the
martial arts world has seen before. So, what exactly are e-books? Put simply, these are relatively new
high-tech electronically or digitally created text-based programs, which are
compatible with and can be read or viewed on computers or other specialized
devices, designed for such purposes. The State of the Art Presently the e-book world is quite small compared to the universal
commonality of paperback books in print. There are slightly over 20,000
titles available in these electronically created works, but there are more
than 1,000,000 printed titles in bookstores around the world. If this newly created e-book continues at
the rate that it is presently going someday real soon it may cause a
revolution like the one Gutenberg began when he printed the Bible. Skeptical? Could it be that the world of martial arts is not quite ready for this so
called new-fangled way of conveying knowledge to it’s vast following? Or, is
it that the majority of conventional paperback book publishers have yet to be
convinced that a big enough market exist to warrant spending millions to
enter this field on the hopes of wishful speculation? Either way, it’s
definitely an untapped avenue for conveying cerebral knowledge and “how-to”
instructional information to the masses of millions of martial artist around
the world that are constantly seeking supplemental sources to broaden their
understanding of the arts. Today, e-books have largely been
considered either promotional device for authors that wish to attract the
attention of large publishers and companies that use this medium for
educating employees or selling their wares through this electronic medium via
the Internet. So it is with reluctance that many readers see this is a viable
source for acquiring knowledge—or, thinking of an e-book as a real book in
the plain sense of the word. However, we are now seeing skepticism gradually dwindling as it pertains
to this relatively new medium for communicating. When you stop to consider that electronic
books have already undergone a multimedia transformation -- of sorts the
general public-more specifically the younger computer literate-- is not
altogether unfamiliar with the concept. A few years back, someone came up
with the idea of audio, or talking books. Which by all accounts were recorded
audiocassettes (books-on-tape) featuring popular novelist’s bestsellers that
had been artfully condensed and recorded by well-known personalities. Today, they are a multibillion-dollar
industry. And, prior to that recorded audiocassettes were primarily used as a
medium that complimented corporate sales manuals, self-help etc. for or Audio
books now constitute their own category in bookstores, and doing the voice
parts has been a prestigious assignment for more and more prominent actors. From this earlier evolution we in the martial arts business have all
become familiar with this in the form of education and shared teaching venues
typical of business sales, promotional, and/or self-help study courses. Most
are published and sold with complimentary video and spiral-bound paper book
manuals. Important to seeing just how
far the electronic-age has come in the world of martial arts is to look back
at the standalone video instructional programs that have emerged over the
past three-decades. From a small selection of several dozen of these “how-to”
video instructional programs it has grown so exponentially-- with the passing
of each year—that virtually no serious martial practitioner is without a few.
It’s also a safe bet that probable that most every dojo in the world has a
collection of these electronic educational programs in their library. If
that’s any indication of the next step in digitized e-technology we already see the
DVD-Video formatted venues replacing these outdated formats. It’s only a
matter of time before the videotape will be a thing of the past. So, skepticism of the newly developed text-formatted e-book’s presently
vague future may presently prevail with some that have not followed this
evolution, but I predict it will eventually rival the standard martial arts
paperback book (if not surpass it) in the next several years. Back to the Future Instructionally speaking, let’s look back for a minute and see just where
this new form of communication may lead. Remember that during its early inception, the original audio book (book-on-tape)
certainly sparked a revolution that has been, to a greater or lesser degree,
responsible for the advent of the actual present day e-book concept. One
would have perhaps thought that the digitized (text-on-screen) e-
book would have gained popularity first but it seems that the inverse is true.
Early on the concept of actually integrating electronic digital technology
with that of the written word must have seemed passé since it was deemed
nothing more than a format for the viewer to simply read what the writer had
to say. Why reverse engineer something that was already all too common in the
form of traditional paperback books? Especially when the evolutionary curve
was headed toward audio oriented programming. So, it seems that taking a step
backward is essentially propelling this new electronic text-based e-book
technology forward. That is pretty much the crux of this article. To explore
and share some of these new advancements and hopefully state a case of why
these products are beginning to change the way education is purveyed. And, the profound impact it will have on
the supplemental martial arts educational market. E-book Technical
Advantages Graphical illustrations, drawing, photos and text presentations are much
more colorful and appeasing to the eye since the illuminating backlight from
a monitor or screen brightens the imagery. With most typical martial arts
instructional and cerebral oriented textbooks printed black & white
format much is lost in the way of photographic depictions and these older
vintage styles of photographs even look livelier than on paper. Granted, text is text anyway you look at
it, but aesthetically, the reader can have much a much richer experience from
the enjoyment of reading books that are illustrated and artfully rendered to
appease all of the senses when colorized text of many different fonts are
incorporated into an e-book. Even animated text can be used to stress various
points that cannot be rendered in a standard paperback book. It may be of some interest to imagine another technical advantage that
can be appreciated should the reader struggling with a word of which it’s
meaning he or she not sure. In some of the newer versions of e-books one can
simply click it with a pointing device or the finger, and instantly a
definition will appear or a more detailed technical explanation will appear
on the monitor of their computer screen or laptop. Also, let’s think about aspects like music, verbal narration, special
effects, animated graphs, voice-overs and other craftily created electronic
functions that can be added to an e-book. All of these are advantages that
are not enjoyed with your typical paperback books and have infinite potential
when they are integrated into martial arts related instructional venues. Educationally speaking, e-book technology has been evolving so rapidly
that just by clicking of a pre-designed display of a drawing or graphic
illustration or such, the characters can be transformed into another image to
clarify a point or tell another story. Naturally, for those users who simply
want to experience the richness of the writer's words, they don't have to
click on these icons. For younger readers, or those who have trouble reading, e-books can offer
a way to help teach literacy in many different ways. For the younger children
that are studying the martial arts these educationally oriented e-books can
be of enormous help in teaching such a complex subject. And this is not to
mention cartoon-like animated movies that can be inserted in the e-books. As the audio book phenomenon has shown, much more
substantive content can be included in an e-book program whereas the inverse
is true otherwise. For beginning children martial artists, imagine the value
of watching the words light up as a mellifluous voice rolls across the words
and simply illustrated or animated “how-to” techniques are displayed. With
the power of these computerized books, action sequences can be stopped,
slowed down or even the depictions changed to suit the user’s needs or the
writer’s intentions to convey the essence of technique, methodology or
concepts can modify the voice or sound effects to emphasize the point. Verily, to appreciate these advantages of this latest evolution to emerge
of the electronic scene…that of the digital e-book (electronic
format), one must first appreciate the fact that it can, literally and
figuratively, convey and present more information than standard paperback
book fare in every sense of the word. By my estimate I feel that the
advantages greatly outweigh the disadvantages of this new form of mass
communications. Let’s take a look at the advantages: because of the many high-tech
function that can be integrated into this format. Streaming Video and Media
Flash Technology E-books lend themselves well to integrating
“action” animation or real time video sequences into its format. Something that is not presently possible
with standard paperback book fare. With the click on the mouse you can
actually watch a technique, or instructional sequence, and see it unfold
right there on your screen in regular speed, “Slo-mo” (slow motion)
animation, or even sped up to emphasize a point of interest. It lends itself
well to “instant replay” and even “freeze frame” applications in which text
or voice-over narratives can be integrated.
To make it even more savant the images can be stopped at a given point
and the technique studied with greater
astuteness. |
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