This afternoon I am giving a talk to the WebLearn user group, which is made up those who run and use the University of Oxford’s virtual learning environment. It is not my first time speaking in that room or too that group of people so I feel bold enough to shake things up with a new experiment: I am planning to use my new Kindle for my cue-card rather than printing them out on paper.

To be honest, I have not been overly impressed with the formatting of some of the ebooks I have collected so far, including both the ones I have paid for. Getting the text in my hands is good but what I really want is some formatting to help it work. Having followed the advice of a tutorial I found, I discovered that I did not need anything more than very basic HTML skills and the excellent calibre software to produce a very acceptable mini-book even including a customised front cover.

I am looking forward to seeing how this afternoon’s experiment goes — if nothing else, it will be something to talk about over the cream tea that follows — but I will also be expecting higher standards from any ebooks I buy in future.