books on elearning

Computers as Theater
Brenda Laurel
Addison-Wesley 1991 211pp
ISBN 0 201 51048 0
UK cover price (in 1991) £26.95 (hardback)

Classic call to action to "think of the computer, not as a tool, but as a medium". All the more relevant these days: the web all too often leads to dumbed-down, media-poor e-learning. I suggest you skip the first two chapters, though.

Designing Web Usability
Jakob Nielsen
New Riders 1999 419pp
ISBN 1 56205 810 X
UK cover price £34.99 (paperback)

Subtitled "the practice of simplicity", this is a must-read for anybody writing stuff for the web. It might look like common sense on the page, but you don't need to spend long on the web to see how uncommon it is in practice.  Most of it's on Nielsen's site (www.useit.com/alertbox/), but the book is more usable.

Trigger Happy
Steven Poole
Fourth Estate 2000 254pp
ISBN 1 84115 120 3
UK cover price £12.00 (paperback)

Subtitled "the inner life of videogames", this makes a persuasive case for taking games rather more seriously than most have to date. Great relevance to e-learning because it gets to the heart of what motivates people to stay in an application for hours on end.