Digital Textbook Collaborative Research Paper

According to By Rainie and Hitlin (2005), “there is agreement among teens and their parents about the role that the internet plays in teens’ education. Eighty-six percent of teens, and 88% of online teens, believe that the internet helps teenagers to do better in school. Eighty percent of parents and 83% of parents of online teens agreed with that proposition”. Wright (n.d) shares that “the Internet contains a wealth of knowledge that is available instantly upon any search. Because of this, the Internet has superseded libraries as a source for information gathering and research. Many teachers will now ask students to visit specific websites to study from home, and online encyclopedias provide masses of knowledge on almost every topic imaginable. The variety of sources allows students to pursue subjects in much greater detail rather than being limited to whatever the teacher sends home”.

The use of technology can be a distraction to everyone and every age! But technology can take you places and open doors to information that textbooks can’t. “School officials believe the electronic materials will get students more engaged in learning”(Source A). speaking and writing from perspective, reading and learning from books can be really boring at times. With the use of computers, iBooks, chromebooks and the Internet, learning

In a review of the literature, recurrent ideas appeared in the research articles reviewed. These ideas include technology as part of education has a conclusive and encouraging impact on students, students demonstrated a greater level of learning and expanded productivity with the use of technology. Both educationalists and students felt technology added significance to their learning experiences. The addition of online education was cost effective as well as advantageous to the learning process. Technology caused teachers to be better teachers. Because of the wealth of information previously only available to students at a prestigious university, teachers are required to keep their assignments relative and backed by this knowledge. Students can out research the teacher on many occasions and

Technology has many attributes and applications that improve livelihoods. As a student myself, one of the most obvious advancements is in the field of education. Educational technology has slowly been integrated into classrooms over the last decade. Today, the basis of technology, digital literacy, is a crucial skill for academics. “Students who are digitally literate know how to effectively use technology to collaborate, create original content, and conduct in-depth research for academic purposes” (Dotterer, “Fostering Digital Citizenship In The Classroom”). Some worry that the use of technology will encourage people to “cease to exercise their memory and become forgetful” (qtd. In Carr, “Is Google Making Us Stupid?”).

Carr said “What if I do all my readings on the web not so much because the way I read has changed. i.e. I’m just seeking convenience, but because the way I THINK has changed?” (Carr, pg 7). Since the internet has come into play people have stooped reading books because is easier to just google what they are wanting to know. The internet can change the way someone can process the information on a screen than in a book and how much is actually being consumed by the person. Not only is it changing the way we understand but every technology is an expression of the human will. This allows us to reshape nature to better serve our needs and desires. The internet has the greatest power over how and what we think

Many educators are embracing the use of electronic textbooks for a variety of reasons. Ken White, an instructor at Everett Community College, points out that some older students may have a hard time transitioning to e-textbooks but younger generations of students will be much more successful at making the conversion (Moving towards virtual textbooks). The trend seems to be that electronic devices of all sorts are becoming more and more popular. As these devices continue to permeate our culture, integrating them as soon and as frequently as possible into the classroom will help students adjust to using them now and in the future. White even uses the new textbook format because, “[Electronic textbooks] make me really look at my teaching” (Moving towards virtual textbooks). As a teacher, he is adopting the trend of going digital. By re-evaluating his teaching method, he will be able to approach his subject from a different angle that might be more

Marc Presnky argues that college should ban the use of physical books to encourage the use of electronic books. He gives three reasons to support his argument. The author of the article “College Should Mandate That All Textbooks Be Digitized” states three main advantages of having a bookless higher education. He believes that society should move beyond “physical books of the past” in order to move “education into the future” (Presnky). By employing the use of digitized books, Presnky believes that people will have features not quickly available to physical books such as comments or analysis about a book. Lastly, Presnky believes the biggest advantage of fully transitioning to e-books is the liberation of ideas from printed pages. He thinks

Technology provides students with easy access to information which otherwise would be difficult to obtain. Before technology, students had to read a book in order to look up what they needed. This would take hours, sometimes days. According to Edmund J. Gleazer School of Education, “Students can look up specific information or questions from a teacher, find answers, and do more research without even leaving their desk” (Edmund J. Gleazer School of Education). Technology provides students with a wide range of libraries and sources to enrich their learning.

Alfonzo Porter, a publisher for The Washington Post, is a strong believer that technology has caused massive problems when it comes to educating students. The publisher mentions that student are losing interest in school and becoming more distracted with their cellular devices. In the newspaper, Porter writes, “76 percent of teachers believed students are being conditioned by the internet to find quick answers, leading to a loss of concentration.” Alfonzo Porter believes that students are not taking advantage of technology, instead, they are manipulating it. In today’s modern society, there is a higher percentage of students using their cellphones to find answers, compared to students that are properly reading a book to find solutions to their problems. This issue is leading students becoming less interested in expanding their knowledge.

Before the Internet, students did work in books and teachers taught through books. Almost everyone in the same grade was taught the same, with a limited curriculum until technology took over the world. Now that society has endless resources from the advancements of technology, students, teachers, and others use it to expand their knowledge on certain subjects and also to complete their work faster. The effects of technology is explained in the text, “What’s the Matter with Kids Today?” by Amy Goldwasser, she argues that the Internet actually aids kids in developing skills in writing and problem solving. Steven Pinker also defends the use of technology in his essay, “Mind Over Mass Media” by claiming that people just need to control their use of technology.

No textbooks means that students will not have to lug around heavy bags and deal with the awful back pain that comes with them, this can motivate students more because they are not as tired from carrying around these heavy bags. According to Source D, “Pen and paper feel profoundly different to me now- they have the air of an inferior technology about them, the sort of contraption well suited for jotting down a phone number, but not much beyond that.” Basically, Source D is saying that the use of technology makes writing things so much easier it seems strange not to use it. In the case of a student, writing something such as an essay becomes less of a tedious task since instead of having to sit at a desk for hours upon hours writing and erasing over and over, one can simply sit down and tap away at computer keys. By saving time on writing the essay it will encourage students to actually go back through their work and check for mistakes or even add to it, which will greatly heighten the quality of a student’s essay. Those aren’t the only gains of technology,

Every day the world is changing and things are done differently. Technology has also affected the way students are taught and in which they learn. It has changed the classroom. Technology saves us time and allows us to access material in only minutes. “The Internet and online subscription databases, even as a supplement to the printed works in the library, allow students to see, and force them to consider or reject, points of view that they might never have encountered in decades past” (Gow 4).With all the time technology produces, it also has downsides and it also may have created a less intelligent society.

Textbook is a medium to assist teachers to transmit knowledge to students. In the last half century, technology development contribute to the emergence of electronic textbooks (e-textbooks) emerged. E-textbooks offer a new path to students to access contents, thus recently a large quantity of studies have investigated the influence of e-textbooks on students. This essay has been divided into two parts including major advantages and drawbacks of using e-textbooks, to discuss whether electronic textbooks are superior to traditional print textbooks.

Electronic textbooks are more portable and convenient as they can be accessed by a tablet, downloaded onto a computer or accessed via the internet. The technological benefits available on an electronic textbook are endless. The audio and video capabilities will liven up learning and change the way students understand and retain the material. The emergence of three-dimensional technology may also play a role in the near future. In addition, digital textbooks are much more user friendly. Studying for tests will be more efficient as highlighted notes can be easily transferred into electronic note cards for memorization. The main downside to electronic textbooks is that students will have to purchase a reading device, tablet, laptop or smartphone in order to view digital textbooks away from home or on the go. Most college students have already made this investment prior to starting college.

Across the U.S., technology used in education has been increasing exponentially. Every learning institution ranging from elementary school to college have incorporated technology into their teachings. Online textbooks, quizzes, notes, and classes are all examples of how education has been utilizing technology. While technology has a place in education, not everything in education needs to involve technology.