The Future Of Digital Textbooks Essay

Many schools have switched from using paper textbooks to iPads or chromebooks, which allow students to access online textbooks. But is this a good change? There are many factors that need to be put into consideration, including the age group of a kids receiving the technology, the classes this tool can be used for, and the children’s ability to interact with others.

Imagine a day when youngsters would leave for school carrying nothing more than an electronic device weighing less than one pound. The advent and growing popularity of electronic textbooks may make this a reality sooner rather than later. No more students trudging around with 20 pound backpacks strapped to their backs. No more lockers jammed with textbooks and notebooks. The benefits of transitioning to e-textbooks are many and provide advantages for both students and educators.

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

As a new revolution rears its head due to rapidly evolving technology, many are becoming concerned with the potential problems that e-books could present. Ms. Elliot, a retired librarian, expresses her apprehension and concern for this electronic book form through a speech conducted at the “Reading: the future” forum. Directing her speech to mainly booklovers, she also reaches out to parents whose children will be most affected by the development of e-books.

With the rampant year over year releases and innovations in the consumer sector, computers and tablets are cheaper than ever. While one may argue that devices still remain more expensive than a simple notepad and pencil, students opting not to use a computer will accrue incrementally more costs for notebooks and/or paper, binders, the printing of class notes, and hard copy textbooks for each course. With PDF and online textbooks now available, at substantially lower costs, tech savvy students have additional cost and use advantages. Further, digital resources permit publishers to regularly update e-textbook forms. This is relevant for schools that utilize one text for multiple years and better ensures accuracy and currency. Beyond the economic benefits, computers have other practical advantages. They significantly reduce the amount of weight students carry in knapsacks, improve ergonomics, and ameliorate possible future absenteeism and medical costs due to back injury. Finally, reduced paper consumption and its footprint are more environmentally friendly and consistent with the University of Toronto’s sustainability

At one time, it is true, e-book publishing barley made its niche. This was particularly so in Europe. But Amazon Kindle and similar tools have made it more acceptable and popular and studies such s those by PWC (nd) predict incremental but sure growth of the digital book publishing future.

Within the last five years, the school I attend purchased iPads for student use. One way we use them is to download textbooks. This is a wonderful system for many reasons. Physical textbooks should be replaced entirely by electronic versions on portable devices. Education is a very important part of every person's life. We begin learning just moments after we are born, and we do not stop learning until we die. Without knowledge, humans would not be humans, and our way of life would never

It’s imperative that this same California Law be initiated at Universities across Louisiana as well as two-year colleges like Delgado to cut the cost of overpriced textbooks. Let’s face it. We’re now living in a microwave, fast-paced, and digital generation where smart phones, I-pods and I-pads are taking over. A generation where life is at the touch of a handheld device where you can receive emails, telephone calls, and even order a movie or concert ticket at the blink of an eye. Devices such as the Apple I-pad starts at a price of $499 for 16gb 3g up to $899 for 32gb 3gs compared to the Kindle which sells for a whole lot cheaper, but the Kindle

In the article, “Textbooks Enter the Digital Era” A university student Jason Turgeon, realized there had to be a cheaper way to acquire textbooks. So in 2005 he started textbookrevolution.org., which links students with free digital textbooks on the Web. Turgeon then explains what the textbooks of the future may look

A book that cost 25 dollars in 1978 would have cost 208 dollars in 2013, for an increase of 812 percent, and 82 percent just between 2002 and 2013. This is a higher increase than medical care, housing, and even the consumer price index. The college board estimates that in 2014 an average student paid 1,200 dollars on books and supplies, roughly 14 percent of the students tuition cost. A survey in 1997 shows students paying an average of 642 dollars, almost doubling in 17 years time. This is a drastic increase in the price of books, but what is causing the textbooks to increase in price so severely? The regular inflation rate is one part of the increase in price, but the increase in book costs are more than double the regular rate of inflation, 6 percent over the regular rate of 3 percent. Half of the textbooks produced in 2003 were “bundled” with additions such as a CD-Rom or a workbook, nearly doubling the cost where a non bundled version was available. However, these additional resources are not always used by the instructors. 65 percent of instructors polled reported that they “rarely” or “never” used the additional materials. Another way the cost rises is when a new edition is released, roughly every three years a new edition of a textbook is released. The new edition of the textbook normally will have an increase of price of 12 percent. A text that starts at 50 dollars will cost 70 dollars or more by the time it is on it's third edition. 76 percent of the instructors polled say that the new editions that they use are justified in the “never” to “half the time” range while 40 percent say the new editions are justified “rarely” to “never”. Perhaps the largest contributing factor to the cost of textbooks rising as quickly as they do is one simple fact, there are very few publishers that release college textbooks and four of them, McGraw-Hill,

To begin with, changing to ebooks can help students in school. According to Source B it states that “ in some cases students with access to libraries were found to have done worse on standardized tests”. From this we can infer that students with the help of technology will tend to have better test scores than those who actually go to the library. In the library students are on their own with no one to help but with ebooks and technology, they would be able to find help online to look up examples for their subjects. Also, in source A it states that “Switching to ebooks will make sense for school libraries only when they result in savings of time and money that allow library staff to increase their focus on instruction and interaction with students

Chapman, Gary. "Digital Nation: Push to Trade Class Textbooks For Laptop PCS Is A Misuse Of Technology." Teacher Librarian 26.1 (1998): n. pag. Education Research Complete. Web. 13 Oct. 2013.

The market for textbooks is constantly changing. As the demand for certain features in textbooks increases each supplier in the supply chain’s role will change and evolve. Authors need to be aware of the needs of the universities; books need to be concise yet full of information. Authors continuously need to update data and information in all textbooks. Text editors need to keep up with the authors and the ever changing data and information provided to students in textbooks; they need to be able to adapt to other forms of text as well such as e-books. As technology evolves as does the need for better graphics in textbooks. Many students are visual learners and graphic designers need to be aware of this. We have certainly come a long way in terms of graphics in textbooks and the need will only keep increasing. Printing companies also need to be kept in the know, and possibly develop new technology to make it easier to predict the demand for each textbook and even the possibility of e-books being the dominant form of text. As the industry grows and changes as will the roles of each supplier and everyone needs to look toward the future and realize the changes that are happening.

To start off, schools need to realize the amount they can save in the long run by utilizing technology and lean away from traditional, old fashioned, hard cover books. When books become outdated and used, schools have to spend endless amounts to replace them. To avoid this, schools can take the initiate and work proactively and replace hard cover books with electronics to avoid unnecessary expenses. An example of this occurred at Empire High School which recently made a switch from textbooks even though, “it wasn’t because of a funding crisis.” (Source A) Empire High School shows just how well technology can work. Not only does technology help in saving necessary funding, it adds a sure convenience factor to the students and teachers by not having to drag around large and expensive textbooks.

During the development of technology, most people have shifted to use electronic books to read both academic and non-academic texts. However, despite the technological changes, there has been a wide debate about the benefits of paper books over the e-books. It is important to understand that various reasons are suggesting why people should shift back to using the traditional books rather than the electronic ones. Even though some think that e-books are better that traditional ones, I believe that readers should return to traditional books because of various reasons.