The Pros And Cons Of Traditional Textbooks

Penn Collins provides people with background knowledge about effects on how e-reading make people skip half of their work. Collins writes “A report in Scientific American included a 2005 San Jose University that found people reading books and articles on screens are far more likely to take shortcuts or cheat their way through the piece”. I agree with Collin. For example, when I am reading article or book online I can’t read the whole pages I often see myself skipping pages.

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

Technology is “stealing” the time we spend on reading books. As Nicholas Carr has mentioned in his article “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” Many famous writers are having troubles on reading books. Most of them have not been reading books for months (447). That is one of the impacts that the technology gives us. Teenagers spend most of their time on smart phones and laptops. They have already absorbed enough information from the Internet. As a result, when they are trying to read books, they will feel like they are having a hard time concentrating on

Carr’s premise is that the Web is interfering with our ability to focus on lengthy material. On the contrary, the internet is actually aiding our ability to focus on reading. This holds true for younger children, who are known as the digital natives in our generation. In a research conducted by The National Center for Education shows that “by altering the mode of reading material from traditional paper-based reading to online reading,” the interest of elementary school children increased (Wright 367). Because children of the 21st century are surrounded by technology, they are more likely to gear towards digital media for their mode of learning. Contrary to Carr’s view that the internet “is chipping away [the] capacity for concentration and contemplation,” these children are more likely to read and focus as a result of

When I was younger, I would read book after book. I would get through multiple series and have fun while doing so. Ever since I’ve gotten to know more about the internet, and since it has impacted my education, this has changed. We use technology to write papers, research topics, or to do our homework. But, while doing so, we tend to wander and do other things too, such as play games or go on social media. Ever since the internet and all that it has to offer has come into my life, my ability to read long books has changed. In junior year of high school I assigned to read 20 to 30 pages everyday out of my book for the AP U.S. History course I was taking. When I would sit down to read these set of pages every day, I would feel as if it were a chore, as if reading had now become a chore for me. In addition, my attention span while reading those pages would decrease the more I read. The further into the pages I got, the more distracted I got. The internet took a hold of me and has changed my way of thinking just like the millions of others that use

Before the internet, reading for long periods of time without distraction was possible. Now many complain that it’s impossible. With internet use rising, most students are not able to read a couple pages before getting lost and having to more effort down to focus. “I can’t read War and Peace anymore […] I’ve lost the ability to do that. Even a blog post more than three or four paragraphs us too much to absorb. I skim it.” Carr (54). This is the new learning and reading style, skimming. The style formed because of the way articles and information is available to us on the internet. In a 5 year online research program, they found people would jump from one page to another, barely ever returning to a pervious site. Authors of the study reported that the traditional style of reading has evolved to this skim and bounce style. The only venue where this is possible is the internet, making books obsolete. Carr says that we may be reading more in quantity, because of texting and email. But he also looks at the quality of the content we read. Carr quotes Maryanne Wolf, a psychologist at Tufts University, “When we read online […] we become mere decoders of information. Our ability to interpret text, to make rich mental connections that form when we read deeply without distraction, remains largely disengaged.” (55). Reading isn’t an instinctive skill for humans. We had to learn how to read and write in order to communicate. It may be possible

Teachers are always assigning homework in the textbook and of course every student complains. Not only because they have homework, but because they have to lug home multiple textbooks. Many school districts have been trying to find a way to solve this complaint. What school board officials have come up with is replacing the textbooks with notebook computers or tablets. It is the 21st century, there is technology booming everywhere. However, converting the notebook computers might not be the greatest decision.

In the article called “Cognitive Map Or Medium Materiality? Reading On Paper And Screen”, Jinghui Hou and her colleagues, Justin Rashid and Kwan Min Lee consider the differences between reading on a screen and paper. The writers review number of studies done by other people and direct their own research towards explaining these differences by examining the way two mechanisms, such as medium materiality and cognitive map affects comprehension, feeling of fatigue and immersion. They found out that reading from screen of a tablet causes feeling of fatigue and lowers immersion since web-pages usually have destructions and links which hinder people from feeling of immersion and from being concentrated in one thing only, thereby resulting in less comprehension of the text. However, they did not identify any significant differences in reading speed in different mediums.

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.

By relieving the anxiety, faculty would have a more positive attitude towards the use of e-textbooks (Chiu, 2017). The administration can alleviate the anxiety that is associated with the faculty’s increase in workload by explaining to the faculty that e-textbooks can include resources that will help relieve some of the workload (Chiu, 2017). Some resources can include content, quizzes, exercises, multimedia, and interactive materials (Bossaller & Kammer, 2014). If the e-textbook is linked to the learning management system, grades can be imported directly from the quizzes and exercises, student engagement could be increased, and student assessments could be evaluated (Bossaller & Kammer, 2014), and this would show the faculty how useful e-textbooks can be (Chiu, 2017). If faculty see how useful e-textbooks are, the greater the acceptance the faculty will have at using e-textbooks (Chiu, 2017). Faculty state that student engagement is increased with using e-textbooks (Geist, 2011). The administration needs to provide technical support that includes adequate software and technical staff (Chiu, 2017). If the faculty feel that they have sufficient technical support, the more accepting the faculty will be towards the e-textbooks (Chui, 2017). Besides helping the faculty with technology problems, the faculty can direct students with technology issues to the technical support department (Bossaller & Kammer, 2014), and this will also decrease the faculty’s workload.

One important reason why people should use eBooks is that eBooks are not as expensive as paper books. One example is the McGraw-Hill Reader, one of course materials for English Composition II, which is sold $90.50 for printed book in campus bookstore but just $37.00 for eBook edition. As eBooks are cheaper than printed ones, the Amsterdam’s library could be able to buy more “electronic titles” than those are printed, reported by Mrs. Ong, a professor of Centre for Mathematics and Computer Science (CWI) in Amsterdam (Renner 3). Moreover, according to the Federal Communications Commission, schools can “save $250 each year per students” when they use e-textbooks instead of traditional textbooks (FCC Chairman 1). Additionally, some eBooks are free. For example, “With the Admiral of the Ocean Sea” is free on Google Books while it

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.

Tomlinson (2002) stated that by way of various activities, readings and explorations, textbooks give the essential recommendations into class (as cited in Rahimi & Hasani, 2011, p. 67). There can be no disclaiming the fact that textbooks still keep very large recognition and most are certainly here to stay even if one believes that textbooks are notably inflexible and one-sided to be employed instantaneously as instructional material (Mohammadi & Abdi, 2014, p. 1149).