Books in the Digital Age
Textbooks are heavy and cumbersome, outdated, and very expensive. With the price of textbooks rising steadily, it is costing students so much money. Students often go without buying the textbook. Jennifer Libertowski from the National Association of College stores found that, “nearly 60 percent of students nationwide choose not to buy all the course materials.” (Susan Kinzie 2006) The cost of textbooks, living expenses, tuition, and transportation makes a college degree a lot harder to achieve for most students. Many textbooks come “bundled” now with CDs and websites that are used for additional class material or online testing. There are a few issues with the textbooks being bundled. The books will not be bought back at the end of the semester because each book comes with individual identification codes, which can only be used for that particular student (for a certain amount of time). The bundled textbooks also seem to be the more expensive and the extra material provided is usually not even acknowledged by the instructor. In the long run, the logical solution would be to convert all printed textbooks into electronic textbooks.
An electronic textbook is a book that can be viewed on a screen rather than printed text. It was first created in 1971 by Michael Hart who developed the first collection of e-books, the Gutenberg Project. But e-books did not progress very much until the internet became more common. In the 1990s e-books began to be sold, before 1998 computers were the only device used to read the books. During 1997, the first e-reader, the “Rocket”, was released but did not do as well as anticipated. Over the years the market has taken huge strides towards improving both e-books and e-readers. The e-textbook has many features that a traditional textbook does not. First, the actually size of a textbook can become a burden especially for a student that has more that one class. You can have thousands of e-textbooks downloaded onto an e-reader or laptop which makes it more convenient. E-textbooks have the same format as the printed versions but have the capacity to do so much more. For example, if a student is having difficulty understanding a topic: definitions; trouble with pronunciations; and/or math problems, they have the ability to research further to achieve a better understanding. Students would not lose but gain more updated information and still be able to do the same as if the book was a printed version like: bookmark pages; highlight; and make notes. Another feature is that online textbooks can be developed for individual states’ curriculum unlike, printed versions that are created for nationwide use. Overall, the biggest advantage that would push us toward going to online textbooks would be the money we could save. Brigham Young University School Partnership, in cooperation with the state office, piloted a program, “they found a huge savings is possible, and there were no differences in learning outcomes, though teachers had no additional training in how best to use online books.” (Salt Lake Tribune newspaper) The average textbook cost over $100 each while an e-textbook could cost $15 or less. That would save everyone a lot of money.
Even though the advantages make a strong case to completely switch from print to digital, there is still a lot of skepticism. There are three major obstacles that need solutions before the convergence of print and digital happen. The first obstacle is funding. This issue is mostly geared towards public schools that do not have it in their budget to provide their students with electronic devices. For students who attend private schools or are enrolled in college they more than likely already have the means to convert to digital textbooks. For public schools to be accountable for supplying their students with the chosen devices is not realistic, nor is it to force the responsibility on the parents or guardians. For instance, if they were to set a deal up with Apple to use their e-textbooks, each student would need an iPad which is easily $500 for each student. David Wiley from BYU who was the lead researcher in the pilot suggested, “The state use money saved by using the open textbooks, which will become widely available in the coming two years, to buy computer tablets or netbooks for school children and pursue a more interactive, personalized digital curriculum.” (Salt Lake Tribune newspaper 2/6/12)
Secondly, state financial systems will have difficulty making the transition to the e-textbooks. Schools would need to adapt and feel comfortable for paying rights to Apple or other companies who supply digital textbooks each school year. They are presently accustomed to, purchasing just one textbook per year that will last the school up to 10 years. As well as schools getting used to change publishers would have to give commission to the company who created the content. This would be costly at first but in the long run it will be beneficial to all parties, especially the students who will have updated materials in the matter of minutes instead of years. This should lead to a better education.
Lastly, the third obstacle is the skeptics are doubting if e-textbooks will really benefit students and live up to the hype. In other words, will the transition from print to digital for all students be able to adapt to using the new technology. Some are concerned that the digital textbooks are going to be exactly the same as the printed versions, but on a screen that has an expensive case; there would be no point for the transition. This might be why the digital textbook industry has lagged in previous years. There was a study completed by Charlotte P. Lee, a professor at the University of Washington. The study showed that the majority of her students disliked using the digital devices because reading, scanning, and note taking habits were not easily applied to the devices. Mrs. Lee explained, “We need to design devices that are specifically made to support academic reading”. (Christopher Schuetze 2011) With the market now expanding and developing the advancements will only develop more from here.
Mark Marjurey of Taylor and Frances, a textbook publisher said, “Textbooks as e-books ought to be seen as a stepping stone to the future,” (Christopher Schuetze 2011) It is not a matter if we will transition from print to digital completely, it is when. Now that corporations realize the potential positive impact of combining these two methods of mass communication and its effect on the educational market place, they are invested in developing easy to use devices and inexpensive software. Even though there are multiple obstacles to cross, the benefits everyone will eventually reap will outweigh present standards and practices.
Although there will be obstacles to changing out present methods of printed text, one fact will make it considerably easier. We must consider the future student. They are surrounded by technology from a very young age. They will not think twice about using a device as a book. This generation will not hesitate to adapt to e-textbooks for all the advantages that are available.
