No More Textbooks: Technology Replacing Hefty Books

Many college campuses have taken new technology into the classroom as professors have found innovative uses for new gadgets, making learning cool.

K-12 schools are picking up the trend. Just to name a few, Brooks-DeBartolo Collegiate High School students in Florida will be toting Kindles in the fall, and Bayonne High Schoolers in New Jersey will have Apple iPads in their bags.

And now, elementary school students will have learning gadgets of their own: Eight elementary schools in Rapides, La. will introduce "techbooks" in lieu of textbooks in science classes. The "books" will allow teachers to use videos, sound effects, quizzes and other tools to engage their students.

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Comments

[armstrong st]

12:16 PM on 07/04/2011

I would guess that in the nearest future the majority of schools will be using e-books. It's the same if you compare writing an e-mail to a regular letter. Not that many people write it in pen but of course there are still some who are enjoying it.

Steve from www.essaytask.com

[GlennWatson]

05:55 PM on 07/03/2011

The I-pads or kindles would have to be replaced every so often but the E-textbooks would be essentially free if the system shops around a bit.

[cosuji]

11:44 AM on 07/03/2011

E-books are great but I worry about their effects on the eyes. Frankly, it is nice not to carry a huge shoulder breaking back-packs to school. However, the feel and the touch of books, nothing can replace.

Http://myonlineshoppingcenters.com

[GlennWatson]

02:24 PM on 07/03/2011

A Kindle can.

[sabelmouse]

06:46 AM on 07/02/2011

from what i remember from my own schooldays and my son's and other people i know who have children in school now one of the worst things about textbooks were/are that they are not used much.
every year there are new ones, often the old ones are obsolete and can't be used by younger siblings or sold.
meanwhile kids ruin their backs carting kilos of barely used books around.
in that sense e books would be an improvement. money wise i don't know. what is the cost exactly ?

[tomteboda]

03:37 AM on 07/03/2011

The problem with e-textbooks is they work on annual licensing fees. If you check out the textbooks available through Barnes and Noble, you'll see a 6 month lease on a textbook costs about 6 months what the hardcover is.. but you have to buy 9 months for any course that extends a full academic year. Obviously schools will be getting bulk discounts, but while a textbook is a single investment that lasts several years (really, not many basic education books are "outdated" or "Useless" in five to ten years), the electronic licensing fees become a recurring expense that will add up.

I want to be really excited about e-textbooks, but I can't. Not yet, not under the current pricing schemes.

[RCRod83]

07:52 AM on 07/03/2011

It's true. But at least the ebooks can be constantly updated with the newest version and there wont be any missing pages.

[GlennWatson]

02:23 PM on 07/03/2011

There are plenty of free E-text books on the net.

[tomteboda]

03:37 AM on 07/03/2011

I meant to say a 60 month lease costs about 60% the price of the hardcover.

[myrmidon568]

12:43 AM on 07/02/2011

No current E-reader is a substitute for a text book not even the ipad good idea WAY TOO soon to implement it, let the technology grow a bit more

[GlennWatson]

02:21 PM on 07/03/2011

The Kindle can do it easily.

[Rogelio Chiao]

11:46 PM on 07/01/2011

There's going to be a long-term health consequences in relying on technology. But if technology advances to the point when there's no health-risk involved on the long run or at least reduce it to the minimum level, then its all good.

[eceresa]

09:46 PM on 07/01/2011

How much money can a student get for a textbook at a pawnshop?

How much money can he get for an iPad?

[PeaceLove69]

06:12 PM on 07/01/2011

Isn't it bad for a child to be staring at a computer that much? We should be trying to get our children away from computers, not forcing children to use them. Isn't the flicker rates of these devices neurologically disruptive? This is a terrible idea IMO, but ed reform is all about no bids and extracting assets from the American people.

[J R M]

03:15 PM on 07/01/2011

I am concerned about the economics of it for schools. It would be nice, as my daughter has to carry around an impressive amount of weight for her high school courses.

That said, I bought one of the big Kindles, which is not cheap. I need it for storing NIST computer security standards, which are large. The screen is large enough to do full page displays of the pdf's, which I downloaded from the NIST web site.

A problem with the tablets is the short battery life. The e-paper based readers have battery lifetimes of weeks of use. But no video and no color.

[ian0000]

02:47 PM on 07/01/2011

i wish this would happen in inner city education. in philadelphia , unless you make it into a magnet school , students are not issued with text books despite the district spending 16k per pupil per year! they take back the books at the end of each period and give out no printed photocopied pages or anything to take home. then they give a test on the material they have been covering for 2 weeks and are surprised when nearly all the kids , with nothing to study from fail, . and we spend 16 k for this monstrocity. luckily my grandson was able to escape this and got into a good charter.

[PeaceLove69]

06:36 PM on 07/01/2011

Do the students have any workbooks to take home, or is it only their notes?

[GlennWatson]

01:46 PM on 07/01/2011

Textbooks are on their way out. E-Books are the future.

[TINA ANDRES]

05:07 PM on 07/01/2011

That may be true for high schools but you still can't put one of those things in the hands of anyone younger and expect that it won't be lost or destroyed. Until someone figures out how to implant them into their bodies, it just won't work. I personally know many children who were given ipods or expensive phones which they wanted very badly and in many cases paid for out of their own allowances and they still lost and/or destroyed them. Kids will always be kids and by the way, who is going to buy the e-readers and if they are lost or destroyed who is going to pay for it when school districts in California are now not even allowed to require that kids bring a binder to school?

[GlennWatson]

02:20 PM on 07/03/2011

"not even allowed to require that kids bring a binder to school"

Is that really true?

[jmichaelmunger]

12:23 PM on 07/01/2011

I bought two texts for one of my grad classes for $27 total.
The lower costs and ease of having ALL your text books in one device is amazingly convenient.

I certainly agree with using them in college and maybe in high schools, but I would be hesitant for younger more reckless kids.

[umbrarchist]

11:34 AM on 07/01/2011

Printed books are technology also. The computers can do everything the books can do and still more. But the problem of selecting the quality of material has not changed.

A good tree-book is better than a bad e-book.

So technology could just be a more expensive method of sabotaging kids or it could be a less expensive method of doing a better job. It is not the technology it is the implementation.

[Hlynn]

11:29 AM on 07/01/2011

I just took an iPad for Educators class this summer and am taking the second part in August. It was fascinating! I would love to have one for my students. I think we definitely need to use more technology with students to get them ready for future learning and careers, but unfortunately this will be another have/have not issue for poor and wealthy school districts.

[umbrarchist]

01:15 PM on 07/01/2011

Why does it need to be an iPad?

The Sylvania netbook is $100.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nCHHAFyp9I0

I have used it as an e-book reader and MP3 player and have downloaded e-books from the Internet with it. Are the teachers giving in to the marketing and not taking advantage of what is available?

[GlennWatson]

05:52 PM on 07/03/2011

That look like a very bad computer to me.

[studioux3]

11:06 AM on 07/01/2011

The real question is how much of an increase would the middle class have to pay for this?

[Pectin]

11:26 AM on 07/01/2011

How much do they have to pay for paper textbooks?

[TINA ANDRES]

01:12 PM on 07/01/2011

Textbooks are purchased every 7 years in each subject which amounts to about $100 per student per year. An ipad costs about $500 and definitely won't last five years and that doesn't even include the cost of the e-textbooks for each subject. Schools lack tech support and what happens when repairs are needed? My school has 80 computers for 1350 students and no one can seem to figure out where to get the funding for more. Forty of those computers are over 7 years old and are slow and on any given day 4-5 of them are not working. I was recently offered 5 itouch(es?) for my classes of 40 students. What the he** am I supposed to do with 5 of these tiny things with 40 students? By all means let's keep discussing how great technology is and never deal with the FACT that we don't have the money. You can't buy technology and think that you won't need to replace it more often than paper textbooks are replaced.

[Count of Anjou]

01:57 PM on 07/01/2011

I agree with you completely that any electronic gadget is going to cost substantially more per student than a printed textbook, when you consider that the e-gadget will be replaced every 3.5 years and there are huge IT costs involved (IT support staff, their pensions/benefits, and the cost of the Internet access & infrastructure). Even if something like a Sylvania netbook can be had for $100, no school IT admin is going to settle for that. Did you notice that young'n is holding an Apple iPad that costs at least $500?

BUT, your math is off. There is no way a printed textbook costs more than $100 per student and over 7 years that amounts to ~$14 per student. That iPad is going to cost well over 10x the annual cost of the printed text.

[bmcombs]

08:43 AM on 07/05/2011

That school systems that I am aware of are not purchasing traditional ebooks as we know them. They receive textbooks online - so any device can access the material to read it.

My mom's school corporation is provide affordable laptops to every student that do much more than just hold a textbook - so the educational value is greatly increased and the technology gap is significantly diminished as every child will have a computer to get online. The school district is also working with CBOs and local utility companies to provide free internet in low-income homes. This is a win for everyone.

I'm a huge supporter of making technology available and placing books online. From what my mother says the ebooks are updated regularly (reducing the long term cost to produce the books - thus reducing costs over time) and provides the textbooks and materials virtually anywhere. This type of mobility is fantastic.