eTextbooks: Isn’t it time?
I have a daughter in grade seven that must lug her bookbag back and forth to school loaded with textbooks. I am amazed she has not thrown her shoulder or back out already. I also teach in a junior high school and I have seen the same type of burden being carried by my students. I have heard some parents express some serious concerns about this issue. So what to do?
Isn’t it about time that we start talking seriously about using things like the Amazon Kindle or Sony eBook Reader? You can transfer all the textbooks a student needs onto one device and negate the necessity of carrying textbooks. Publisher’s of educational textbooks already have digital versions of a lot of their books. Granted, it is not open or free and that is a big concern when it comes to the cost of education in a k-12 system. I would imagine that the rights to digital copies of textbooks could be negotiated by governments the same way they tender textbooks now.
It just makes sense in today’s society and with today’s students. The real question is whether a device like the Kindle or eBook reader can capture the imagination of young people the way that cell phones and mp3 players have? A recent article in TechCrunch reveals how successful the Kindle has been for Amazon.com (Is The Kindle Outpacing Early iPod Sales?).
