Electronic Textbooks Are Here
When Amazon launched their original Kindle e-book reader in November of 2007 it was pretty much viewed as an interesting gadget - it sold out in less than 6 hours - but it didn't really make much impact on the academic community.
The relatively high price of the reader may have been a bit steep for many students and that, coupled with the lack of availability, may have been enough to deter them from buying.
When Amazon launched the much improved Kindle 2 in February of 2009 there was a little more buzz in general, including in the Academic community but it didn't change things all that much.
Part of the problem was that the 6" e-Ink display on both the Kindle and the Kindle 2 - whilst more than adequate for reading normal books - was a little too small for academic textbooks, many of which contain diagrams, charts and other types of illustrations.
However, the launch of Amazon's Kindle DX, with its larger 9.7" screen (measured diagonally from corner to corner) changed things quite considerable. The larger format was marketed as being ideal for reading newspapers, magazines and academic textbooks. It also had better pdf handling capabilities and an accelerometer fitted which allows users to automatically change the view from portrait to landscape by rotating the device.
Amazon has now entered into partnerships with several colleges and universities, including Princeton, Case Western, Arizona State and the University of Virginia's Darden School of Business. Some universities are even offering free Kindles as an incentive to prospective students to enrol with them.
If we assume that the technology is now up to the job, it's worth considering the potential benefits on offer to educational bodies and establishments. The financial benefits are considerable. College book sales for the year 2007-08 were over $5.4 billion. It's a large market and the potential savings are also large.
Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger recently confirmed that California would commence providing digital textbooks in August of 2009. An estimated saving of $2 million was predicted for a school district with 10,000 high school students. Savings may vary somewhat for tertiary education - but this should give a rough idea of the possibilities.
It should also be easier to keep textbooks up to date. At the moment they are revised, on average, once every seven years. The use of digital media should make it much easier to keep textbooks up to date. Interactive learning and possibly even digital quizzes or exams may also feature in the near future.
Just at the moment, Amazon are dominant in the market place. However, Plastic Logic are due to release a large display e-book reader early in 2010. It features a special, virtually indestructible display (something which is bound to appeal to the parents of school children and students). Apple have also said that they will shortly be releasing a tablet type notebook, which would be ideal for reading e-books and may offer other facilities which would be beneficial for educational purposes.
It does seem likely that others will follow California's lead in a bid to make savings and, hopefully, to provide more frequently updated textbooks. The market is huge and the e-book reader manufacturers will be strongly motivated to develop the technology. A the end of the day, it looks very much as if electronic textbooks is an idea whose time has come and that students will begin to benefit in the near future.
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I never imaged these products becoming mainstream in the public schooling front, I imagine that with how digitized the world is beoming, this seems like a logical next step!!
My school offers books online-you just go to a website and login to your profile and there are all the textbooks you have bought (at most, costing half of the actual textbook). You see exactly what the textbook looks like-only on your computer screen!! It really does make schooling cheaper and easier!
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