At one point, e-books seemed to be the wave of the future. But in 2006 publishers are still trying to figure out how best to market them and make them a viable alternative to the traditional paper-bound book. One area where they felt this could be accomplished was through the use of e-textbooks. Any college student knows that textbooks are expensive and have a low resale value, which makes them a poor investment for an equally poor student. E-textbooks allowed students to cut down on the cost, as well of the bulk, of a traditional book. Why, then, are they not a more popular form of study?
CNN ran a story this week that addressed the criticisms college students have of this type of technology. At the same time that publishers are loosening their restrictions on e-textbooks, students are realizing that they do not compare to having a physical book to highlight, mark up, or otherwise annotate in order to wrench its secrets out of it.
It is surprising to e-textbook publishers that in an age where students are going digital for practically every other aspect of their lives, they are not warming up to accessing their textbooks in the same way. A representative of Houghton Mifflin who was intervired in the CNN article attributes this to students’ being conservative about anything that affects their grades. It may also be a case of students simply not being aware of the availability of an e-text.
This is a form of tachnology that has its uses, publishers just need to find out what users require of this form of text. It must be more than a simple electronic version of the printed page. E-textbooks that are more interactive can have obvious uses in science classrooms, allowing students to view processes as they read about them. Links to outside sources for further information can help students with research, and a humanities e-textbook can incorporate music, art, and other creative formats within the “text.”
E-textbooks, although they have been around for some time now, are still in their nascent stage and may yet catch on as the tool of choice for college students. As someone who is doing an entire degree online, I’ve found the availability of e-texts on the internet to be invaluable for time and cost effectiveness. With the growth of PDAs, wireless access and other new technology, e-textbooks may still have their day. It seems to be a matter of one form of technology catching up with another.
Technorati tags: education e-textbooks technology publishing e-books learning tools
1 response so far ↓
1
Keith
// Mar 18, 2006 at 17:05
I myself prefer to have the book right there in front of me, to mark up and highlight certain things that I find important. I have used an e-book before and was not overly impressed with it, so I can see why students have not been too eager to change to the e-book life.