During my drive home from work, NPR’s “All Things Considered” had a story titled The E-Textbook Experiment Turns A Page, comparing traditional textbooks, and various digitals forms. While I was listening, I found myself thinking about the different formats for textbooks in terms of the SECTIONS model, and the 7 principles.
The CEO of a company that designs e-textbooks for the iPad emphasized how e-textbooks incorporate features that promote active learning.
A professor who has used e-textboooks praised the iPad for ease of use and interactivity compared to the Kindle, saying “The problem is that the Kindle is less interactive than a piece of paper . . .” The professor went on to praise the interactivity of paper, which allows quick notes and highlighting.
Students were concerned about cost, questioning whether the iPad could be used for enough purposes to justify its purchase, noting that “there are programs I could use for a laptop that would also allow me to annotate.”
Some students expressed individual preferences for different formats. Contrast these reactions to the iPad: “It still is a fun toy, but it also … makes it really easy to read articles for class.” versus “It’s ridiculously hard. I don’t like the keyboard at all.”
This program reminded me of the discussion in our science department, before our recent purchase of e-textbooks. We made our decision based on cost factors, ease of use, availability of interactive features, and because we felt that e-textbooks could help us provide for the diverse learning styles of our students – all factors that were emphasized in the broadcast.
2 replies on “e-Textbooks”
If this very interesting. I don’t have an Ipad myself but I think I had higher hopes for it in terms of its multi-purpose ability… but at the pace of which apple is developing products I wouldn’t be surprised to see the Ipad become THE utility tool for students and professionals instead of the laptop.
I haven’t had much experience with e-textbooks but I’ve been fooling around with kobo readers and the kindle because friends have them. Under what circumstances can you read an e-text? Do you need a laptop? What is the cost to purchase one (on average). I remember spending hundreds of dollars on books durig my undergrad degree in the 90s and getting pennies back when I tried to sell them back (if I could). It could be a great way to reduce barriers to learning if the price was right.
Very interesting!
Erin
I’m taking a French class (tuition waiver: use it or lose it) and was tempted to buy the e-text…except it wasn’t iBook/Kindle/Kobo compatible. And then I remembered I need to mark the texts up a lot when study a language.
I love reading other things on my iPad though. Probably as much as in hardcopy form.