Students Will Benefit From Electronic Course Books
The world of academic publishing is probably not the first thing that comes to mind when considering new and innovative technology. However, somewhat surprisingly, it is exactly this very arena that is making a significant change in the way that we read books.
The Amazon Kindle e-book reader was originally launched in November 2007. It didn’t really excite the academic community at that time. When the new and improved Kindle 2 was released in February of 2009 there was a little more interest – but not that much.
It wasn’t until the debut of the Kindle DX that it became apparent that our book reading methods were about to change on a major scale. The larger screen of the Kindle DX reader, and its capacity to handle pdf files, made it an ideal medium for academic textbooks which tend to contain graphs and pictures.
Educational establishments and authorities soon realised that they could achieve financial benefits using e-book readers and electronic textbooks. With no costs for paper and ink, and without the shipping fees associated with a physical product, e-books are significantly less costly than the conventional equivalent. Significant cost savings could be obtained by schools and colleges by switching to electronic textbooks.
Additionally, the electronic storage format allows for easy updates and revisions. Currently, for traditional textbooks, the standard time between revisions is seven years. Changing to electronic textbooks will permit much more frequent revisions and ensure that course books are current and up to date.
An additional advantage which is interesting for many academic establishments is the environmental impact of electronic books and e-book readers. Even allowing for the materials used to manufacture the readers and the electricity required to run them they are much more environmentally friendly than the conventional offering.
All things considered, digital textbooks make very good sense. They are already in use in many schools, colleges and universities and, thanks to the potential benefits set out above, usage can be expected to increase rapidly in the immediate future.
