The country’s slow transition to an entirely digital world has made its way into the education system, as more universities begin to offer online courses and digital textbooks for classes. President Barack Obama proposed funding online courses at community colleges as part of an effort to improve higher education, and it appears colleges nationwide soon might no longer need paper books. But that doesn’t mean this new technology won’t have some drawbacks.
It will be a noticeable difference from our current system, which is dominated by the used textbook market. If digital textbooks take hold, there won’t be any need for used textbooks. As soon as the classes update to new editions, the old hardback books will be a thing of the past. No more bulky chemistry books straining your back on your walk across campus.
However, this also makes reading far less portable. Those without a laptop won’t be able to take reading materials to class and something as simple as a power outage or a bad internet connection could keep people from studying. Students could print chapters ahead of time, but aside from being a hassle, it’s not extremely cost effective.
The electronic books should be cheaper than traditional textbooks, if only because of the money saved from printing. These price cuts won’t be drastic, though, because most of the cost of a textbook comes from the information on the pages and not the pages themselves.
Students also will lose the gratification of selling books at the end of each semester, which usually provided a nice chunk of cash before going home for break. You’ll still be able to save some money when you buy your books, but will miss out on selling them back.
Despite the drawbacks, electronic textbooks and digital education are going to be more and more prominent every year. Students will be able to access their information from any computer with an Internet connection, any time they want, and won’t need to break their spines lugging around gigantic backpacks.
There will be some problems with the new system, sure. But college is full of nuisances, why would textbooks be any different?
Support student media!
Please consider donating to The State News and help fund the future of journalism.
Discussion
Share and discuss “Digital textbooks not without problems” on social media.
