Let's get rid of books!

Graham

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Let's get rid of books!

« on: January 11, 2005, 10:48:35 PM »

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Let’s just get rid of textbooks

Jason Roberts
PigeonRanger@yahoo.com

It’s textbook buying time once again, and I’m sure more than a few people are as amazed at how much the dang things cost. Even though it’s always like this, year after year, that number you never thought could fit on a cash register always takes me by surprise.

Everyone has these woes, but there’s nothing we can do about it. We’re required to have these treekillers, and so we can be charged as much as publishers want.

Many books aren’t even used, and I’m not just talking about by people who never show up to class. One year, my whole class bought a “required” book, only to find out halfway through the year that the professor didn’t even know the book existed.

It sucks, but there’s nothing we can do about it. Or is there?

Giant tomes of indecipherable text are a thing of the past. I suggest we scrap the whole thing and adopt a new, technologically advanced system; the eBook.

The way it would work is pretty simple. Everyone at the university would be required to buy an eBook reader, basically an inexpensive handheld computer. You can get one for under

$200, well under the average cost of a single semester’s texts. And if you have a personal digital assistant to begin with, you’re already set.

When it comes time to buy your books, just download them from the Internet at a fraction of the cost of a book. I’d be willing to bet you could do this for under $100.

Now there’s no lugging heavy books to class every day! Simply put your reader in your pocket and you’re off! Now sure, it might take some getting used to – reading on the small screen and everything – but the money saved and other benefits will make up for it.

Need to find a certain word? Just search your book like you would a Web page! The possibilities are endless.

Now there may be a few drawbacks. Can’t get used to reading the reader? Just look at on your home computer! Still want a few pages? Print them! You’ll kill a few trees, but not nearly as many as printing the book would.

“Sounds like a great plan, Jason, so why aren’t we doing it?” I’m not such an egomaniac that I think I’m the first to think of this. The problem, then, lies with the publishers, who don’t want to release their stranglehold on our wallets.

I think the eBook would be in the publishers best interests. A great part of a book’s expense must be the printing. With this system, that’s completely gone. Once a book is ready for print, that’s the end of expenses; every digital copy costs nothing more to make than the original. So while the publisher makes less on individual title sales, their overhead is cut drastically. They would be crazy not to.

What about the bookstore? To that I say, someone has to sell the readers, right? Not only that, but the stores could just have a smaller physical locations, and provide download centers for books, in store and online.

I’ll do whatever needs to be done to make this happen. I think we should all throw our support behind the eBook before heavy bags throw out our backs.

Jason Roberts is the assistant opinion editor for The Daily O’Collegian. He can be reached via e-mail at PigeonRanger@yahoo.com

original article here:

http://www.ocolly.com/new_ocollycom/show_story.php?a_id=24691


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KathyT

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Re: Let's get rid of books!

« Reply #1 on: January 13, 2005, 11:27:45 AM »

Well, I'm all in favour of this. What a saving on costs and trees!

I believe many University Libraries are looking at providing their collections in electronic format anyway, in order for them to be easily useable in their VLEs, so it seems ridiculous to then have students going out and buying paper based books.

OK, I agree with some of the draw backs that this article highlights, plus not being as easy to annotate etc, but printing off those few pages is a good solution. Encouraging students to use eBooks may then get them into 'good practice' of electronic reading, which could then also save on all the printouts made from VLE pages that we know students like to do (I had students one day wanting to print of a quiz - the quiz in question was based on audio files... I still haven't worked that one out. :-) )

As for the cost of eBooks, surely there could be some way of checking them in and out of the library, allowing the institution to buy them in bulk, loan them out, collect them back when the student has finished, and then re-loan them to the next student? What a saving that would make to all concerned.

Or rather than the students having to try and get the required reading lists themselves, how about we provide the students with a memory card for their handheld device/eBook reader, ready loaded with the required e-text books for the year?

All sorts of possiblities here!

My Librarian friends will probably disagree with me on this, but my bad back certainly has sympathy for this idea!


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Kathryn R. Trinder
Research Fellow (e-Learning), Emerging Technologies & Second Life Projects,
Caledonian Academy,
Glasgow Caledonian University

E: k.trinder@gcal.ac.uk
SL: Goldfinch Weatherwax

Graham

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Re: Let's get rid of books!

« Reply #2 on: January 17, 2005, 02:51:55 PM »

Like educational handheld computers I don't think that it's a question of "if" but only "when"

as screen and font resolution continues to improve it's only a matter of time before this become's one of the killer apps for the educational handheld. killer app because the DfES spends £200 million per annum on books and I'm assuming that these are perishable, they get damaged, stolen, lost, etc. not to mention that you have people waiting for a copy to become free from the school library - imagine that! waiting to read a book! in the 21st Century!!!

ok, it's now possible to get all the classics (i.e. the ones without copyright) in various e-reader format and some publishers are coming to the table with up-to-date books in electronic format but i think that what will really kick things off is when we have a pukka digital rights management system that publishers believe in and that can protect revenues. once this is in place then perhaps the school library will be a massive hard disc surrounded by chill-out spaces Cool

i think that the highlighting, anotating, have it read to you, explaining unfamiliar words, etc is all made infinitely better within a digital environment.

heck i read harry potter on a Treo 600!!!

Shocked


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Graham

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Re: Let's get rid of books!

« Reply #3 on: March 12, 2005, 12:04:56 AM »

from the Southern Illinoisan

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Several libraries ready to offer eBooks

BY LINDA RUSH

SOUTHERNILLINOIS - Several Southern Illinois libraries - including Carbondale, Murphysboro, Marion and Sparta - now will be offering their patrons eBooks, thanks to their participation in a new initiative.

These eBooks are "electronic versions of print books that can be downloaded from the Internet and read either from a computer screen or a handheld device such as a PDA or Pocket PC," said Donella Odum, director of the Sallie Logan Public Library in Murphysboro. The books even can be downloaded to "smart phones," she said.

This week has been designated "Read an eBook Week" to officially launch the new service offered at Carbondale Public Library, Sallie Logan Public Library and Marion Carnegie Library, but many patrons already are using the service. Connie Steudel, Carbondale's head librarian, said the service is ready there, but Carbondale's "big push" for electronic books will be during National Library Week in mid-April.

The Sparta Public Library isn't yet ready for a launch, but hopes to introduce eBooks during National Library Week, librarian Christy Stupegia said.

The area libraries are among 42 public and school libraries across Illinois participating in a cooperative project called WE CAN DO IT. The acronym stands for, "With E-resources Cooperating Agencies Now Develop Online Initiatives Together."

Other downstate libraries participating include Mount Vernon, Salem and Vandalia.

The Illinois libraries obtained a $130,000 federal grant through the Illinois State Library to implement the project and set up an "eBranch service" at each site.

The eBook setup is rather simple, Odum said. "Patrons can download the titles 365 days a year, 24/7. The titles are downloaded for a set period (three weeks for Carbondale and two weeks for the

other libraries) and then the title 'expires' and deletes automatically." If a patron hasn't finished the book, he or she can download it again unless another reader has placed a "hold" on it.

More...


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teach534

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Re: Let's get rid of books!

« Reply #4 on: March 16, 2005, 03:37:33 AM »

I'm all for getting red of textbooks, but let's take it to the elementary level, as well. Kids are breaking their backs lugging around those backpacks weighted down with textbooks that barely ever get read. What's wrong with kids having e-books? Most of the information in the texts can be easily found on the internet. Just an idea.....

Teach534


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Mark van 't Hooft

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Re: Let's get rid of books!

« Reply #5 on: March 24, 2005, 09:00:21 PM »

Getting rid of textbooks is a good idea for a variety of reasons. In addition to the ones already mentioned (cost, weight of backpacks, annotation), there is also the added advantage of being able to update information much quicker and cheaper. Right now, the average lifespan of a textbook (at least in the US) is about five years, but we all know how much faster information changes these days, especially given the explosion of information as a result of the Internet.
On the flipside, if this is the direction we are heading in (more of a when than an if), we need to make some substantial changes to the ways in which we teach children, i.e. there needs to be much more of an emphasis on information retrieval, management, and evaluation, which brings learning automatically to a higher level. In addition, this type of learning should also lead to more and more information and knowledge creation than basic retention of facts, another higher level thinking skill.
It's interesting to see where we are headed with regards to electronic info and increasingly higher levels of mobility. There are already voices out there stating that cell phones will replace desktops as the main providers of Internet content within the next five years, and when you think about it, this is really not that farfetched. Also, because of increased mobility and ubiquitous wireless access, media content as we know it now can and probably will stop to exist. There seems to be more of a trend towards peer-to-peer networks of information, rather than top-down kinds of models as we see now with a few large media conglomerates in control of the content. Think of the possiblilities (both good and bad!) when a change like that takes place on a large scale. I'd say, social studies teachers beware, your job will become even more important than it is now!!

Mark


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Mark van 't Hooft
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Kent State University
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Mark van 't Hooft

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Re: Let's get rid of books!

« Reply #6 on: March 24, 2005, 09:11:33 PM »

Forgot to add this url to the previous post. The article is short, but very interesting.... and shows how developments in technology have the potential to create some major cultural changes.

http://www.mediacenter.org/content/4478.cfm


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Mark van 't Hooft
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Kent State University
Research Center for Educational Technology
Kent, OH
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ammannino

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Re: Let's get rid of books!

« Reply #7 on: April 11, 2005, 02:06:27 AM »

I agree that getting rid of textbooks has some positives, but some concerns as well. I think that is would be nice not to have to carry around heavy books on campus or push the textbook cart from classroom to classroom. The Ebook would also save schools and college students money. I think it would be more convenient for students to have their textbooks on their Palms. Ebooks have great features like bookmarks, highlighter, and note areas.

I am concerned about Ebooks because of the font size. It's hard to read some Ebooks. I think if the Ebook companies figure out how to enlarge the font it would be worth it. I also am concerned about the lack of graphics with the Ebooks I've seen. I think it is important for students to have visuals when reading.

I am excited to see the possibilities for Ebooks in the future. I believe the benefits of Ebooks out way the negatives.


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Mark van 't Hooft

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Re: Let's get rid of books!

« Reply #8 on: May 16, 2006, 09:33:54 PM »

Just saw this on MSNBC. There are some good arguments in here for getting rid of textbooks, at least in the US:

Quote

A textbook case of failure
Politically driven adoption system yields shallow, misleading materials
.....
Scandalously bad textbooks
As younger, inexperienced teachers are thrown into classrooms to meet new federal standards, as much as 90 percent of the burden of instruction rests on textbooks, said Frank Wang, a former textbook publisher who left the field to teach mathematics at the University of Oklahoma.

And yet, few if any textbooks are ever subjected to independent field testing of whether they actually help students learn.

“This is where people miss the boat. They don’t realize how important the textbooks are,” Wang said. “We talk about vouchers and more teachers, but education is about the books. That’s where the content is.”

If America’s textbooks were systematically graded, Wang and other scholars say, they would fail abysmally.

American textbooks are both grotesquely bloated (so much so that some state legislatures are considering mandating lighter books to save students from back injuries) and light as a feather intellectually, flitting briefly over too many topics without examining any of them in detail. Worse, too many of them are pedagogically dishonest, so thoroughly massaged to mollify competing political and identity-group interests as to paint a startlingly misleading picture of America and its history.

Textbooks have become so bland and watered-down that they are “a scandal and an outrage,” the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, a nonprofit education think tank in Washington, charged in a scathing report issued a year and a half ago.

“They are sanitized to avoid offending anyone who might complain at textbook adoption hearings in big states, they are poorly written, they are burdened with irrelevant and unedifying content, and they reach for the lowest common denominator,” Diane Ravitch, a senior official in the Education Department during the administrations of Presidents George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton, wrote in the report’s introduction.

“As a result of all this, they undermine learning instead of building and encouraging it,” she added.

The full article can be found here http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12705167/

Mark


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Mark van 't Hooft
Researcher/Tech Specialist
Kent State University
Research Center for Educational Technology
Kent, OH
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gerry.gray

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Re: Let's get rid of books!

« Reply #9 on: June 20, 2006, 04:08:23 PM »

I couldn't agree more. My pupils don't learn much from looking at poorly written, graffitied, out of date textbooks. And it doesn't have to be e-books to learn from - I've taught using Onenote, dropping in links to websites and documents, importing pdf files and pictures, using webcams to record experiments... much more interesting and memorable (not to mention relevant) than reading a textbook.


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AST in Science
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Mark van 't Hooft

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Re: Let's get rid of books!

« Reply #10 on: June 20, 2006, 08:06:25 PM »

Or how about wikis, blogs, and podcasting? Nobody says text is just, well, text.....


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Mark van 't Hooft
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Kent State University
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Kent, OH
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gerry.gray

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Re: Let's get rid of books!

« Reply #11 on: June 21, 2006, 03:00:10 PM »

I love the idea of a school Wiki, like using Moodle - free! My year 10 students suggested we use a wiki in Science, I might get them to set it up, I haven't got the time, hard working teacher that I am. (!) My HOD is going to get an e-book for our new Science course in September, alongside new textbooks. It's not the most inspiring electronic version of a textbook, it seems to be literally the pages on a screen. The teachers version has links to Powerpoint starters... but I would love an e-book where the kids click on the text and it reads it to them (like Microsoft Reader) and the diagrams are animated with Flash, and the questions are in Word where they can write the answers straight in, and the pictures link to the webcam that they already have attached so they can video their experiement... we are getting there, slowly, but we are getting there! Grin


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AST in Science
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