Digital Textbooks; Should we switch over to them?

As time passes and technology increases its presence in our society, the question of digital books constantly comes into question; should we give in to digitizing the books we read? With our personal, extracurricular reading we can make that decision on our own, but what about in the classroom? 


In the article, "Is It Time To Switch To Digital Books?" Meg Griffin argues that we should accept and switch over to e-textbooks. Her reasons are that we should accept the future and train our students for it, that e-books can be more engaging, that students will be more likely to remember to read their textbook since it's on a tablet/e-reader, and that it can be a more individualized lesson plan. While Michael Cady offers the counterpoint to Griffin's argument, he merely states that he does not feel that any textbooks should be used. With the technology that our society has, Cady feels that there needs to be a better way of teaching than using an overpriced, boring, out-of-date teaching tool. The only reason he says that we should not have e-textbooks is because we simply need to move away from all textbooks.

Should we give in to e-textbooks so our students

 can have an easier time lugging around their work?

I would have to agree with Cady; for one, I feel that it is often poor advice to cater to an extreme view on this type of thing, but, even more than that, I couldn't help thinking how much better a video podcast or an interactive flash program would be for a student than a textbook. At the same time, I think that it is important to not jump ahead to some possible future that we have not yet reached. We may someday need to give up entirely on the printed book, but right now we are facing resistance on that matter and, as Griffin argued, need to prepare our students for what they are going to be facing. When I imagine preparing my students for what they will be doing it college, I do not see electronic books as their future. It is a possible future, but let's not get ahead of ourselves.


I also think it might cause some serious problems if our students' textbooks crash or malfunction. There should always be some alternative, and I feel that Griffin overlooks that.


This article fits with the sixth NETS, which covers technological operations and concepts; with e-readers and textbook alternatives, we would need to prepare our students for how to interact with their study tools. This would also require them to troubleshoot in the case of a system error.


Please feel free to include your own thoughts on e-textbooks, or e-books in general. Do you think we should make the switch?


To view the original article, please click here!
Computer image in article from Ace Online Schools.


Cady, M. & Griffin, M. (2010, November). Point/counterpoint: Is it time to switch to digital textbooks?. Learning and Leading, 38(3), 38-39. Retrieved from http://www.iste.org/learn/publications/learning-and-leading/digital-edition-november.aspx