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The Benefits of E-Books
By Richard Nantel | July 4, 2007
In my last two posts, I mentioned that large publishing houses are predicting that e-books will become very popular in the near future. If these companies are right, and if we can solve all the issues around e-book formats, costs, etc., this shift from paper to electronic format will provide significant benefits to the world of learning:
- In the K-12 academic world, students today look like travelers leaving on a six-month expedition. They walk to and from school pulling their backpacks on wheels like luggage, or haul them on their backs like sherpas preparing to carry provisions to the summit of Mount Everest. E-books hold the promise of freeing this generation from the burden of carrying heavy textbooks back and forth between home and school. In exchange for freeing them from this ball and chain, our kids will be so thankful, they’ll clean their rooms, eat their broccoli, and will abandon all the embarrassment they have of us when their friends come over.
- Printed learning manuals and textbooks are often highly inefficient. Although a book may be hundreds of pages in length, only a chapter or two may be required by the learner. Solutions such as Safari currently exist on the Web that provide instructors with a way to create their own custom textbooks and manuals using chapters from different publications. Once assembled, the electronic file can then be downloaded to a portable device.
- Although many of us have a romanticized view of traditional printed books, the reality is that, in a world of shrinking resources and climate change, the manufacturing of paper is one of the top five energy consumers in the United States. E-books are a significantly “greener” way to provide reading materials.
- Just as an iPod can hold 10,000 songs, many e-book readers will hold many thousands of pages of information. Much of the learning and performance support materials you will ever need to access for a task will fit on a small device in your pocket. Think of the benefits for maintenance workers who can access any information they need easily.
- Tools included in these devices or built into the e-book format can provide the learner with search functions, bookmarking features, the ability to add study notes, links to audio/video files, etc., considerably extending the abilities of a conventional paper-based book.
Last thoughts
I’m presently preparing to leave on a two-week vacation to a little house by the ocean in New Brunswick. My dining room table is covered with items my family and I are bringing on this trip. Among the clutter is a mountain of books that rises almost to the ceiling. For everyone in my family, nothing is more relaxing than sitting on a beach blanket reading a good book. With time on our hands, we’ll collectively go through a huge number within the span of these two weeks.
My wife and I would not consider replacing our vacation books with one device each filled with the e-books we plan to read. Our middle-age eyes would likely have difficulty reading the text in the glare of sunlight. And, to be honest, we have a romantic view of paper-based books. We like the smell of paper, the design and typography, and everything else about conventional books.
My children, on the other hand, might feel differently. Since this generation was raised in front of TV/computer/Game Boy displays, they are comfortable reading text on a screen. Plus, they REALLY like electronic gadgets. Consequently, this generation may welcome the transition from paper-based books to e-books.
One of the things standing in the way of e-book adoption may simply be the ingrained habits of people raised on paper-based materials. As this generation passes, e-book adoption will likely grow.
Topics: Learning, e-books, eBooks |
February 27th, 2008 at 10:56 pm
I do agree that e-books may be the wave of the future, but teaching your children to sit down with a physical book would be better for them in the long run. With e-books, we’re only adding to the strain on our eyes we get from staring at the screen all day anyway. On the computer, we tend to become scanners (reading very quickly and picking up key information while ignoring a good marjority), and that could lead to poorer memory skills.