Electronic books have been warmly welcomed by consumers since their inception a couple of years ago and are now integrated into the mainstream.
I must admit I am slow to participate in this development. I had to ask a classmate of mine what a Nook was this past spring during one of our classes. I can still picture the look on her face. She was embarrassed for me – it was obvious. I was pleased and excited to read the 2010 edition of The Horizon Report, as it includes a section on e-books.
The benefits of e-books and e-readers, especially for college students, are quite practical and convincing. Many of you could probably rattle off several of them. As a fairly recent college alumna and a person who now works in higher education, I take the perspective of how do/how will emerging technologies impact the student experience?
It is clear that students today crave, even demand, a personalized academic experience. Many students today create their own majors and minors by combining their fields of interest. They have different preferred learning styles and studying habits. As the 2010 Horizon Report notes, e-books are customizable: users can choose paper and ink colors, font, size of type and even the manner in which pages turn. How’s that for personalization?
I am intrigued by the number of universities currently running pilot programs with e-books. According to the 2010 Horizon Report, many students in these programs are enjoying the ease with which they can store a full semester’s worth of texts and projects. It will be interesting to track the success of these programs and follow which schools will adopt similar programs.
One recent article and news segment from a television station in Tulsa discussed e-books and the advantage to college students utilizing them. The cost is typically considerably less for e-books as opposed to new hard copy textbooks. A man interviewed in the video segment stated that students in Medical School, for example, can have up to 13 books in any given semester. Not only do e-books make it more convenient than schlepping around giant stacks of books, but they also make searching for specific articles or bodies of text more efficient as well – a quick search will located all of the entries for the reader.
I had friends (never me, of course) who did not complete reading assignments for a couple of weeks into a semester because they were “waiting for their book” to arrive after ordering it online. With e-books, students can order and receive their required texts in a matter of seconds. Time for a new wave of “I didn’t do my homework” excuses.
Perhaps soon enough, we’ll be saying farewell to bookcases and bookmarks.
Does anyone use e-books for academic purposes? I’d be interested in your feedback on using them.
Media personaLIZed 