Why Education is Adopting the E-book

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posted 4/4/11 by Bryan Keithley · Comments

With devices like the Amazon Kindle and Apple's iPad selling like the proverbial hotcakes, it's clear the world at large is embracing the advantages of e-book technology. But what about public education? Budgets are tighter than ever, and education (particularly public education at the elementary, middle, and high school levels) simply tends to lag behind the times a bit. But there are a plethora of reasons why e-books make sense for educators all across the spectrum.

Innovation – Gorgeous pictures, crisp audio, and full-motion video give e-books a multimedia power physical books can't match. Students learn in different ways, and e-books give them more options for absorbing and retaining material. Plus, the massive information repository that is the Internet gives students more diverse and up-to-date sources from which to pull.

Text-to-Speech – Students might find text-to-speech options useful in a variety of contexts, and this feature is particularly useful for those just learning to read, those struggling with reading, or those with learning disabilities. In any case, text-to-speech is simply one more way for students to learn material, and that can never hurt.

Customization – E-books individualize the experience of learning, and not just because of the great amount of stuff available on the Internet. Most e-books can be customized in a variety of ways—color, font size, orientation, etc. Once again (see a trend?), e-books are helping to facilitate the “transmission” of content.

Cost – The cost of printing documents and purchasing those ever-outdated textbooks will be significantly reduced, if not eliminated, when a school/organization fully embraces the e-book evolution. And savings are not just for the teachers – creating, researching, and sending documents in an e-book environment will save students some coin as well.

Size – We all remember lugging around heavy books in our backpacks. Now that entire boulder-like backpack is condensed into a slim e-book reader. Very smart, and a heck of a lot better on the back!

Just-in-Time Education – the instant access of the Internet and a digital library of books mean less wasted time. Teachers/professors can send documents instantly to their students. Distance learning becomes a lot easier. Teachers can also mark up documents before they send them out, and include directions/annotations along with them. And hyperlinks will have everyone zipping around doc to doc. All told, e-book education is simply faster and more efficient if done right.

Supplementary Tools – Think of all the educational tools available alongside the text itself. Students can use online dictionaries to easily look up information. They can take notes directly into their device. They can highlight passages (a big “no-no” with a hand-me-down textbook owned by the school). They can search for phrases and keywords to speed up searches. There are a lot of things you can do in the e-book environment you just can't do with a conventional book.

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