E-readers in the classroom

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mouseofcards89
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E-readers in the classroom

Post by mouseofcards89 »

For those of you who are either presently in university/college or have graduated recently, do/did any of your professors assign textbooks that were available in e-book format on Amazon? I understand that e-readers are not ubiquitous, but a one-time investment of $130 could save students exorbitant expenses on textbooks. Think about this carefully. Textbooks would be more expensive than typical novels, too, but digital versions could eliminate at least 50% of production costs. Do this in conjunction with digitally disseminated courses (such as television networks expressly for university curricula) and you've just eliminated 90% of university costs. I'm wondering if any profs have caught onto this yet.
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Post by Scott »

I bet that soon--within 10 years--the standard will be for schools to loan ereaders to students instead of giving them textbooks and students will use ereaders rather than buy textbooks.

The most basic Kindle currently costs only $79. The Nook Simple Touch currently costs only $99. Even at that price, it seems clear to me that schools would be much better off financially to purchase a collection of ereaders rather than repeatedly buying new textbooks, not to mention the other benefits such as saving space and being able to get new cheap digital versions of textbooks rather than being stuck with old textbooks until they wear out. But the schools would probably save a lot more money in other ways too. Namely, they could surely get a better price by buying in bulk than one would get buying a single ereader: They could get a better price if needed by buying preowned ereaders rather than new top-of-the-line models and also by allowing the numerous students who already own ereaders to use their own and only loan ones to those who need them. If they really wanted, they could also require students who can afford it to buy their own and only use the loaner ereaders for financially poorer students, but they may or may not fly with students, parents and/or voters.

I think the only thing holding this back is that the schools do not need to make the choice until it is time to buy new textbooks. If it isn't broke, don't fix it. Until they need to greatly replace their textbook supply, a school can just hang on to what they already have.

Of course this is all just my guessing.
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GParks
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Post by GParks »

What do you think about interactive ebooks? I feel like their greatest potential is in the classroom, especially for younger age groups
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Post by ZeroChill »

I think this should be a thing. Schools and universities should buy e-readers and loan them to students. Then they would save a lot of money
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Post by Samy Lax »

I love this idea. About time this happened!
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Post by Camille Turner »

I graduated in 2013 so maybe that was a bit too early in terms of the ebook boom, but no, none of my professors ever offered ebook options.
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Post by Amanda Nixon »

I haven't had any professors who have recommended to do that. In fact, I've only had ones who recommend not to get an e book version of the texts because they don't think you can learn as well from them. However, I've been using e book versions whenever I can find them for cheaper than the real text books and it has worked great for me every time
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Post by espicer4life »

I went to one college where I had to purchase an tablet on my own because all textbooks were e-book format only. So I spent $700 between the IPad and all the protective stuff for it. That was back in 2013 I still have and use it today. What I hated about their e-book format is that as soon as the class was over they deleted the book. I am one who likes to keep my college books with me for reference.
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Post by Eryn Bradshaw »

As an English major, my e-reader was invaluable for some of my classes. Books I was required to read were cheap or free on my e-reader. I had a few problems with books not available in an e-reader format though, probably because it was back in 2010/11. And I was always sad when I had to actually purchase textbooks because they'd break my back when I had to walk up hill for a mile to the English building.
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Jane Kasiva
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Post by Jane Kasiva »

e-books are cheaper and one can read them comfortably whether in a bus, train or even walking in a park and they are cheaper.
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Post by shanlife-2 »

The time I was in University, a few years back,we caught go the library and study from there. Most lecturers used to make handouts of about 50-70 pages, each of us,could photocopy the handout. The idea of e-books was not there yet,I believe e-books are cheaper than buying the text books which are so so expensive.
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Post by crediblereading2 »

While at university, most of my course-work was done online. This I found to be very convenient.
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Post by kastle »

I never had the option to download a book as an e-book. I always needed the hard copy.
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Post by Tbunde5 »

My daughter is graduating this year from university. While she had to purchase several textbooks, most classes required purchasing a code for access online. This wasn't much cheaper (some required the book and the code) for all classes, but made it very convenient for studying.
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Post by Elizabeth Pass »

When I was in college (not that long ago), our text books were not available in e-reader format. However, my sister and best friend took the same literature class as me. We bought one text book together and I typed out the short stories to send to the other two. They were able to more-or-less read it in ebook format. 8)
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