MobileRead Forums - View Single Post - Article on current status with e-textbooks

Steven Lyle Jordan · 10-14-2006, 06:01 PM

Don't know, I didn't see the first one. But I can see the second link, Bob, thanks.

Okay, done reading.

As the article suggests, the real value of the modern communication revolution is the fact that new and updated information is so available that traditional textbooks are almost doing students a disservice. Using the web to access up-to-the-minute information and multimedia will present a richer learning experience. E-books could also participate, and the "textbook" becomes a CD or DVD with text, multimedia and web links.

It's a valid point that all that newly-produced multimedia by the textbook companies costs, and it is expected to have to pay extra for that. But a great deal of that multimedia should be available from other sources, many of whom might offer their media to textbook companies at "student discount" prices, or even free. With collaborations between companies like, say, Brittanica Publishing and Discovery Communications, or Collegiate Press and CNN, the cost of educational CDs should be reduceable to entertainment DVD prices, $20-40 each.

10-14-2006, 06:01 PM	#4
Steven Lyle Jordan Grand Sorcerer Posts: 8,478 Karma: 5171130 Join Date: Jan 2006 Device: none	Don't know, I didn't see the first one. But I can see the second link, Bob, thanks. Okay, done reading. As the article suggests, the real value of the modern communication revolution is the fact that new and updated information is so available that traditional textbooks are almost doing students a disservice. Using the web to access up-to-the-minute information and multimedia will present a richer learning experience. E-books could also participate, and the "textbook" becomes a CD or DVD with text, multimedia and web links. It's a valid point that all that newly-produced multimedia by the textbook companies costs, and it is expected to have to pay extra for that. But a great deal of that multimedia should be available from other sources, many of whom might offer their media to textbook companies at "student discount" prices, or even free. With collaborations between companies like, say, Brittanica Publishing and Discovery Communications, or Collegiate Press and CNN, the cost of educational CDs should be reduceable to entertainment DVD prices, $20-40 each. Last edited by Steven Lyle Jordan; 10-14-2006 at 06:15 PM.