Quote:
Originally Posted by BWinmill
Neither. Textbook costs are going to be the same electronically or in print, simply because publishers are going to expect to maintain their revenues. The educational outcomes are going to be the same either way, simply because very few teachers know how to use computers in innovative ways. Yet these tablets are going to add overhead in school systems that can barely afford the most important thing of all: quality teachers.
|
It might very well be that the teachers will not be that great at using computers in innovative ways.... but I suspect that the students may be able to. The fact is, and many people find it hard to believe, that electronic texts are superior in many ways. They enable students to perform searches to quickly find items of interest, versus tedious reading or trying to look up terms by inadequate indexes. They enable students to instantly look up, via built-in dictionaries, unfamiliar words. Given the proper software/app, the student may be able to copy/paste sections into an electronic note or document. Given software/app, the student may be able to annotate, highlight, and add notes. The student may be able to print sections of the text as needed for selected study. And of course, the concept that all of us should know, the student can carry vast loads of books without straining his/her back.
Vic