Back to school? Guide to the right e-reader

[TadW]

Originally Posted by crich70

He was playing solitaire.

Solitaire is what helped me survive college.

[Mivo]

Originally Posted by Alexander Turcic

From my personal experience I fully agree with the quote medard cited. With a tablet, temptation to do what you're not supposed to do (i.e. read boring overlong textbooks) is much stronger than with a technically underperforming E Ink device. In other words... ever since I've spent more time with tablets, my total reading consumption went down.

This is the primary reason why I bought dedicated e-readers. When I try to read books, fiction or otherwise, on the iPad, I end up checking mail every fifteen minutes. And while I'm there, I take a quick look at forums. And next I look up something on Wikipedia, browse for reviews, find a Youtube video, or remember I need to edit a document on Google Drive for a meeting, and so forth.

E-ink displays are generally much nicer for reading, but the real advantage of a dedicated e-books device is that it offers fewer distractions and I actually get some chapters in without frequent multitasking (Sudoku and chess on the Kobo are bad enough, but at least the browser is so slow and tedious that it is not tempting! )

[Jessica Lares]

I've used computers my entire life. Having self-discipline when it comes to technology is important.

On Android, there's this app called AppDetox and Procrastination. It lets you set rules for any app on your device to stop it from letting you use it during that alloted time. So when you try opening it, it just pops up a message telling you "Nope!". Even better, it shows you all your "Violations" and makes you feel really guilty.

I don't have a problem on the iPad. I just turn on Airplane Mode and hide Safari under Restrictions. Less distractions that way.

[Mivo]

What's that strange thing you mentioned? Self-disci-ditz-ipl-something?

I think I just never out-grew my fascination with multitasking! My first computer, when I was a teen, was an Amstrad 6128. It had no multitasking. Then later I switched to an Atari ST, which featured windows and some early form of multitasking (and I imported an illegal modem from the US!), which I thought was the coolest tech invention ever (besides the modem). And I still believe that. Unless, of course, when I want to immerse myself into an e-book, but that is what e-readers are for! (My job is all about doing fifty things at the same time, so luckily it is not an issue there, or I would be in deep, deep trouble.)

Um, what was I doing? Oh, right! Gotta swap to my e-mail app, brb!

[vivaldirules]

Originally Posted by vivaldirules

I did a quick test by selecting first year undergraduate Bio, Chem, Calculus, and Physics courses at one of my alma maters (a "state" university) and checked to see what books are needed. The chemistry text is available as a printed textbook or as a rentable online ebook through CourseSmart. The calculus text is available either as a printed notebook or online through MyMathLab. The biology and physics books are available only as printed textbooks. None are available even as PDFs. I'd call that a clear fail.

EDIT: By the way, it appears that only the CourseSmart ebook would be accessible from a tablet. The MyMathLab ebook appears to require either Windows or Mac computer. Your ebook reader? You can use it to read Moby Dick during lunch, I suppose.

I repeated this exercise selecting an array of first year courses in English, Linguistics, History, Sociology, Art History, Anthropology, and a few other nontechnical areas. The results were similar. A small percentage of the required books are available as ebooks for purchase, one is available in a rentable Kindle edition, but most are available only in print. That's really disappointing. But given that, I wouldn't spend 10 seconds thinking about ebooks. I'd buy all the printed texts, a laptop PC, a pile of looseleaf paper and pencils, and move on as if it was still the 20th century. College is difficult enough and I wouldn't want to waste time on an array of broken tools.

[ucfgrad93]

Originally Posted by HomeInMyShoes

^Yep. I don't even think there's any discussion of e-ink for school. 98% of what I read in grad school was PDF.

I was able to use my Kindle in most of my classes for my Masters degree. A lot of my books were available as ebooks.

[jehane]

I recently completed a Masters. Just in the last year or so, some of the textbooks became available in electronic format. However the format was non-standard and special software was required for reading. This was not indicated on the sales site *before* buying. I knew, thanks to a fellow student who found out the hard way. I installed the software on both my tablet and my laptop, and used it on both, but I've hardly ever used my eink reader for anything other than leisure.

I've just started another Masters and have been reading a lot of scientific papers. Again, with pdf the tablet comes to the fore. But my T1 goes everywhere with me so I have something more relaxing to read on the bus.

Personally, I think that choice of device won't make that much difference as to a person's self-discipline. Even if textbooks are available in epub/mobi, what would stop someone from procrastinating by switching to reading a novel instead?

Finally, regarding the profiteering professor conspiracy - I once had a professor who was so upset about the high price the publisher had set for his textbook that he made sufficient copies (pbook) and gave them out to everyone in the class for free.

Originally Posted by jehane

Finally, regarding the profiteering professor conspiracy - I once had a professor who was so upset about the high price the publisher had set for his textbook that he made sufficient copies (pbook) and gave them out to everyone in the class for free.

The fun part is that there are a bunch of legal ways to do that stuff. Since it was his textbook, he may have retained the rights to do so. Some universities also have access to special licensing schemes where they may copy portions of a book in order to distribute to students.

As for the point on distraction: the type of distraction matters. Tablets provide more distractions than ereaders because the type of software available is much broader. Computers provide more distractions than tablets, because the richness of software is much better. At the end of the day I found that the best way to deal with dull texts was just to give into the distractions in a regulated way. I had a timer: X minutes of distractions for Y minutes of work. Not only did the work get done, it got done faster and better. (It is truly amazing how productivity declines while working if I have to force myself to focus on a tedious task.)