Week 3: The Sudden Explosion of E-books and E-bookreaders

Week 3: January 25, 2010:

This week, I read an article on an ebook initiative that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has for the state of California. In order to reduce a large deficit, the governor is working on launching an eBook project that moves from traditional math and science textbooks to eBooks. (Office of the Governor (2009, May 6). Gov. Schwarzenegger Launches First-in-Nation Initiative to Develop Free Digital Textbooks for High School Students. Press Release, Sacramento, California. Retrieved November 29, 2009, from http://gov.ca.gov/press-release/12225/)

The Pros of the Proposal:

• An eBook is good forever; it doesn't need to be replaced, if damaged. Traditional books can get wet, torn, lost, etc.
• It saves the school money from reprinting the book every few years; many textbooks are reprinted with new editions for very minor edits. Publishers make thousands of dollars off of these new editions when very little, if any, content was modified.


The Cons of the Proposal:
• With all of the up-front costs for technology, servers, and training, savings will not be seen for a few years so it's more of a long-term savings than a short-term savings to address the deficit in California.

• How are they going to accomplish this in California? What about the kids that cannot afford even a school lunch... how will they obtain an e-reader?
This will be interesting to see how it plays out. Maybe this will set a precident for schools and ereaders. Here is a You Tube that speaks to this proposal:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5EvNxDJ75iQ&feature=related

On another note, a peer in my class shared the following research article about how undergraduates in Economics, Literatures, and Nursing students use e-books when they study.
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B6W50-4M4KKCB-3&_user=1105409&_coverDate=01/31/2007&_rdoc=1&_fmt=high&_orig=search&_sort=d&_docanchor=&view=c&_searchStrId=1186163669&_rerunOrigin=google&_acct=C000051666&_version=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=1105409&md5=dce08c3821455dd752fe31690353a7d3#secx15
Since I teach nursing, I have found that most of my students are fine with ebooks if the book is something that they will only use for a semester or two. However, if it is a large comprehensive Medical-Surgical text, the students seem to prefer the actual text.

I have also found that some of the courses really do not require text books but rather current relevant articles from professional magazines. Some aspects of medical treatments and particularly medications change so fast that texts can become outdated quickly and article are more accurate and current.

Many nursing programs also require students to have PDAs of some kind to download pharmacology texts, diagnostic references, and other resources to take to the clinical setting. It is less bulky to take a small PDA for referencing rather than a huge book bag full of textbooks.

deb