Ebooks for education

Google, Barnes and Noble and others are preparing digital books and hardware anticipating the educational digital book market. California is testing electronic textbooks that can be viewed on e-book readers and is planning to bring free digital math and science etexts to schools this fall. The move to digital books in schools in education is underway.

As a school librarian I have been anticipating this movement for several years. As printed text books became more expensive and schools invested heavily in technology ebooks seemed inevitable. As I discussed this inevitable change with teachers and other educators, there was a lot of resistance to the idea. Mostly from people who love books (most teachers love to read books) and can not imagine technology can give them the same feeling while they are reading. Students, on the other hand, accept the idea and do not have the same sentimental attachment to printed books as adults. Educational publishers have been producing ebooks for the library and commerical market for a number of years and they are certainly convenient, although in my experience they were not widely read, Many students I have worked with in the last 10 years do not really care to read for pleasure or information.

I have often thought about the impact upon libraries if schools were to purchase their libraries as ebooks. The space taken up by printed materials would be available for other uses and students would not have to leave their class to check out a book. Man hours spent physically checking in and reshelving books could spent in other pursuits. School libraries have already cut back on certified librarians and with ebooks they could probably cut back on library assistants. So there would be a savings of space, use of time and maybe money.

Money seems to be driving the California initiative and it is certainly driving Barnes and Noble, Google and other players in the e-book publishing game. My experience with ebooks in the library is that they are not appreciably cheaper than printed books. They are easier to update and certainly easier to handle but once the printed book is no longer the norm, ebooks will cost about the same as a print book. In addtion, some educational publishers charge a yearly fee for access to their ebooks. States may be able to hold costs down for etexts by negotiating with edubusiness, but I believe there will be other associated costs that will cause the price of textbooks to continue to be high.

What about the ereading hardware? Education will have to be sure that there is a standard format for ebooks and etexts if they are going to use them. Sony has a reader, Kindle is Amazon’s reader and certainly the lure of government money will cause other entrepreneurs to try to dip into the pool. How will schools ensure that whatever they buy can be used with whatever they own? I expect there will have to be a big investment in new technology in order to be ready for digital books.

The investment in hardware will mean more of the budget goes to the technology department. Those laid of library assistants will probably be replaced by more people in the technology department. If my experience in education is any indication, there will be misspent money, unused technology, broken equipment, poorly thought out plans, noncompliant students and resistant educators. The change to ebooks will not happen smoothly nor will it be quick. Most likely by the time all the technology, training and attitudes are in place, there will be a new movement that will replace ebooks.

Ebooks in education are inevitable, I hope that educators and school boards proceed cautiously and do something novel. That is to put learning at the forefront of their educational plans. Right now with print texts and books, we put information at center of our curriculum. All the information in printed books, textbooks and digital readers are only secondary to a useful education in the 21st century.