All Schools Face Transition to Digital Textbooks
Taking A Look At The Near Future In Education
With technology making its presence known more and more in the classroom, schools are constantly innovating the ways they teach. This isn’t just because of technical innovation, however, but also as a necessity as budget cuts run rampant across public education. Textbooks are the latest aspect of both primary and secondary schooling that are seeing changes. In both cases, physical books are being replaced by digital ones. There are many reasons for schools to make that change. This article will touch on those reasons and why digital books will be the new norm sooner than you realize.
Cost-Friendly
Perhaps the biggest reason schools are turning towards digital books rather than physical textbooks is because of cost. Books aren’t the cheapest of things. Not even for primary schools and their classrooms. In an effort to cut costs while still maintaining a good resource to draw back on for their teachers and students, schools are instead opting for the digital format of their books. In this way, their budget can be free to spend on other aspects of the school instead.
In regards to secondary education where students have to buy their own textbooks, more and more of them are turning towards digital books, too. This is because the cost of a physical book is usually quite high. The lowest is typically around the %100 range. That’s just for one book, too. While students can sell textbooks at the end of the year, they don’t always recoup their losses. Instead, they prefer to rent or buy digitized versions of their books. It saves them money, they don’t have to sell textbooks in order to earn back some of the money they spent, and they don’t have to worry about that book taking up space in their dorm room or apartment.
Eco-Friendly
There is also an environmental factor to consider. Books require paper. With trees needing to be planted rather than harvested in order to fight climate damage, every physical book that is produced is a danger towards that balance. While in primary school, the books are typically used from one classroom to the next over the years, they still often require new books to replace those that have been poorly damaged.
In the secondary school example, waste is even more pronounced. Students tend to hold onto their books. As a result, new books have to be produced in order to match the demand for them. In many cases, too, the Professor doesn’t even require that the student reads the book. It’s essentially there as something to reinforce their lessons. In this case, the book was made needlessly.
By digitizing, schools can limit the amount of paper that is wasted for their physical copies of books. While there is still a lot of waste that needs to be removed, making the switch to digitization is just another step in the right direction for an eco-friendly educational system.
Easy Transport
Another reason that schools are transitioning, and should transition, to digital books is that it’s a lot easier to carry digital books around than physical books. For primary school students, they typically have to lug around quite a few heavy books from class to class because they don’t have enough time to make it back to their lockers before their next class begins. This can cause them some amount of pain. It’s also easy for them to forget their books at their home. When schools offer digital books instead, the students are able to access that book via their laptop, in-school iPad, or even their phone. This limits the weight on their back and also ensures they have access to the book no matter what.
For secondary school students, digitizing is even more beneficial. They usually have to walk greater distances with a heavy load on their backs. Digitizing removes that weight and instead allows them to access their book in class via their phone or laptop. It can allow them to quickly pull up the book no matter where they are for a few minutes devoted to studying. It also tends to make things a lot easier to organize since they can clear up their desk.
Promotes Equal Opportunity learning
Primarily true for secondary school students, many times, a student can just scrape by with affording tuition but doesn’t have enough to cover the cost of books. With schools offering digital copies of their books, they can make education just that much more affordable. Students who may not have been able to afford the whole scope of college can now do so just a little bit easier.
By digitizing books, schools can open their doors to generations of students who might have otherwise been locked out of their opportunities. By enriching the population with a higher level of education, society as a whole can benefit. Education, after all, is what grows advancement.
With more advancements being made in technology, it’s only a matter of time before they are utilized in an educational setting as well. Digitizing is a small step towards making the educational system more efficient, cost-friendly, and rife with equal opportunities for the entire population. Whether in this next year or the next few years, all schools will be facing a transition from old physical books to organized and cost-friendly digital books.
Lisa says
I think digital textbooks are a good idea for the reasons that you listed, but some of us still prefer a traditional paper book. There is just something about having an actual book in one’s hands that can’t be replicated with e=books. Also, digital textbooks aren’t always cheaper than paper books, especially since often times an older edition of the paper book may be cheaper than the digital textbook.