E-TEXTBOOKS MAY REPLACE PRINTED VERSIONS (5-2004)

It’s been a while, but I still remember rummaging through 
my high school locker for all the textbooks and notebooks 
that I would need for my next couple of classes. 
Invariably, I would have two or three classes on the 
opposite end of the building from where my locker was 
located, so I had to pack my books.

I had to lug a few home with me every evening so that I 
could complete my homework. Then, of course, they would 
have to be carried back to school the next morning.

School textbooks are not very hardy creatures. Schools buy 
new books on a rotating basis about every six years. That 
means that five out of six years, students have to use 
books that have been used before. Sometimes, that means 
they have broken bindings, graffiti scrawled all over them, 
and pages torn or missing.

Almost all the way through elementary and high school, the 
English textbook we used was titled, “Using Good English.” 
The favorite way to deface this text was to scribble an 
“er” on the end of “Good,” making the title appear to be 
“Using Gooder English.”

But in some schools across the country, those days of used 
textbooks and graffiti-filled pages are about over. One 
Texas elementary school has decided to invest in electronic 
textbooks for its fifth and sixth grade students.

The school, located in Forney, Texas, has purchased 100 
notebook computers for its students. Installed on the 
computers are all the required textbooks along with 
thousands of classic works that students can use for 
research and assigned or recreational reading.

The Forney schools are not the only schools to experiment 
with an electronic curriculum. Wake Forest University in 
North Carolina has started using digital versions of the 
same books it has been using for years. 

One of the problems with converting to electronic textbooks 
is acquiring the rights for online texts. Digital versions 
of books are very easily copied.  But one company, Pearson 
Education, is launching a service that will put about 300 
textbooks on the Internet. The company plans to charge half 
the price of a regular textbook for limited use of its 
online content.

It’s probably a sign of things to come. In the 1990s, 
predictions were that e-books would replace printed copies. 
But that didn’t happen, because nobody really wants to curl 
up in bed with their laptop.

But I can foresee a time in the not-too-distant future when 
electronic textbooks, loaded as software on portable 
computers, will replace the traditional printed textbooks. 
That will mean a welcome end to the dog-eared, peanut 
butter stained, graffiti-laden textbooks most students have 
come to detest.

The change may be tougher on the parents than on the 
students. Most adults didn’t learn to read on a computer. 
But youngsters have no problem with it. Most young people 
today are “digital kids.”

It’s been many years since I’ve had to dig through a 
locker. But I think I would welcome the idea of replacing 
half a dozen heavy textbooks with one light-weight 
computer. It almost makes me want to enroll in classes 
again.