DailyTech - Should California Look Into Digital Education?

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Michael Barkoviak - June 13, 2009 5:16 PM

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9 comment(s) - last by jconan.. on Jun 17 at 9:41 PM

Will digitizing books help save California money?

A Bay Area DailyTech reader recently sent me a link to an editorial that discusses California's fiscal issues and how using digital education could help free up much needed funds. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, under heavy pressure to help the state's growing fiscal crisis, said using digital textbooks could help save hundreds of millions of dollars per year statewide.

There are plenty of good things about digital books and how they can help students, but I want to focus more on why this is a horrible idea for the state right now.

It's a noble concept -- especially because of the current political climate in California -- but I'm not sure how well digitizing books could be implemented. I've never been a fan of textbook publishers releasing new textbooks with very few changes just to increase revenue and drive up sales, but I don't trust the California government to begin going digital without severely messing things up for years to come.

There are obvious downsides that need to be handled before schools can go digital, including how school districts would handle students who don't have a PC or Internet access at home. Furthermore, there also is concern about the lack of computers in some public schools, as there would be a major shortage of PCs for students to use while studying.

If any legislators are serious about digital education, it'd probably be wiser for them to focus on high schools going digital -- if there aren't very many problems after a trial run, and there will certainly be a number of problems, then they can be ironed out in the future. They also must make sure school officials are on board with the project, because there are a number of them who feel the cost savings for the state wouldn't be worth the hassle of dealing with adoption issues of digital books.

I'm not sure if schools are ready for a complete digital education, but I think it's a topic that should be seriously considered moving forward. California, for better or worse, creates a lot of crazy laws that leave many people scratching their heads, though it'd be interesting to see how well supported a digital education initiative would have.

Gov. Schwarzenegger's office already has a digital education project in development, and will first utilize digital textbooks that are available for free.

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Digital Books

By ViroMan on 6/13/2009 7:38:30 PM , Rating: 3

Would be great in my opinion. Give the kid an E-Book and load up all 13 of his books onto it and the kid no longer needs to carry 20+ pounds of books around the place. Thats only one plus, another one is that the books can be interactive and can ask questions with a keyboard or some buttons. Kindle DX anyone? http://www.amazon.com/Kindle-DX-Amazons-Wireless-G...

This is one of there larger ones there is a 6 inch too. Checking the specs on that baby will tell you that its 3g wireless so it doesn't NEED a connection to a PC, Holds up to 3,500 books, enough battery life to go 4 days strait reading, I mean check it our for yourself.

There are only two downsides I see to this. One is cost, its going to cost about $400 per kid. ohh wait thats not a downside, you save tons of cash by not ordering paper books. Plus the added ability to teach an entire class from the unit itself. Teacher unneeded except to answer student questions.

The second downside is durability. How durable can an E-Book be that is only 1/3 of an inch thick be? Add aluminum rebars to it and rubberize this crap outa it and I think your good except screen.

Its not like giving the E-book to the kid is a one time thing. It can travel with him through his education and into college. OMG have you seen the price of college books, give them one of these E-Books if not the other children. At the end of its Usefulness you reclaim the unit, possibly charging the parents any cleaning fees if not covered by state.

RE: Digital Books

By HaZaRd2K6 on 6/14/2009 2:55:01 PM , Rating: 2

quote:
One is cost, its going to cost about $400 per kid. ohh wait thats not a downside, you save tons of cash by not ordering paper books.

If only it worked that way. Publishers are greedy, and as the author stated, they make minor revisions to books, slap a new edition number on it, and charge the same price. What makes you think that it will be any different when PDFs become the standard? As well, $400 for the Kindle is steep, but if Amazon were to subsidize the price (like cell phone providers do) then the cost would drop dramatically. Add a little more interaction with something like a trackball, and the Kindle is essentially a low-cost web browser with e-book reader built-in.

quote:
Plus the added ability to teach an entire class from the unit itself. Teacher unneeded except to answer student questions.

Again, if that were the case with e-books, that would already be the case. Yes, e-books weigh less than regular textbooks, but they'll contain the same information, so the teacher will still need to be there.

quote:
The second downside is durability. How durable can an E-Book be that is only 1/3 of an inch thick be? Add aluminum rebars to it and rubberize this crap outa it and I think your good except screen.

Again, with the Kindle DX already pushing almost $500 once you factor in taxes, cladding it in aluminum and adding rubber will do nothing but add to the cost.

quote:
Its not like giving the E-book to the kid is a one time thing. It can travel with him through his education and into college. OMG have you seen the price of college books, give them one of these E-Books if not the other children. At the end of its Usefulness you reclaim the unit, possibly charging the parents any cleaning fees if not covered by state.

Again, the digital textbooks will, in all likelihood, be the exact same price as your standard paper book. The biggest advantage to me comes in the form of portability; not having to carry around another 20 pounds on my back would make me pay up, but only if I knew that I could get all my book in digital form.

</rant>

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RE: Digital Books

By borowki2 on 6/14/2009 8:04:56 PM , Rating: 2

quote:
Again, the digital textbooks will, in all likelihood, be the exact same price as your standard paper book. The biggest advantage to me comes in the form of portability; not having to carry around another 20 pounds on my back would make me pay up, but only if I knew that I could get all my book in digital form.

Remember too that e-books will be DRMed, so schools will end up having to pay for a new copy for each every year. A printed book could be used for many years. I'm sure those of us who've gone to public schools remember dog-eared textbooks often older than ourselves. Xeroxed materials were rather common too.

Parent

RE: Digital Books

By GaryJohnson on 6/15/2009 3:34:41 PM , Rating: 2

The answer to that problem is to have the state publish the text books. They already regulate what goes into them. Might as well cut out the middle man.

The quality of the books may be inferior, but they can be updated yearly. I think this is better than students using decade old, but well written books with information that's no longer correct.

Parent

RE: Digital Books

By scrapsma54 on 6/14/2009 4:00:37 PM , Rating: 2

I think the other advantage is that the school doesn't have to cut back on classes, which are more important than resources. Digital content can be repeated over and over, which is considerably cheaper, which you didn't really make that clear in your post.
Creativity is a more important value, and I wish more schools held this in a higher reguard than money.

Parent

RE: Digital Books

By mindless1 on 6/15/2009 6:19:41 AM , Rating: 2

Digital content can't be repeated, we can be sure it will be licensed to extract as much money from the schools as possible.

The key is to stop thinking most courses change enough that they need entirely new revisions of textbooks, and to start fining students that damage theirs. In this way reuse of textbooks can be extended several years longer, with only periodic supplimental updates instead of entirely new textbooks.

Creativity really isn't a more important value, what our schools need is to get back to the basics of core fundamental education, things like sciences, math, and let those who aspire creatively pursue that in their later years through the courses they choose. We don't need more starving artists in the world.

Parent

RE: Digital Books

By linuxgtwindos3gtmucs on 6/15/2009 10:42:54 AM , Rating: 2

mindless1 u didn't think all the way through.
what about the kids who are on low income and free lunch?
what will u fine them - a free lunch?
they don't have enough money to begin with so how can u fine them?

anyways,
This idea is hella stupid.
You could never get cancer from a good old fashioned paper book,
but you can from a wireless transmitting computer.
how will you leave graffiti on page 32 in every book u use in school?
where will kids doodle during a boring lecture with these damn ebook readers?
creativity will go down because there will be less artwork.

Parent

RE: Digital Books

By TheSpaniard on 6/15/2009 11:37:18 PM , Rating: 2

1. wireless transmission does not generate sufficient power to cause dna damage

2.some of the inks and paper used to create textbooks can be carcinogenic and on a hot day could be transfered into your body simply by touching the page for an extended period of time

Parent

RE: Digital Books

By jconan on 6/17/2009 9:41:18 PM , Rating: 2

when holodeck becomes available then maybe E education will be very effective. till then paper and books will do just fine supplemented by multimedia. even students from IIT do extremely well without e-education.

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