Advantages of Digital Textbooks

While some students prefer traditional textbooks, many others are taking advantages of digital textbooks. In 2012, the Association of American publishers reported that digital books were outselling traditional books, providing evidence that eBooks are becoming popular. eBooks provide a variety of benefits to college students and professors, including: easy access to navigate, it allows students to multitask, help professors prepare lecture and have affordable prices.

To begin with, electronic textbooks offer easy access to navigate and makes life simpler. College students can use it through their laptops, tablets or smartphones.

There is no need to flip the pages or carry heavy printed textbooks. During the school year of 2011/2012, according to the US Consumer Product Safety Commission, almost 14,000 kids and teenagers, between the ages of 5 to 18, had backpack-related injuries. Etextbooks are light weight and easy to carry, you can take it anywhere, anytime and use it in different devices. You can also read while exercise, at night time, between school breaks. Simply turn on your digital media and start to study. The search format is a very advantageous. This function makes students life a lot easier by typing a specific word and the eBook will find it quickly. With a traditional book, you must take the time to look thru the pages or go to the index.

Secondly, a great advantage of a digital textbook is allowing students to multitask. Most digital textbook comes with a variety of study tools which allow students to do homework, tests, and assignments thru the digital etextbook, which make study fun and entertaining. Some of them even have matching games and flash cards with specific topics for each chapter. Other feature to help students learn that most digital textbooks have are 3D animations and interactive images. Furthermore, benefit professors that can lower the usage of paper and prepare lecture with interacting videos and animations. Professors also Unfortunately, not all professors use this type of modern technology yet.

Thirdly, academic use of digital textbooks. It’s considered a reliable tool. The digital textbook is bringing an innovative and creative way to help professors improve their lessons and develop a complete different structure of teaching compared to the traditional chapter by chapter lecture, where students don’t interact and have minimum participation. Etextbook are helping student to become active learners where they can participate more instead of been just listeners. Electronic textbooks are beneficial to professors. They can quiz their students and have the eBook calculate the students grade automatically. They can also present videos, audios, study cases and many other activities through the digital textbook. With so many benefits it’s hard to belief many professors don’t want to take advantage of it.

Moreover, eBooks are less expensive than paper textbooks cost average of 50% less than printed version. Traditional textbooks most of the time are very expensive. A book of anatomy and physiology can cost more than $200 and the same electronic textbook costs an average of $100 with more features to help students learn and memorize quicker. There are also no costs for shipping and delivery when you order an eBook. You can simply download and have access to the material instantly. If you need the textbook immediately to do an assignment, homework or to study you can start instantly.

Even though eBooks are more affordable than traditional textbooks it’s crucial to remember that devices like tablets or laptops are expensive and not everyone can afford to buy one. Some students like to read traditional textbooks and be able to flip the pages, make notes and highlight important content. When the semester is done students can also sell their used books. Many professors list both options: traditional textbooks and electronic textbooks and students can decide which one they want to choose. Paper textbooks also don’t need batteries and it is harder to lose. Some people are afraid to lose their device or have a problem with not enough storage. Some others disadvantage of electronic textbooks are healthy problems related to excess use of screen devices that can cause eye strain (irritated dry eyes, headache and fatigue) and text neck (discomfort in neck and spine). Both conditions happen when people spend too much time starring at a device screen.

In conclusion, e-textbooks have become very popular, a valuable technology that is helping knowledge and education improve. Interactive learning is fundamental nowadays for professor and students. Digital textbook is very beneficial for academic use. It allows to find words quickly when searching for information. Students are also able to participate more and become interested in learning with a great variety of features like: quizzes, videos and flash cards, other than just read the textbook and listen to a traditional lecture. A valuable advice for students that uses electronic devices to access their digital textbooks is to turn off social media alert and limit the use of internet to be able to focus on reading and activities related to class. Many professors have embraced this new technology but there are a lot more that need to take advantages of this modern technology. In General, e-textbooks benefits, schools, professors and students.

Cited

1. Procon https://tablets-textbooks.procon.org/
2. Procon https://tablets-textbooks.procon.org/view.resource.php?resourceID=006584

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