Sunday, November 11, 2012

E-books or Textbooks?


If you have to make a choice between buying e-books or textbooks (printed books) for use during a semester or for your leisure time reading, which preference would you make?
A lot of comparison has been made between the benefits of e-books and textbooks. One likes e-books may argue that e-books are very easy to get and with regard to price, they are cheaper than textbooks. In addition, e-books are much lighter if you consider taking a laptop and a backpack of textbooks to school. Being environmentally friendly is the most prominent advantage of using e-books: you do not have to kill some trees for a book. However, those who favor textbooks may suggest that it would be hard to locate information especially during a test or writing papers with e-books. Using e-books may save some money, but if you are going to use it as your main reference for a semester or more, you’ll find the print version is easier to search and annotate.


Unfortunately, recent research and studies do not support e-books usage. The biggest con could be the process of reading electronically itself. As the University of Washing study seems to indicate, reading a printed textbook may lead to better recall of the material when it is time to take the exam (Boris, 2012). In addition, fewer college students bought and used e-textbooks in the 2011 academic year than in the year prior, according to a new report conducted among 1,625 college students. While about 6% of the textbooks students bought for courses in the 2010 academic year were digital books, only 3% were digital in 2011, according to the Student Attitudes Toward Content in Higher Education report by the Book Industry Study Group (BISG), an industry research organization (Greenfield, 2012). Among the reasons are that students cannot find the digital format of the course books; and due to the digital rights management (DRM) restrictions on e-books, students cannot share, lend or sell the used books to others.  Kate Garland, a lecturer at the University of Leicester, argues that people recall information through episodic memory or “remembering,” which involves consciously identifying the context in which they learned something, and semantic memory or “knowing,” which does not require context. In the long-term, “knowing” knowledge is better because important facts are recalled faster and more easily, Garland says. Her findings suggest that the shift from “remember” to “know” happened earlier when participants read paper than when they read screens.  A new study by the Joan Ganz Cooney Center at Sesame Workshop examines the way young children relate to stories they encounter in print versus on an e-reader. They found that children who read enhanced e-books recalled significantly fewer narrative details than children who read the print version of the same story –though across all formats, youngsters performed nearly equally when asked to explain a critical element in the story (Chiong, Ree, & Takeuchi, 2012). In other words, studies suggest that there may be significant advantages in printed books if your goal is to remember what you read long-term.
As discussed, both types of books have different strengths. If you want to study complex ideas and concepts that you wish to integrate deeply into your memory, textbooks are best. However, some subjects may be best learnt in a digital format as some studies may indicate (Szalavitz, 2012). As regard to leisure time reading, the choice of e-books or printed books may depend on what types of reader you are. As Coeus (2012) suggests, if you are casual readers (who read between 0-3 books a year), printed books may be best. However, if you are intermediate readers (who read between 4-10 books a year), you should think twice before making the decision as it also costs buying an e-reader of any kind. Finally, e-books makes very much sense if you you are a voracious readers (who reads over 10 books a year). In my opinion, reading is a hobby and also an important means of learning during your lifetime; therefore, just choosing the type of books that you feel most comfortably to do the reading so that the reading and also the learning process can be of great pleasure.

References

Boris, C. (2012). 4 pros and cons of e-readers vs. textbooks. Retrieved from http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/48186058/ns/technology_and_science-back_to_school/t/pros-cons-e-readers-vs-textbooks/#.UJ_WcuSTyGY
Chiong, C., Ree, J., & Takeuchi, L. (2012). E-Books vs. Printed Books: Some New Findings. Retrieved from http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/childrens/childrens-book-news/article/52549-e-books-vs-printed-books-some-new-findings.html
Coeus. (2012). Ebooks vs. Paper Books: The Pros and Cons - 2012. Retrieved from http://coeus.hubpages.com/hub/Ebooks-vs-Paper-Books-The-Pros-and-Cons-2012
Greenfield, J. (2012). E-Textbook Use Down Among College Students. Retrieved from http://www.digitalbookworld.com/2012/e-textbook-use-down-among-college-students/
Li, A. (2012). Tradition trumps tech: Textbooks better than e-books when it comes to learning. Retrieved from http://www.thestar.com/living/article/1152818--tradition-trumps-tech-textbooks-better-than-e-books-when-it-comes-to-learning
Szalavitz, M. (2012). Do E-Books Make It Harder to Remember What You Just Read? Retrieved from http://healthland.time.com/2012/03/14/do-e-books-impair-memory/


10 comments:

  1. The growing need for eTextbooks from schools in recent years has been incredible. With the launch of the iPad, many more schools have decided to switch to 1:1 programs and many schools are researching their options for eTextbooks to put on the students' devices.
    So there is a video which show how navigating the Transition from Print Textbooks to eTextbooks with Relative Ease in schools.
    I think it is useful for teachers and schools.

    This the video:
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bySI0psjTho

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  2. Yes, I agree that e-books offer a lot of advantages, especially when you have such a smart e-reader as iPad. Imagine how comfortable it is when you have all in just one device! There is a trend today for schools to plan to replace textbooks by e-books; however, the change is still in progress and no report has been provided on the successful replacement. I'd say that e-books cannot best replace textbooks in some situations like during the exams or in case when you want to stay away from high-tech nuisances and enjoy the reading literally. A mixed solution may be a good idea in this transition time when we are not sure about what e-books can offer us more in the future.

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  5. Firstly, I must smile when I read your article as you mentioned Kate Garland. She was actually my lecturer for Human factors and Ergonomics in Leicester! Now on to the topic:

    I could not agree more with the Coeus (2012) study that you have referenced. the use an benefits of an e-book are most definitely associated with what and how much of it we intend to use. Also as you mentioned Kate Garlands point, a similar although more extreme and large scale idea was brought about in a book by Norton (2010) in that after so many years of so called digital addiction our brains are losing the ability to read in-depth.

    I think some important benefits of it however, which have not been mentioned yet are its compact nature and the fact that regardless of how many books one wants to read the associated weight of paper is insignificant. Therefore for travelling, and not just school as you did indeed mention, it is useful.

    Also there seem to be a number of bridging apps now trying to make it more 'ergonomic' by allowing for a series of annotation functions. For instance the iAnnotate constructed for the Ipad offers a variety of extensive features for annotation purposes including highlighting,sticky-notes,underlining, pencil drawing, searching, and bookmarking for PDF readers. Additionally, it has now gone through transformations since it was first brought about allowing for tabs-even within a single document, tool drawers, specifics on selected tools, signature and pdf inclusions to name a few.

    All in all, for now I still prefer books over Ipads/e-books in regards to studying. However, I can see that as the gaps between interacting with electronic documents minimises, making it more flexible and a greater replicate of what we can do with books, that more and more of us may use them.

    My concluding question then is at what cost? We may be saving 'so many books' but somewhere someone must be losing. As the Times points out in its investigation article How Green is My Ipad,"The adverse health impacts [on the general public] from making one e-reader are estimated to be 70 times greater than those for making a single book,".

    References
    Chita Hunter (2011) iAnnotate PDF: http://www.bestappsite.com/iannotate-pdf/
    The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains (Norton, 2010).
    Goleman D., and Norris G. (2010) How Green Is My Ipad.The New York Times. Retrieved: http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2010/04/04/opinion/04opchart.html

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    Replies
    1. Thank you very much for your in-depth sharing, Karen. You must be a voracious reader. Everything has 2 sides and maybe e-books and textbooks are in this case. We still can "go green" if we use textbooks and keep them carefully for others, right?

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  6. It is always very sad to admit that the end of something has come, even though there is a new better something.
    My mind and my being refuses to accept the fact that the possible end of the REAL books is near. Though it would be absolutely absurd to neglect the practicality of e- books. I can read all the classics in digital format; I can carry them with me everywhere- tons of books; make notes without feeling guilty (like a child in school) for spoiling the book; have it on all my devices... But I can never live that feeling again as when I take a REAL book in my hands. It might be a matter of time and getting used, but I love having a library in the house (as my mother and grandmother did). Also I would love my children to rummage around in a huge bookshelf and ask him/her self what is this all about (when not able to read yet).
    "Change or die" as Deutschman nicely called his book, I would rather die than not having the chance to go to a library, have books at home, get a book as a present, feel a book and the smell of it."Der Mensch ist ein Gewonheitstier." as Germany says. We will have to make new friends, but not forget the old ones.
    For reflection:
    "The conventional wisdom had been that e-books would eat up hardbound book sales. That's not happening. Instead, while e-books will certainly by year's end be the most popular book format, it's paperback books that are really taking a hit. Perhaps that's because when you're buying a hardcover, you're buying not just a story, but an artifact, an object with more value than just as a way to get to the story." (Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols for Networking | June 18, 2012)

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  7. Hi Marina, I really like the "For reflection" that you cited. Buying a book gives us much more spiritual value than the physical values itself. I still like buying a paperback book and reading it gradually with all my love and certainly keeping a small bookshelf at home already. However, of course, e-books now become part of our student life.

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  8. We loved the combination of the onsite and online bookfair. The combination was easy to use and gave our parents more flexibility to support our bookfair. I loved the option of having our online orders delivered to our school free of shipping. This service was greatly appreciated by many of our families, allowing them to feel they could order more books through the online book fairs.

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  9. To replace this function with an online system may prove difficult. Prouni

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