I’ve been following the digital textbook project in California for a while now. Last May, the state started offering free open source digital textbooks in an attempt to save money. In addition, these resources can be updated regularly and are easier to access. As of May, 16 digital textbooks were available as PDF files for high school-level math and science classes. The books were approved by the state and align with all state standards.

Teachers can print out the materials for students or display them on overhead projectors or smartboards. Students with laptops can access the data, and even some of them can utilize their cell phone/mobile device to access the PDF files, something beneficial for those low income students without laptops or even desktops at home.

With hardcover textbooks, California typically refreshes their books every 6 years. With the PDF files, they will be updated every two years. Even better, some sites have materials that are created and reviewed by educators and shared under a Creative Commons License, meaning that they can be updated much quicker by teachers for free.

Having this system not only reduces the school’s cost, but it enables teachers to use the best and most current information throughout the school year. The ability for teachers to customize material into small documents called Flexbooks certainly transforms the way students receive information.

With devices such as the Kindle and upcoming iPad, these digital textbooks can extend their reach even further, with searchable text, embedded videos, audio files, quizzes, built-in dictionary/thesaurus, etc. Investing in these devices, or even the more inexpensive netbooks, coupled with free open source books, can prove to be far less expensive than traditional textbooks.

The question remains: Will the textbook juggernauts that live off the school system take this lying down, or will they innovate to keep up? While they may not be able to provide free textbooks, offering subsidized devices with their books built-in would be a great way to keep them relevant in this ever changing world.

Your thoughts are appreciated.

Princeton University is one of a few schools in a pilot program with Amazon using the Kindle DX in the classroom in lieu of textbooks.  The early results are mixed, but the one item that was eye-catching: Use of the Kindle reduced paper by 50%.

The strengths of the Kindle DX include long battery life, wireless access anywhere, large screen, and searchable content.  The Princeton students mentioned that some of the negatives were file navigation, organizational structure for document, and PDF file annotation.

This pilot in a university is key to seeing how eReaders can fare in the academic world.  The hope is that this can trickle down to high schools, and perhaps one day, elementary schools.

You’ve heard about the iPad, no doubt.  You’ve likely heard about the Kindle family.  The Nook?  Maybe.  The Sony Daily Edition? What about the Plastic Logic proReader (even that is kind of new to me)?

eReaders (electronic readers) come in different flavors and sizes.  If you or your school are in the market for a device to read and store books, this chart will definitely help you.  To be fair, the odd one out is the iPad, since it does more than read books; it’s essentially a multimedia consumption device.  However, it’s what people are talking about, so it was included in this chart.

Click here for the full version of the chart.

My opinion:

For the price point, you really can’t beat the Kindle 2, especially if you’re on a tight personal/school/classroom budget.  At $259, you get an eReader, a device that plays audio books, a basic web browser, access to the largest bookstore in the world, and the ability to store your own free out of copyright books on it (like from manybooks.net).  If you’re an avid book reader, that’s the one to check out.

Thoughts? Leave a comment below.