Why Schools Should Switch to eBooks

The thunderous arrival of the Kindle, Sony Reader, and other electronic reading devices heralded in a novel new way to bring the ancient practice of reading into the 21st century. The idea of converting classic, modern, and all literature in between from a physical printed copy to an electronic format, the eBook, has been tossed around for years. Only now is that vision finally coming to fruition in a meaningful way and out of all of the industries out there that can take advantage of such a development, education should certainly be one of the forerunners to test out the eBook format.

Walk into any big city, take a good look around and it is clear that we are living in the Digital Age. People stroll by with slick white iPods in their hands, the tinny strains of their favorite song leaking from those iconic white ear buds. At nearly every Starbucks and coffee shop on the street, a sign welcomes customers to use the establishment's free wireless Internet as they enjoy a cup of joe or two. These are only a few of the things that the digital revolution has brought to modern society. As time pushes on and technology advances more and more, there will undoubtedly be numerous new gizmos and gadgets to come. For now, it is clear that technology has worked on replacing many of our "hard copy" possessions with digital files. The aforementioned iPod, and mp3 technology in general, has replaced CDs, cassette tapes, and vinyl records with audio files that can be toted around in a tiny device. E-mail has replaced postal letter correspondences, computer files have replaced physical ones kept in bulky filing cabinets, and now, eBooks will replace your favorite time-worn paperbacks.

Nowhere is this conversion more needed than in schools, especially high schools and colleges where students are often demanded to drag their body weight in textbooks to class every morning. Many textbooks can be downloaded for free, and some are offered in subscription packages where students can pay an annual fee to access several electronic textbooks for the year. Using eBooks rather than textbooks will not only save students the backaches, but it can also save them money. eBooks can be accessed with any computer or eBook gadget, which means that it is a real possibility for many high school and college-aged students. California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is a strong supporter of schools making the change to eBooks, stating that eBooks could potentially save schools hundreds of millions of dollars annually in printing and book replacement costs. This would be welcome savings at a time when many schools are struggling to stay within budget.