Alan
Gould, Director
Lawrence Hall of Science
University of California
The
rising cost of hard copy textbooks is providing a steadily
increasing force that will ultimately lead to widespread use
of electronic textbooks in schools. Electronic textbooks consist
of computer programs or documents that can be either downloaded
from the worldwide web or provided on CD-ROMs. Students can
load these files onto their computers at home and use them
directly on computer display.
A
few years ago a serious barrier to the e-textbook concept
was that many students did not have computers at home that
they could use. However, this condition is rapidly changing
and it is becoming ever more possible for students to take
CD-ROMs for use on home computers, reducing the number hard
copy books needed. Only those students without home computer
access must absolutely have the hard copy books.
We
will look at the cost advantage in detail, but aside from
cost advantage, using e-texts allows:
- freedom
from hauling heavy textbooks to and from school and the
health issues and back problems associated with carrying
a load of heavy books.
- convenience
of computer search tools—the "Find" function—to
locate specific text passages.
- ability
of the reader to adjust font size or page magnification
for ideal readability and potential to reduce eyestrain.
But
pure economics is overhwelming. Let's assume that a whole
year course can be designed using five of the GSS volumes.
To have enough books for three classes of students can require
over 100 of each volume at $10/book. That amounts to 100 students
x $50/student = $5000.
All
nine GSS books are on a single CD-ROM costing only $8 each.
So for the same 100 students, cost is
100 students x $8/student = $800.
That's about 1/6 the cost of hard copy books!
For
license to use GSS books on computer displays (at school or
at home), the cost is even less: $.45/volume/student or $2.25/student.
So for a hundred students to download the books from the GSS
website would cost:
100
students x $2.25/student - $225
which is less than 1/20 the cost of hard copy books.
The
impact on school budget is hard to ignore. Ecological ramifications
are sometimes not obvious to see. Clearly hard copy books
take a toll in use of forests for paper-making. There is also
shipping of books that require fossil fuel burning in trucks.
On the other hand, CD-ROMs are a plastic product—non-renewable
resource, though the bulk of material needed is a tiny fraction
of the amount of wood needed to make hard copy books. Just
downloading files from the worldwide web may seem the most
environmentally benign, but even so, there is energy cost
in running computers to use the e-textbook files.
We
have not done real study on the relative the ecological impacts
of hard copy vs e-textbooks, but as we already noted, economic
impact alone is a powerful incentive to move away from hard
copy books.
Are
your students ready for this leap? Is your school budget ready?
Are you ready?
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