Technology in Schools Common Misconceptions About eTextbooks

eBook – A digital version of a novel, ie: page by page reading with no fidelity to the original layout, few images, no note taking, and generally text only. eTextbook – A digital version a study book. eTextbooks must allow for easy navigation for review, full page layouts, note taking, and images. An eBook is the same as an eTextbook.

eTextbooks, from all publishers, are only valid for a certain duration. In most cases this is about 1 year. An eTextbook is purchased only once and will not expire.

It is true that you can purchase an eTextbook cheaper on the first purchase, but when you consider its duration and a school’s review cycle, the books become much more expensive over several years. Consider a school that purchases a book at $50 and it is intended to be used for three years. If the school purchases an eTextbook version of the book at 20% off that is now a purchase of $40 every year for three years, for a total of $120, as opposed to $50 for a printed book. An eTextbook is cheaper than a conventional printed book.

This misconception has come about because of the popularity of eBook novels. These eBooks can be read on iPads, Kindles, Nooks, and many other tablet brands. Because an eTextook is more complex than an eBook novel it requires a more in depth reader that allows for easy page navigation, note taking, full page layouts and images. eTextbooks can be used any Windows or Mac based machine, iPads and soon to be Android tablets. An eTextbook will work on any device.

eTextbooks are managed by digital rights protection policies built directly into the software. When the duration of the eTextbook is complete it is no longer accessible. There is also a limit to how many times a file can be downloaded and a limit to how many devices a book can be loaded on. Purchasing an eTextbook gives the school the ability to make copies of the material and redistribute the files.

Many schools are saying that they want eTextbooks but according to our research and other sources there are no private schools using eTextbooks in a full scale mode. At most some schools are using PDF versions of the textbooks and some parochial schools use them for AP courses. In addition to that several schools have signed up as beta testers for eTextbooks and only about 15% of the students have downloaded the books, and still prefer the printed book. Supplying eTextbooks for students is becoming popular among many schools.

Technology in Schools Best Questions & Considerations

What do you expect an eTextbook to look like and what will it accomplish? Will your school or the parents supply the tablets or laptops? An average tablet or laptop will cost around $300 to $800 per unit, this is a considerable price for a school. If your school purchases the readers will the student be allowed to take them home? Best Questions and Considerations

Are you comfortable with students having devices that would allow them to connect to the internet or play games during class? Who will support the device and the software when there is a problem? Managing several dozen readers will require a full time IT staff member. Problems could range from a broken device, lost devices, a virus, misconfigured software, or download problems. Best Questions and Considerations

Where and when will the students download the books? In order for the student to download the books at the school they must be connected to the school’s internet. Each book can be several GB's in size so the school must have a very large bandwidth. Additionally how will the school manage the internet connection to the students? Will students be able to use an eTextbook for longer periods of time? Test cases have shown that a student can view an eTextbook for no more than two hours a day and all cases the school ended up purchasing an additional physical textbook to accompany the eTextbook. Best Questions and Considerations