Textbooks or Tablets? Some students say they learn better w/ physical text books.

Sept. 11, 2014 | lee martell

[lee martell]

The matter remains unsettled, and probably will for quite a while. Many schools have gone with the flow of offering students a tablet or laptop computer that will contain all their most essential lessons. Many schools consider it a given, that within five to ten years, there will be no physical books at all. Every piece of study matter will be found on a computer owned or rented by the student. But wait, there is subtle pushback. Not so fast, say many of the students themselves. Most students, from elementary through grad school, have grown up surrounded with digital inventions, from ever-accurate calculators, leading into Pac Man and Mario, to the benign addiction of Candy Crush. These young people are very comfortable in navigating or 'surfing' the internet. Some are even learning to write their own computer codes, which is where many jobs already exist today. Even still, many say while studying from a Tablet or Laptop is very convienient, when given the choice, they would use an actual physical text book, at least for some topics. Some say it's the difference between rote knowledge obtained through the Tablets,vs a more full understanding of what was read when using a hard cover book.

For many people, myself included, reading a book in my hands gives me more of a complete experience. One could call it a quintessential experience; there is the weight of the book, the texture of it's cover, are the pages marked with gold? Is there a silken tassel for my bookmark? I can feel the fanning of pages turning. I can smell the papyrus or whatever type of mix used to make the paper. This is a way of objectifiying the book, of bestowing a talisman type power, a merging of embodiment, if you will, where the story and the book are inseparable.

[GeronL]

They don’t care if the book is returned because it will justify a higher budget

[Resolute Conservative]

My kids’ school issued ipads to all high school kids last year. Student usage was mainly for email, social media, browsing, videos and music. Actual academic use was below 40%. This year the kids don’t even carry them because the school up’ed the filtering to prevent all the above processes (which I agree with) unless a teacher clears the app for class. Usage is about 5%.

Totally worthless.

[Mad Dawgg]

"50% of the time with a physical book, your eyes flit to the lower left rather than scroll a page up and/or down (another physical activity)"

Most eBook devices do not scroll up and down. They are set up to exactly mimic how a book works. AND you can read one handed and easily turn the page with your thumb.

eBooks are going to take over the market in the very near future and the basic reason is it literally costs nothing to produce an ebook wherein it is very expensive to create a physical book out of dead trees.

I love my physical books and have en extensive collection of very expensive first edition (not to be confused with first printings) leather bound and signed by the author scifi novels. The have gilt edging, archival quality paper, silk bookmarks sewn-in and certificates of authenticity that validate the author's signature AND show which numbered copy I own of a limited printing and most now are worth 100 bucks or more. AND everyone of them are also on my Kindle cloud because I do most of my reading on the go (in the car, at the doctor's office, outside in my emergency mobile zombiepocalypse garden, etc.)

Physical books will soon be like drive-in movie theaters. There will still be some around but they will be a novelty OR a high-end luxury item like the ones I described above. Not because one is better than the other but because eBooks can be created with a few mouse clicks after they are written and edited. Used to be it took months even years to get a book in print AFTER it was written and edited. Now its takes literally seconds. That alone changes the publishing paradigm add in the fact anyone can upload their book to Amazon or iTunes bookstore etc. without begging some publishing company to do it for them and get paid for doing so and anyone can see Dead Tree Media is gonna take it's place next to 8-track tapes and Sony Betamax movie tapes.

[Mad Dawgg]

"Textbook. In math and science, it was very helpful (for me) to write lots of notes in the margins, highlight or underline things, and circle things for later review. I think this works best with textbooks. It also happens to be easier, though that’s not the point; best isn’t necessarily easier."

My daughter is in college all of her textbooks on her Kindle can be annotated right on the page she is reading and organized into notes that she can then format into a text file for study with a few keystrokes.

[Mike Darancette]

Textbooks are for learning and tablets are for games.

[lee martell]

I love it. Those Swedes are so clever. Isn’t amazing how a good ad campaign and slick production can make something look wonderously enticing. I laughed at the part where an offscreen hand slowly approaches the owner’s BookBook, only to be finger-wagged away.

[lee martell]

When the expenses justify a budget that equals or exceeds what you now have, that sounds like when I was a supply petty officer in the navy. Toward the end of the fiscal year, there would be a purging of any surplus goods, “Just get rid of them, so we can report the supply deficit before the end of May. Just do it!”.

[GeronL]

I watched my 6th grade do math homework on his tablet....

He wrote the problem and the tablet told him the answer, he writes down the answer.

What exactly does he learn from this??

[LibWhacker]

I’m now on my fourth Kindle and am fairly proficient at annotating and highlighting with it, but hate to think about studying math or chemistry or physics or engineering with it.

With a pencil, one can mark up a page in a few seconds and get on with one’s studies. To do what you suggest in math, you’d need some kind of super-app that gave you full, quick and easy access to all of the symbols of modern math and symbolic logic. Not to mention drawing a little graph now and then, or some other diagram. But I’m unaware of any such app.

And even if there were one out there, when I’m racking my brain, trying to learn something new in math, I don’t want to stop and read the release notes for SuperApp v. 6.1.107c to do something in the margins that I could do perfectly well yesterday with version 6.1.107b, but can’t today because they’ve changed everything.

Even in the arts and social sciences nowadays, one might want to capture a bit of statistical reasoning in the margin, or sketch a quick diagram of some kind. You just can’t do that on the Kindle, afaik and imho.

[Billthedrill]

I'm trying that this term - taking a graduate class in military history. What I've learned so far: (1) a Kindle is a lot lighter than a textbook and you can keep it with you for studying at odd moments; (2) flipping back and forth is easier with a physical book; (3) footnotes are easier with a physical book, endnotes MUCH easier with a Kindle; (4) buy physical books that you want to keep, Kindle the rest, although (5) I chose precisely wrong. Which means that I'll be double-purchasing one of them. Oh, well.

I do have a Kindle app for the cell phone which means that I can pick away at odd moments as I mentioned above, but there's no way you could do serious study on a 5" screen. Just not happening. But it's really nice to whip out the Kindle and chip away at the reading list. Oh, and one other thing: if you're as addicted as I am, having the purchase of secondary sources one lousy mouse-click away with delivery in seconds is VERY VERY DANGEROUS. :-)

[lee martell]

I have a neighboring family in this apartment complex. They are pleasant and polite. They are most likely illegal, but around here, that is losing any meaning, except as another way to qualify for benefits. I only bring this up as background. This family has 7 year old son, who is constantly playing with computerized toys as he and his little pals sit on the brick steps of this apartment building. I would bet you anything that any of these children, still learning english, could find a way to get around their lesson plan, and over to their game sites if they had enough time. They are like worker bees, and learn together as they play.

[lee martell]

I have not yet written my Great American Novel, or published anything, actually. Based on what you said about the trending and eventual dominance of ebooks, we will have to wait and see. It this trends to completion, I would be concerned about getting paid for my work.

Popular music is going through an economic shakeup, in that, so many people expect to get MUSIC FOR FREE ONLINE, as they have grown up with. What is a musician to do? Just yesterday, I heard that the 80’s group U2,a group that is still quite popular, released a new album online, and for free. They expect to make their money via tours and fan merchandise online. Many retail outlets like Target are furious, because the bait of a new U2 CD or DVD could have attracted customers into their physical stores. That’s how its been done since printed music books were sold. Some of the biggest acts can do this. Madonna and Prince have both given away albums to select fan groups.

[Mad Dawgg]

Ahhh but you see NOW you have changed your reason, BEFORE you said: "in math and science, it was very helpful (for me) to write lots of notes in the margins, highlight or underline things, and circle things for later review. I think this works best with textbooks."

Which as I said CAN be done on a Kindle You can write detailed notes and highlight and even write basic mathematical formulas. I never said you could draw pictures or intricate and complex mathematical formulas and neither did you in your example as why a textbook is better.

[knarf]

I forgot about the page turning feature ... my pastor showed me his and I was impressed.

[ican'tbelieveit]

I am with Mad Dawgg. The advantages to my ebooks are numerous.

I don’t have to carry a book. I can access it on my phone, my computer, my tablet, from any location, and when I open the book, it is right where I left off.

I can footnote and find locations with a search function.

I still buy paper books from time to time - find a good sale on something, impulse purchase.

But I am probably purchasing 20-30 ebooks for every paper book.

[Bob]

I never get distracted by FR when I get into reading something. Ooops, never mind. Back to work. :=)

[Mad Dawgg]

"Some of the biggest acts can do this."

Lots more small acts do as well.

And it does not matter if you put music out in an old fashioned analog Vinyl record either. It will be digitized and uploaded to the net in mere minutes. Same goes for a Dead Tree Media book but it will take just a bit longer.

You will find lots of authors who write good solid fiction and non-fiction can make decent money writing digital books. In fact NOW most independent New Authors write only eBooks and then later make Dead Tree Media Copies either in an On Demand system or short run printings. Or at least this is the info conveyed by the trade paper writers in the industry.

Will everyone who wants to write a book be able to make his/her living at it? Nope it will take talent AND an ability to market the work either independently or through a service/publisher but there is a market for it. But the days of getting paid 20 plus dollars for a book are numbered. Market Economics will see to that.

There will always be piracy. But when the price gets down to a few bucks rather than tens of dollars for a work piracy becomes less of a problem due to the effort it takes to find a book in the right format OR converting it to the right format, then getting it on your device. Such is a bit more complicated then touching a button on the Kindle book shop and waiting for it to download from the cloud. And of course viruses and malware are always a concern when using a torrent site. Such is rare when you are purchasing a legal copy from Amazon or iTunes etc.

[LibWhacker]

I haven’t change my reasons. I didn’t list everything one might want to do in the margins. That would take all day and cover numerous disciplines. A Kindle couldn’t do 10% of it. And what it can do is waaaay too cumbersome and a big waste of time in my opinion (because it is so cumbersome).

I’m sure computers will become much more capable in the future, perhaps even become a lot better for study than the old fashioned way of doing it. Then, I’ll gladly change my tune. But we’re not there yet.

[Mad Dawgg]

Yes, I had a Palm handheld computer years back and my main reason for getting one was digital books. The nearest REAL bookstore to me is 90 minutes one way. This is Hell for someone who sometimes reads 2 books in a day (not talking about door-stopper novels but shorter works with around 400 pages or less like novellas and how to books etc.)

I hated the scrolling up and down even though they had it set so it would snap to the next page it just "felt wrong" I loved the fact I could go online in the middle of the night when insomnia had me in its clutches and with a few clicks of the mouse I had a new book to read. The screen was too small the scrolling annoyed me and the book selection was terrible BUT I could usually find something. BUT after a while the prices started rising and I was not going to pay over ten bucks for a digital download of text WHEN I COULD BUY A PAPERBACK FOR LESS!

So eventually I gave up and went back to Dead Tree Media.

Then a couple of Christmases ago Mrs. Dawgg said we should get Kindles for Christmas. I wanted no truck with it. I had found loads of FREE PDF books online and I could read them on my laptop. I even had a nifty little handheld mouse that allowed me to use my thumb to navigate the PDF (still used up and down scrolling) this allowed me to place my laptop on a small stand and I could lay in bed and read or sit in a chair too and flip through the book using my thumb. I was in heaven.

Christmas comes and I am handed a box and in it is a Kindle Fire. I think great, another digital eBook reader that will charge me mega bucks for books when I can read for Free on my laptop. Then I started messing with it and started reading the book supplied with it and WOW it acted like a real book. Then I found literally THOUSANDS of Free and Legal Kindle eBooks online and the rest is history!

I will still buy really good copies in Dead Tree Media format but they will be leather bound on archival paper etc. Or when I can get a regular copy signed by the Author. But otherwise it will be eBooks for me!