South Korea Looks to Replace School Textbooks with Tablets By 2015

Daily Tech ^ | July 4, 2011 | Tiffany Kaiser

[decimon]

In addition, South Korea will create a cloud-based server system for its schools that allows students to download textbooks on their tablets

Mobile devices have become a crucial part of everyday life for many people. More recently, tablets have gained popularity as new models, such as Apple's iPad 2 and Samsung's Galaxy Tab, have upped the mobile experience.

Furthermore, tablets are not only being used for entertainment purposes. More and more businesses and schools are replacing textbooks and print manuals with tablets. For instance, Alaska Airlines replaced its flight manuals with iPads, and American Airlines is looking to adopt the tablet as well.

[decimon]

Here it comes, ready or not.

[gleeaikin]

I’ve seen the new Kindle, but it still does not beat curling up with a good book.

[Moonman62]

The textbook market in America is so corrupt, I don’t see this happening soon.

[COBOL2Java]

North Korea will replace them with REAL tablets!

[cranked]

Simply the wave of the future, like it or not.

[cranked]

I teach at a university and be assured, its happening faster than you think regardless of the alleged corruption in our textbook market.

[ilovesarah2012]

I was thinking the same thing.

[decimon]

“Simply the wave of the future, like it or not.”

And that’s throwing a wrench into my well-oiled cognitive dissonance. ;-)

Should I next go desktop or laptop and where might a tablet fit in?

[StormEye]

"I’ve seen the new Kindle, but it still does not beat curling up with a good book."

I agree with you. I prefer paper. There's nothing wrong with Kindle or iPad put I prefer books when it comes to my serious reading or studying.

[Moonman62]

Alleged? For the prices charged, they should be printed on gold leaf. And coming out with new editions every year with minor changes so students have to buy a new book has been going on for decades.

[RayChuang88]

South Korea can pull this off because they have the best cellular data network in the world, one capable of downloading at 6-8 megabits per second anywhere in major South Korea metropolitan areas. As such, that makes it possible for quick downloading of textbooks and other school-related materials.

Question though: will the South Korean schoolchildren using these tablets use a future version of the Apple iPad or a future version of the Samsung Galaxy Tab?

[tflabo]

Paper or plastic iPad. Plenty of trees left for toilet paper or for the Feds printing worthless US dollars on.

[cranked]

Coming out with a new edition with minor changes does not force students to buy those newer editions....professors do. Accordingly, I can agree that book prices are utter ridiculous, hence why I tell my students to buy their required course textbooks from Amazon, etc....and to buy them used.

[KarlInOhio]

Electronic formats are OK (not great) for reading a book from beginning to end. None of them are good at flipping between multiple bookmarked places or switching between the text and footnotes and glossary of a complicated book.

[gleeaikin]

Also, you cannot make notes in the margins like I do on scientific books or books I am keeping for research and writing projects. Also I read so fast that there just are not enough words on a Kindle page.