new college textbook ebooks article

fulltext · 08-09-05, 08:07 PM

Interesting article on an experiment with digital textbooks -
http://news.com.com/Coming+to+campus...?tag=nefd.lede

08-09-05, 09:55 PM

Very interesting article. I have just given my X5 to my College bound daughter (since I got myself an x50V) and it would be nice if she could download her tedxt books into it. All during her earlier school years she had to lug 20 to 40 pounds of books back and forth every day and it was a chore for her. I think e-books could find a real home on laptops and PDA's. At least one of her college bound friends was telling us this weekend that the college will provide her with a Laptop as part of her tuiton fee's and that some of the science classes will be providing the students with DVD's and CD's with data and information.
A 5 or 6 pound laptop is much easier to lug than all those Text booxs....and we all know that PDS's are even lighter.......amazing stuff going on in the world and we don't always pay enough attention to what is going on until it jumps up and slaps us in the face....lol

Kamokazi · 08-09-05, 11:18 PM

OMG HELL YES!! And they gotta be cheaper too! I would kill to put all my texts in ebook format. I could compeltely ditch my backpack!!!

tadw · 08-11-05, 12:12 PM

Don't be too excited about these news. This project is killed by DRM:

* Textbook is locked to the computer where you downloaded it from;
* Copying and burning to CD is prohibited;
* Printing is limited to small passages;
* Unless otherwise stated, textbook activation expires after 5 months (*gasp*);
* Activated textbooks are not returnable;
* Buyback is not possible.

08-11-05, 01:04 PM

But cost is 33% of paper book price. You can usually only sell books back for about 30%. If you are not going to reuse the book and depending on the DRM to move it to a pda for reading, it might not be too bad.

Rob83 · 08-11-05, 01:30 PM

I wish we could purchase textboos in pda format. Even if it costs MORE. Sometimes I have 5 classes in a row, all of them requiring the textbook in class. Factor each book is a good 2-3 pounds, I hate to carry 10 lbs around!

fff · 08-12-05, 08:18 AM

Originally Posted by Rob83

I wish we could purchase textboos in pda format. Even if it costs MORE. Sometimes I have 5 classes in a row, all of them requiring the textbook in class. Factor each book is a good 2-3 pounds, I hate to carry 10 lbs around!

i'm a college prof in nyc-and i certaily agree that students have to carry far too many books. i think if pda/laptops were enough en vogue, then books could be stored electronically and would be very useful.

i design my courses to run off an x50v and vga cable so that i can put just about any info there and "project" it to the students. hopefully this will eliminate the need for our "10 lb. text."

charlie

Kamokazi · 08-12-05, 09:54 AM

Originally Posted by tadw

Don't be too excited about these news. This project is killed by DRM:

* Textbook is locked to the computer where you downloaded it from;
* Copying and burning to CD is prohibited;
* Printing is limited to small passages;
* Unless otherwise stated, textbook activation expires after 5 months (*gasp*);
* Activated textbooks are not returnable;
* Buyback is not possible.

Yes, such a shame DRM is foolproof and impossible to crack :approve:

Rob83 · 08-12-05, 10:04 AM

Originally Posted by fff

i'm a college prof in nyc-and i certaily agree that students have to carry far too many books. i think if pda/laptops were enough en vogue, then books could be stored electronically and would be very useful.

i design my courses to run off an x50v and vga cable so that i can put just about any info there and "project" it to the students. hopefully this will eliminate the need for our "10 lb. text."

charlie

hey and I'm a college student!

Some of my professors are great when it comes to technology, using all means necessary to make our learning experience far more advance than just regular textbooks.

And the worse professors IMO are the ones who are stationed in a classroom (their own classroom) and require these large textbooks (ie. BIOLOGY, CHEMESTRY).

08-12-05, 10:12 AM

I know lots of medical students that already have texts and medical suites on their pda. I have 5 etexts that I use everyday during my clinicals. So much easier to carry and so much easier to find information. The olnly thing is, I have not seen a price break when compared to the print version. But the convenience factor is unbeatable. I hope more universities adopt this policy. Althohg I am not sure about the expiration time.

Monk

fulltext · 08-12-05, 08:13 PM

Now it looks as if they may loosen the time restrictions ... at least in this testing phase. Another reason for concern, IMHO is they choose probably the worst ebook DRM out there, considering Adobe's pullback and recent statements.

http://news.com.com/Publishers+loose...l?tag=nefd.top

tropicallie · 08-13-05, 06:53 PM

I think this is a fabulous idea. The part I don't like is expiration time. A lot of the reference texts I had to purchase I needed the entire 4 years. And still referred to them for a couple years after graduation until they became obsolete and were replaced by more current editions. Most of my reference texts now are DM format and have no expiration or they charge a reasonable yearly fee for updates.

theoverdark1 · 08-31-05, 01:59 PM

I am a student at the University of Phoenix. All of our text books are available in etext. The ability to d/l ebooks onto my axim will allow me to read anywhere anytime.

stevenator65 · 08-31-05, 02:20 PM

I like the idea, but I love books, too. I still have some of my text books from 18 yrs ago. W/e books you will lose them after a specified period of time and never have them again. Also, reading from a book is easier and you can underline and make notes in the margin. The savings in cost, paper and weight are nice, however.

MariEmerald · 09-28-05, 04:13 PM

I want anything BUT textbooks in my heavy bookbag! The weight is unecessary, and e-textbooks are much easier to read, carry, highlight and annotate in my Axim. I don't enjoy being a college student in today's time when, soon, high school students will only be using electronic devices for almost all their school related assignments!