Som years ago I worked on a user experience research project for an eBook reader. These days I'm a college psych professor.
eBooks currently appeal to only a very small number of students. I think the reason is usability: --eBook readers are a pain to read --Reading lots of text on a computer screen is not easy on the eyes --On either a reader or a laptop you're going to be limited by battery time, or tethered to a spot --Books take a beating a lot more easily than electronics --Books won't have tech support issues, they're unlikely to break in an unrecoverable way --Books can be resold --Books are more easily markable --Books don't have to be booted up in order to quickly look something up --Books are more accessible to a wider array of students
Now, there are certainly advantages to eBooks. Currently my publisher offers an eBook of my Intro Psych text for about half the price of the original, so the student will be better off going that route than buying new and reselling to the bookstore. An eBook reader or laptop is certainly easier to carry than a stack of 6 700 page books, too. But I think that overall, the eBook is just not a mature technology yet in terms of the comparability of its user experience with that of regular old books.
As for my classroom - I've been frustrated recently when one text was updated after only 21 months. Grrrr. But I leave a copy of each text on reserve at the library for student use.
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Som years ago I worked on a user experience research project for an eBook reader. These days I'm a college psych professor.
eBooks currently appeal to only a very small number of students. I think the reason is usability:
--eBook readers are a pain to read
--Reading lots of text on a computer screen is not easy on the eyes
--On either a reader or a laptop you're going to be limited by battery time, or tethered to a spot
--Books take a beating a lot more easily than electronics
--Books won't have tech support issues, they're unlikely to break in an unrecoverable way
--Books can be resold
--Books are more easily markable
--Books don't have to be booted up in order to quickly look something up
--Books are more accessible to a wider array of students
Now, there are certainly advantages to eBooks. Currently my publisher offers an eBook of my Intro Psych text for about half the price of the original, so the student will be better off going that route than buying new and reselling to the bookstore. An eBook reader or laptop is certainly easier to carry than a stack of 6 700 page books, too. But I think that overall, the eBook is just not a mature technology yet in terms of the comparability of its user experience with that of regular old books.
As for my classroom - I've been frustrated recently when one text was updated after only 21 months. Grrrr. But I leave a copy of each text on reserve at the library for student use.