Digital Books Should Replace Text Books - Literature review Example

Digital Books Should Replace Text Books Name Instructor Institution Date Digital Books Should Replace Textbooks Introduction Technology has changed almost every area of our lives. It now dictates how people think, calculate, read, write and even how they school. The education landscape is full of technological products and services that change instruction and learning. A change from traditional textbooks to digital books is one such technological change. Research has shown that the amount of time being spent reading long-form texts is reducing and reading of digital texts is increasing. Digital books are text similar to the printed book but have added characteristics and are designed to be viewed on the computer screen (Maynard & Cheyne, 2005). Digital books exist independent of the devices use to access them. They can be accessed through websites, databases, DVDs and CD-ROMs. Since technological advancement have already created a generational shift, children using e-books from a young age adopt to electronic developments around them. Digital books should replace textbooks because they are cheaper digital, easily accessible and provide a better learning experience. Studies have proved that embracing digital books in schools could mean widening the range of learning tools. E-textbooks do not only motivate learning and influence creativity, but they also save up text book costs and provides great possibilities for the academic sector. Why Digital Books Should Replace Text Books Methods of instruction in schools are changing and so should the tools of instruction. According to Collins and Havelson (2010) technologies like social networking sites, computers, digital media and mobile devices have changed the way people think about learning and schooling. They provide opportunities that everyone wants to explore. As Heider et al (2009) note, the methods of instruction in institutions of higher learning is changing and students are allowed to construct their own learning. Thus, students want to be in more controls of the tools of instructions and are no longer satisfied with traditional text books. Digital books provide a promise for both instructors and students. For instance, Tintinalli (2014) who talks about medical e-books says that today’s medical students find e-books ‘cool’ and well suited for the multitasking and high attention nature of the medicine environment. For teaching to obtain desired outcomes, then institutions of learning need to adopt digital books. Digital books make learning and understanding easier because readers can change the learning experience according to their preferences. Larson et al (2015) says that readers who struggle with reading printed textbooks support digital books because digital books improved their confidence in their reading abilities. In a study that sought to find out if electronic textbooks help children learn, Maynard and Cheyne (2005) found out that using e-textbooks for educational purposes affects student learning and understanding. The study established that students who used e-textbooks scored higher marks than those who used print textbooks. In addition, they found students using digital books to understand and remember facts more. Furthermore, the study found students who used e-textbooks to have a better learning experience especially because it they could interact and collaborate with others. For small children, including music and games on the devices used to access the e-textbooks increases their desire to learn. Digital books provide a greater and faster access to information than traditional text books. According to Maynard and Cheyne (2005), digital books allows students to collaborate with peers as well as with experts which gives their learning higher success rate. Additionally, digital devices have ways of linking digital books with other similar book which makes connection of information easier (Lynch 2001). E-books can have short portions of specific text which is regularly updated and most of the times it is enriched by multimedia features (audio, video and text features). This makes digital book reading an enriching experience. E-books allow students to look up words they are not familiar with, write notes and highlight important sentences. Again, students have the option of changing the font size and use other media like sound and video clips that relate with the text they are reading. In addition, digital books have the advantage of instant availability because one can download them from the internet. Further still, digital books are easier to carry than text books. One can carry a lot of books on their digital library as opposed to a personal physical library where one places text books. One of the most convincing reasons why digital books should replace traditional text books is cost. According to Heider et al (2009) an elementary book goes for $30-100, a college book is about $102, while a used book is $64. Furthermore, a college student uses $900 per year on textbooks. This, plus tuition and other fees required makes the education burden a heavy one. Due to the high cost of new text books, student decide to buy used text books at a cheaper cost. Unfortunately, only used text book dealers benefit from the sale of used books and the authors and publishers do not benefit. Apart from the financial cost of books, Heider et al (2009) provide another cost view. They say that there is the cost of children’s health that result from carrying heavy loads of books on their back. Children in middle-school have been found to suffer from back pain associated with carrying heavy loads. Digital books provide a way in which students can save money and their health. Apart from digital books costing less than the traditional text books, student are able to access free books through the internet or download them for a small fee. For instance, Freeload press is a digital textbook publisher which allows students to download free books and they provide advertisers with information (Heider et al. 2009). Digital books are better than printed textbooks because they have more reading options which enriches the reading experience. Apart from just providing students with books, digital textbooks also provide student with a multimedia interactive reading experience. Sun et al (2012) say that what makes e-books better than their printed versions is the many options they give readers. They have features such as note sharing, highlighting, hyperlinking and searching which improves the reading experience. Most e-book readers rank around-the-clock availability and content searchability as the most attracting features that change their reading experience (Sun et al, 2012). Also, the features such as dictionary, bookmarks and conversion to audio format make users prefer e-books than their printed versions (Larson, 2012). According to Heider et al (2009) this experience is bound to improve since publishers are not accepting to work with institutions of higher learning to tailor-make textbooks for specific courses. Software used in reading these books make it possible to search information which make it easy to get connections in different concepts. Digital books have transformed different kinds of learning. According to Collins and Havelson (2010) one of the schooling that has benefitted from digital books is home schooling. They show that about 41 percent of those in home schooling use distance learning whose success depends on availability of learning resources online. Additionally, tutors can collaborate with parents in helping children with challenging areas. Workplace learning also is highly dependent of availability of course materials and books online. Furthermore, adult education has become way easier with digital books that can be accessed through multiple channels. This is especially so because of the addition of multimedia applications like videos and audio which aids in understanding. According to Sun et al. (2012) teaching of English as a second language has improved by connecting their textbooks with a bilingual dictionary which helps them to look up words they do not understand. Digital textbooks can be revised on regular basis. This makes it easy to add value to the books on an ongoing process. Therefore it is easy for teachers to identify areas of student difficulty and collaborate with authors to revise the books which enhances the learning (Larson, 2015). This may not be possible with traditional text books, and even if it were, it would be at an additional cost. Other advantages of using digital books include; storage, eco-friendliness, transportability and the ability to be used by multiple users. One can store many digital books in a portable electronic device which means they can access the book anywhere (Staiger, 2012). Again, digital books are eco-friendly in that no paper or ink need to be produced to print the books. Further, one digital book can be used by multiple users all over the world compared to the number of print text books that should be printed for such number of users. Arguments against Digital Books Some people argue that reading digital books has a lot of distractions. Bushak (2015) says that digital books have a lot of electronic distractions like social media, phone calls and even text messages when reading books through digital platforms especially on phones. Flood (2014) reports of a study that found out that readers who use Kindle are worse than those who are paperback readers. This is in regards to remembering the plot of a mystery story. Additionally, she says that paperback readers show more narrative consistency, involvement and empathy as compared to iPad readers (Flood 2014). Digital reading has also been criticised in that it is fragmented and full of related links – which could make the reader miss on a lot of information (Bushak 2014). E-books are believed to get in the way of sleeping time. People who read e-books before going to bed are said to take longer to fall asleep and are likely to be fatigued in the morning (Olson, 2014). Reading e-books is also said to cause stress, rather than alleviate it. This is because reading from a digital device disrupts sleep patterns, reduces concentration span and fractures up focus (Bushak 2015). Although Bushak (2015) argues that reading books through digital devices is full of digital distractions, Lynch (2001) says that e-books are independent of the devices that are used to access them. This means that e-books is not the problem but the device used to access it. Thus, different outcomes could be experienced if the book was accessed using a different digital platform. The arguments of how e-books negatively affect sleep, sleeping patterns and concentration do not hold true for digital textbooks but mostly creative and fictional books. In addition, there needs to be a distinction between reader’s behaviour and the effectiveness of the digital platform. Good reading habits could be the solution to many of the negative effects that have been associated with digital books. Conclusion It is evident that digital text books have far reaching benefits compared to their printed counterparts. It could be true that some devices encourage distractions in reading. But rather than disregarding digital books, research should be carried out on what devices should be used for different content. The academic sector should take advantage of the opportunities that technology has afforded to improve teaching and learning by replacing printed textbooks with digital books. References Bushak, L., 2015. Why we should all start reading paper books again. Opinion, 11 January. Available at: [Accessed 11 April 2016]. Collins, A. and Halverson, R., 2010. The second educational revolution: Rethinking education in the age of technology. Journal of Computer Assisted Learning, 26(1), pp.18–27 Flood, A 2014, ‘Readers absorb less on Kindles than on paper, study finds’, The Guardian, August 14, 2014. Available at: http://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/aug/19/readers-absorb-less-kindles-paper-study-plot-ereader-digitisation [accessed 30 April 2016). Heider, K., Laverick, D. and Bennett, B., 2009. Digital Textbooks: The Next Paradigm Shift in Higher Education? AACE Journal, 17(2), pp.103–112. Larson, LC 2012, 'It's Time to Turn the Digital Page: Preservice Teachers Explore E-Book Reading', Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 56, 4, pp. 280-290. Larson, L 2015, 'The Learning Potential of e-Books', Educational Leadership, 72, 8, pp. 42-46 Lynch, C., 2001. The battle to define the future of the book in the digital world. First Monday, 6, 6. Maynard, S. and Cheyne, E., 2005. Can electronic textbooks help children to learn? The Electronic Library, 23(1), pp.103–115. Olson, S 2014, ‘Old-fashioned books are better before bedtime than e-books that ‘damage sleep and health’, Medical Daily, December 23, 2014. Available at: http://www.medicaldaily.com/old-fashioned-books-better-bedtime-e-books-damage-sleep-and-health-315464 [accessed 1 May, 2016]. Staiger, J 2012, 'How E-books are used', Reference & User Services Quarterly, 51, 4, pp. 355-365. Sun, J, Flores, J, & Tanguma, J 2012, 'E-Textbooks and Students' Learning Experiences', Decision Sciences Journal of Innovative Education, 10, 1, pp. 63-77 Tintinalli, JE 2014, 'Real textbooks or e-books: What is happening right now?', Emergency Medicine Australasia, 26, 1, pp. 72-75. Read More