Buh-bye, Textbooks?

According to the social media site Mashable, 180 Amazon Kindle books were sold for every 100 hardcover books on Amazon.com last July. And let’s face it -- since prices of the Kindle device ($139) and its e-books have gone down, it seems like it’s only a matter of time before this new technology revolutionizes traditional print books.

Which gets us thinking … if e-books become the new norm, how will it affect college? E-textbooks vary in price -- that is, when they’re offered at all, since many textbook companies have yet to make content available for e-readers. But it’s pretty clear that prices will continue to nosedive, which means your wallet might get heavier as your backpack gets lighter with easy-to-transport wireless reading. The portability of e-readers also makes them perfect for anyone who’s accidentally left a piece of reading at the dorm or waited hours in the guidance office with nothing to do.

Now that Staples has joined Amazon in offering Kindles to consumers, many speculate that brick-and-mortar bookstores will lose some serious market share to e-rivals within the next few years. Barnes & Noble, now up for sale, serves as a precursor.

The downside? Students with vision impairment cannot use the device yet. Just last year, Arizona State University faced a joint lawsuit by the National Federation of the Blind and the American Council of the Blind for distributing e-book-only texts for class. As a result, colleges like Princeton, Pace and Case Western have banded together, agreeing not to use e-book technology until it is accessible to vision-impaired students. (Amazon has responded favorably, adding a new voice guide feature to the Kindle 3 debuting this fall.)

A BusinessWeek article written last June details the results of a Kindle DX academic pilot program launched at seven universities, which found that students experimenting with the device struggled with the e-reader. While students were able to take notes on it, they thought that its file management system and dragging response times were not up to par. Even though students found Kindles convenient for leisure reading, a whopping 86 percent rejected the devices for academic use.

Whether you’re a fan or foe, it’s hard to deny that Kindles are creating waves within the academic sphere. Sound off here to let us know how you think e-readers could change the future landscape of education. ...

Photo Credit:
Kindle image appears Courtesy of Amazon.com