What do you think about E books?

E-books are much better for the environment and they are cheaper but it will take society some time to get used to them. !! As far as a politician endorsing the iPad,I think one of his re-election fund contributors asked him to do that,,netbooks are so much better & cheaper. The screen is the same size and it has a real keyboard versus a virtual one.They can do so much more and the screen is protected when not in use ! The only thing the iPad has over netbooks it’s better graphics !

*I foresee a lot of broken/scratched screens,it’s hard enough to keep the iPhone & iTouch screens from being damaged !

So long as each district is given an option or sufficient and continuous state funding if it’s made mandatory I don’t see the problem with it. This goes both ways, but when reading about budget constraints, lack of text books (current edition or just pure volume), and accessibility it’s pretty easy to see how this can benefit a school system.

I don’t buy the ebooks being better for the enviroment argument.

Sure books are made of trees and you have to cut the trees down but you can then plant more trees and grow more trees which is nice because every ton of wood requires the tree(s) to absorb a ton of CO2 from the atmosphere.

ipads and the like are made of all sorts of weird chemicals and metals which are bad for the enviroment. They require electricty from power stations resulting in more CO2 in the atmosphere (not less with the traditional book). Then theres the infrastructure and the 3G towers pumping out dangerous radiation.

Buy a paper book and read it by candlelight, say I.

@Lightlyseared true about hte chemicals and dangerous radiation. Has anyone seen the video of the test experiment that was done with cell phones and popcorn? They took 7 or 8 cell phones and put them all together and then put a couple kernels of corn on them and then had people call the cell phones at ones, low and behold the kernels turned into popcorn. Kind of scary.

I find most useful e-books because I find it more convenient to analyze certain documents Additionally, you can finally obtain copies of a books. All that searching in a library is a waste of time and it is good for the environment since fewer trees are chopped to make books

I love them as you can search them and find stuff in seconds plus I don’t have to dog ear pages either.

Not for me. I like holding a real book, making notes in the margin, folding down pages, and putting it on the bookshelf when I finish reading it. No batteries required.

@Lightlyseared Don’t discount all the chemicals used in the paper making, recycling, and binding processes. Kids are going to need computers anyway. A device like the iPad makes perfect sense (and can be cheaper than some netbooks). I don’t think that the first generation iPad is the perfect device, but it would work and would give the kids a lot more than an e-book reader for only slightly more money. I think it’s a great idea, and the resistance is futile, the future is coming, and there’s not much paper in it.

I like both – eBooks for convenience – I have several thousand books on mine, and real books for the total pleasure of reading. Each has something that the other lacks.

The schools shouldn’t go into this unless there is a “freeze” on a standard device design. Otherwise there will be no savings if the devices are becoming obsolete every few years. It would benefit everyone (including the environment), if instead of adding more features, a standard notebook computer could be made cheaper, more durable and repairable.

Personally I much prefer to own an actual, physical book than an e-book, for the same reason why I would rather own a CD or LP than an MP3 – it’s a real, physical object, not just data.

@syzygy2600 That’s interesting, and I see your point, but I would say that books are different and are actually more valuable as a physical object than a CD or LP. Books require no additional technology to enjoy, you consume the data from the book directly, and therefore it’s value is far more permanent. One need not fear a loss of power, a worldwide technological apocalypse, or the built in obsolescence of your CD player. A CD or an LP, on the other hand, are just storage mediums, no different, if slightly more robust, than a hard drive. You still need an intervening technology to enjoy the contents. Really it’s the disk drive that is comparable to the CD or the LP, not the MP3 itself, and the question you have to ask is how long a CD or a record will last, particularly assuming you play it a lot, and how long their associated technology will be around compared to the ability to easily transfer the MP3 to a new device.

Sorry, a bit off topic, but just a thought you inspired from me.

@earthduzt The so called experiment you refer to has been proven to be a hoax. See this snopes urban legend report.

@Snarp I get what you’re saying too, but part of the reason why I like to own LP’s is because of the album cover art. (less of an issue with CD’s). Also owning a phyiscal object just makes it seem more real and worthwhile, if that makes any sense.

E books are cheap, easy, and the same quality as real tree-killing books, but more convenient. Heck, why don’t you just go and get yourself an e book right now?

On the other hand, if you lose your eBook, there goes your whole library. If you drop your eBook – there goes your whole library. I don’t think that replacing school textbooks with eBooks will ever be a good idea.

(I did my homework, really I did, but the battery went flat and I didn’t have a backup…)

@mollypop51797 as someone already said, the process of making an e-book reader is more harmful to the environment than cutting down trees to make paper. Trees can be replanted, and unless you live in a Geodesic Dome, I’m assuming your house and many products in it are made from “tree killing” wood. As Darkscribe pointed out, if you loose your ebook, there goes your whole library. As I pointed out, some of us prefer real objects, and loath the idea of staring at yet another computer screen – I already spend enough time in front of one of those.

They are hard on your eyes, as are all electronic view-screens…

@termpapersop Go away with your spam

I also think that Ebooks are hard on the eyes, but you have to look at what the possibilities are for Ebooks. At some point people are going to start writing books intended as Ebooks. Imagine the possibilities – embedded hyperlinks for sound and videos. One convenience would be to have a popup box when you want to look at a footnote. For textbooks there are all kinds of possibilities. One obvious feature would be the ability to download corrections to errata. You could automate the self-help quizzes at the end of chapters. Textbooks frequently have outlines of what material to read for various objectives. It would be nice to be able to select one of the objectives and have that material automatically chosen. There could also be options to select more detailed explanations for particularly difficult parts.