Digital books have been developing for a number of years but only now have they become so user friendly. Digital e ink makes it a lot easier for us to read without any glare from the screen and it also allows for a long battery life. They are incredibly light and you can do a lot more with them than just read books. There are many models available but the one which will probably lead the way is the iPad which allows you to read books, purchase them, bookmark pages, look up individual words in a built in dictionary or on-line, highlight passages that interests you, access internet, play games and so on all in high definition .
Digital books do cost more than the average book but once you have one you have access to thousands of books for free and others you can purchase usually for less than a printed copy. AmazonKindle is claiming to be the most popular product you can buy on Amazon and the Kindle versions of the books are cheaper than the printed books. Publishing houses are closing down on a large scale. In some areas of the UK
We also need to consider the fact that printed books are very costly to produce. Of course there is an option of printing on demand which is great especially for printing desired books which are out print. These were previously too expensive to produce if there was a need only for a few hundred which is not an issue anymore.
Even so the digital version of a book is becoming a lot more popular. Printing millions of books and shipping them all around the world is also not environmentally friendly which is something we really need to consider in this day and age.
Not all the books are available in the digital format yet but it is well on its way. Project Gutenberg which was founded in 1971 by Michael S. Hart is the oldest digital library. Currently it stores over 33,000 books which are available for free or for a low cost to anyone. The books are set in a format usable on most computers. Also, more and more authors are keen for their books to be available in the digital form. There are many educational books available for free on line just waiting to be used.
It seems that this technology has evolved and is available; however schools have not implemented it yet. If schools would get more involved, how would this affect secondary school education? How will this technology affect learning of all the subjects but mainly reading and writing? Is a possible closure of libraries going to affect children’s social behaviour? Are e-books going to make life easier for children as well as teachers? Or is it going to cause problems? I would like to get points of view on this subject directly from teachers, pupils, libraries, digital media companies, publishing houses and the general public.
The need for a school or even a public library may be gone soon as children will be able to search for whatever textbook, novel, poetry or encyclopaedia they need for their subjects online. Copies of all the books will be one day available to anyone so unlike the traditional library, we will be able to access books at any time and at the touch of a screen.
Is going digital in education just the next inevitable step forward or is it unrealistic at the present time?
