The Technology Transition

Anna Smoak

The world is becoming more and more technology based everyday. It is required in almost all colleges now that the students own laptops, and use them as the primary means of communication. And even more than that e-books are becoming more and more popular. While e-books may be more cost effective and easily accessible, they lack the ability to write on their margins or easily turn the pages. Specifically, they aren't hard texts.

Yes e-books are more cost effective, and more environmentally friendly. Mr. Humphrey, a Professor at Arizona State University argues: he is excited that the device will let students bring all 17 assigned texts to every class. That way they can look at all of the texts at once.No problem. That AND the e-books are more cost effective? Don't let these words fool you. E-books are more cost effective for the publisher. There is no cost difference, in most cases, for the consumer.

E-books are also argued to be more environmentally friendly. Not having to use hundreds of pages of paper for thousands of copies of a textbook. But this is not necessarily true since it takes power and energy for the laptops, or desktops to run while reading the e-book.

E-books simply cannot replace hard copies of textbooks. The constant focus on the screen can strain your vision, making reading take longer. It can prove difficult to find what page you are supposed to start reading from. And it can take longer and reduce the effectiveness of writing notes in the margins, or underlining. E-books shouldn't be a requirement for college courses for those of us that just function better with hard copies. And there aren't as many advantages to e-books as publishers would have you believe. Let the student choose what they want and they will learn the materials better and more effectively.