<p>Hi!
My son begins college soon. He is interested in digital textbooks. Have your children used digital textbooks? Thoughts? I would hate for him to spend all of his money on digital textbooks to find out he does not like them. I told him that he might not like reading chapters on a laptop. Anyway, I would appreciate any thoughts regarding this decision. Thanks.</p>
<p>I almost exclusively use digital textbooks. When Gigapedia/Library.nu were up they were free, but I don’t know how well I’ll be able to find them now. Occasionally I would print out chapters but usually I just read them from the computer and it was fine.</p>
<p>The main advantage of a digital textbook is that you have ctrl+f. It can save you a lot of time.</p>
<p>Thank you for the reply. What do you mean about the ctrl + f key? How does that save time? Thanks.</p>
<p>ctrl+f is the search function.</p>
<p>allboyz</p>
<p>You might try asking your son to download PDF textbooks from Google books – choose the free books option – and see if he is able to study effectively using a tablet or ereader.</p>
<p>There are also online textbook sites like Coursesmart that let you run a free trial.</p>
<p>My kid tried it but he prefers having the physical book because it’s easier to flip pages and there is an aspect of movement memory involved with feeling the position of the page of the book that an excerpt is on. This kinesthesia is not available using digital format. But, conversely, you can’t cut 'n paste an entire page of text on a non-digital book, et cetera. Also, on a digital processing device, there is that gnawing urge to play Angry Birds when one should be studying Econ.</p>