<p>How many of you think textbooks are too heavy? Well there are 2 options that publishers are thinking about in making textbooks easier to carry (lighter).</p>
<p>1) Give the textbook separate "partitions" like magazines that students can remove and reinsert with a zipper (at the spine). This way, students can take only the relevant section since a student never need a complete textbook at one time. It can be put into a student's folder and be used just like a regular book. Later, it can be reinserted easily once a whole book is needed. (for selling, borrowing..etc)</p>
<p>2) Make a electronic version e-book, sort of like PDAs that allow textbooks to be downloaded and be read on a screen. New technology allows the screen to be "paper like" so it's easy on the eye. Student can turn pages by pressing "next page" buttons. There is a advantage since students can put many textbooks into the device. Device cost $300 at first but digital textbooks may be 20% cheaper than regular textbooks since there is no printing and distribution. Disadvantage includes: device can be dropped or lost, might take some get used to, not as tangible as a paper book, security rights still need to be sorted out first in order to fight piracy. Digital data might be last as long or reliable as paper prints. </p>
<p>Your opinion is appreciated since it'll determine the future. Please say which option you prefer. Thanks.</p>
<p>I like option 1. Even separate soft back sections in a ring binder would work. I think my middle school daughter has developed back problems because of carrying too much weight. The maximum load should be no more than 15% of your body weight, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics.</p>
<p>I love both of them! Digital books are the future, we need to stop cutting all these trees and such. Its only a matter of time before we all have tablet pcs to view books on and have small flash cards with books in em.'</p>
<p>Chalk, why on Earth do you find these ideas undesirable? Do you really want to carry a heavy textbook to class when you're only going over one of the chapters in lecture????</p>
<p>I agree with chalk. I like textbooks the way they are. Electronic/digital books are inferior to the real thing, in my opinion. And adding zippers and such will just make the books bulky and annoying.</p>
<p>Plus, I've never taken a textbook to any lecture, and I've rarely seen anyone take out theirs.</p>
<p>I also do not like either option. Because I never take textbooks to class, the first option would not be helpful to me. Like the previous poster said, it would only make the books more bulky and difficult to manage. Also, I strongly dislike reading textbook information online, and I always print everything anyway. Both options are undesirable, and textbooks are fine the way they are.</p>
<p>Well, there ARE people that carry their textbooks to labs, etc.</p>
<p>Plus, don't forget the high school kids that must carry MULTIPLE books on a daily bases.</p>
<p>dukeclass, you don't have to read anything online. You download it to your memory card and you read it on a device with a screen that looks just like paper.</p>
<p>The zippers really wouldn't make the textbooks more bulky. They are small and transparent, like those sandwich bag zippers. It'll be like a regular textbook if you choose not to use the zippers.</p>
<p>I personally don't find screens a good substitute to paper, but maybe I'm just old-fashioned. The thought of reading something (especially mathematics) off a screen for long periods of times doesn't seem too appealing. Like dukeclassof09, I usually print everything. There's nothing like a good hardcopy.</p>
<p>The zippers would make the textbook bulkier, or at least less elegant or not as slick, no matter how inconspicuous they are.</p>
<p>yeah, I'm not a fan of either option. There've been a couple of times that I've had to use a book on the computer rather than a bound copy, and I couldn't stand it. For one thing, technology can fail sometimes. If I had a $300 dollar machine, what would happen when it broke or I lost it two days before a major test? It's harder to lose a textbook (especially, as some people have mentioned, when most professors don't require that they be brought to class), and it's really really hard to do something to it that makes the writing illegible. I mean, if a drink got spilled on a textbook, you could still read the print, but if it got spilled on a mini-computer type thing, that'd be it.</p>
<p>As for the zippers, why not just start selling the books in a three-ring-binder format rather than have zippers? Wouldn't a binder be less expensive than selling a book with zippers running down the spine?</p>
<p>A binder is much more bulky than zippers. the zipper can be made extremely tiny and costs 1 cent. The ring has to much larger than the books or else you can't turn it. Imagine replacing the spine of the book with a HUGE circle. You also have to take out anything you want to read since it's hard to read while it's on a binder. Go get a magazine, punch 3 holes and put it into a ringed binder and see if you can flip open the magazine .A three ringed binder is only good for loose leaf, not when you want a whole chapter with you. And you need to first remove all the things on top of it until you can remove it or put it back. What if you want to remove chapter 2 but the place where the ring opens is between chapter 7 and 8? </p>
<p>A zipper is better because you can separate a 700 page book into 5 sections and each section is bound to the spine with a tiny inconspicuous zipper that can be used very easily (or none at all,and still be like a regular textbook). But in case of the high school kids, they can just put a whole chapter into their folder and leave the book home and still be able to do classwork, or do homework at school, study with friends, etc...</p>
<p>Remember back in high school how annoying it was to carry those heavy books and having to go to the locker often because we don't want to carry 3 books at a time? Remember how we have to drag 30 lbs of books every night just because we have homework for all 5 classes? Tons of high school kids I used to know have poor postures and slouched backs. </p>
<p>As to the electronic version. We are not talking about computer screens or LCDs or anything that kills your eye. We are talking about e-papers, a future technology that allows a paper with "electric ink" that can change at command. It looks almost like a printed page rather than a computer screen. Do a Google search on "e paper". But you press a button to "flip" page and it takes battery power when you change pages. It doesn't need battery if you don't change pages or "flip".</p>
<p>In terms of college text books, I don't think either of these is really necessary. High school is different, but this is more a college board (thus College Life) than a high school board.</p>
<p>But high schools probabily wouldn't want to use any electronic textbooks. Ease of use aside, do you think it's a good idea for high schools to adopt electronic textbooks if only 5% will ever need fixing and you only need to change batteries every month, assuming you don't do too much "flipping" the pages. </p>
<p>Not many students pour drinks onto things or drop/bump things right? Just have to be careful with it in the back pack. What about losing things or getting stolen? How often does that occur? If the aboved mentioned things are not rare, then I would still think a paper book is preferred.</p>
<p>How reliable are digital devices in general? It would be bad if the data get corrupted or something screw up.</p>
<p>What needs to be done is to eliminate photographs, especially from subjects where they are completely unnecessary like math. I have my grandfather's old college algebra book, and it's about as big as Harry Potter 3 (hardback). My book, which covers the same stuff, is to a Hummer what my grandfather's is to a Honda Civic. This thing is HUGE (though not as big as the calc books, which are nearly as effective as dumbells in terms of weight training).</p>
<p>Eliminating pictures (and color in general) could save on costs. I use a monochrome laser printer myself and it costs me about $400 to print 10,000 pages. Using color would up that cost to the $1500 mark or so.</p>
<p>This would work--smaller books, lower price...we need a throwback to the 1940s!</p>
<p>There is no way a zipper system could work efficiently, it would be bulky and a pain to work with.</p>
<p>I'm surprised no one has brought up the issue of the massive copyright infringement that would result if books were made digital. Everyone would just steal a copy of all the textbook they needed for classes and the manufacturer/publisher/author would make no money off of selling the book.</p>
<p>I'm surprised no one has brought up the issue of the massive copyright infringement that would result if books were made digital. Everyone would just steal a copy of all the textbook they needed for classes and the manufacturer/publisher/author would make no money off of selling the book.</p>
<p>But you could do that for downloading Ipod songs and share it with friends too? Can you? Or am I wrong?</p>