Textbooks are going to remain a key part of learning. They just need to go digital, become more interactive and they need more analytics.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
Students do everything on laptops these days, so I definitely think electronic books are a trend that's going to expand.
By 2025, we can expect the world to be completely digital. Paper books will be a thing of the past. Education will be delivered through analytics-based assessment tools and adaptive learning platforms.
Publishers, naturally, loathe used books and have developed strategies to depress the secondhand market. They bring out new, even more expensive editions of popular textbooks every three to four years, in a classic cycle of planned obsolescence.
I would not minimize the digital divide, which separates the computerized world from the rest, nor would I underestimate the importance of traditional books.
The Internet's impact is immense. My students can't imagine ever paying for a book.
We see ourselves as the world's digital library. That can be a lot more than books. We do want to expand to other types of content: sheet music, magazines, user-generated content.
The content of most textbooks is perishable, but the tools of self-directedness serve one well over time.
Using a service such as Chegg.com, students can save on average more than $600 a year when they rent textbooks over purchasing them.
Digital texts are all well and good, but books on shelves are a presence in your life. As such, they become a part of your day-to-day existence, reminding you, chastising you, calling to you. Plus, book collecting is, hands down, the greatest pastime in the world.
Textbooks are no longer given to schoolchildren; they're too expensive. So they're given to the teachers, who probably need them more.