How Cell Phones are Changing the World
15 years ago
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Monday, August 10, 2009
The Digital Future
It's official. The NY Times says today that textbooks are a thing of the past. "Kids are wired differently these days...they don't engage with textbooks that are finite, linear and rote." What do you think about that? Do you prefer that all material required for coursework is conveyed to you digitally? What are the advantages of such a program? What's the downside? This course is going to focus on online resources as well as online storage of your study materials. Tell me how that works for you.
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I would not like textbooks being completly digital. I like to read the book while i'm doing work on the computer. Also, having full books saved on your computer, or even loading full textbooks online, would take up space and time. Although the internet is great for studying, and a great way to keep yourself organized, i think that textbooks should remain as books.
ReplyDeleteI personally like that reading material is going digital. I have read one ebook in my life and I read through it much faster and had a better comprehension of what i had read than any paperback or textbook i had read.
ReplyDeleteThere is something on the market already. The Kindle from Amazon is already taking the place of many books. A lot of students have used the Kindle to read the books they need for class. With the Kindle the student can essentially carry around all of their books at once. It is great because the screen of the Kindle is illuminated in such a way as to not strain the eyes in the same way a computer screen does. The price is also much more affordable after the initial buy. The Kindle is expensive, however, the digital text cuts out the cost of printing, binding, and distributing. There is a push to get textbook companies to publish on Kindle. So far, majority of actual textbooks have not made it onto the list of things you can download to Kindle. Hopefully, textbooks can get on Kindle soon, and cut our cost down significantly. Also, we would be able to essentially carry all of our books around at once. The bad side: Kindle is digital, and digitalization has its flaws along with all technology. Kindle gets the books from Amazon. Something went wrong with the publishing rights, and Amazon deleted the book. This subsequently took every deleted book off of the Kindle of every person who already purchased it. There is currently a lawsuit and policies trying to make sure this doesn't happen again. One new report of it can be found on CBS ( http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/07/31/tech/main5201198.shtml ) In the end, the Kindle is technology and is subject to all of the negatives associated with computers and such.
ReplyDeleteI personally would not like having textbooks on the internet. I'm more of a hands on learner. If i wanted to print the chapter out and my printer didn't work, or was somewhere that I could not print it out I would have to read it online. I also don't like looking at computer screens for a long time. If i had to study for a test entirely on the computer it would get annoying. I do think that some online study materials are helpful, however I think text books should stay as they are.
ReplyDeleteI agree that we are currently living in a time period where everything is starting to go digital. With that I don't think textbooks, homework and other course work should go 100% digital. I don't mind doing homework online, it actually make's things easier to get to from any location. However for me, I need a hard copy of what I'm reading. I don't know if it is just me or if other people are like this, but when I'm reading things for extended periords of time (much like what I'd be doing for a textbook) I would much rather it be a textbook over a digital copy. I feel that both versions should be available to students, that way we could pick whichever works best for us.
ReplyDeleteI don't know. I think that both versions, digital and hard copy, should be available to students. I enjoy email and recieving assignments and news online, but I don't think I would want to have a digital copy of a textbook. I'm more of a visual person, so I want to be able to highlight and take notes as I read. I'm not that great at reading stuff off the computer either so a hard-copy of a textbook is what I prefer.
ReplyDeletePersonally I would rather have a hard copy in front of me, whether it be printed or in a book doesn't really matter, but in my opinion, it is easier to buy a book then to continuously be printing things throughout the semester. I get distracted very easily and when I have to read things online it is way too easy to have several windows open with facebook and yahoo and twitter and IMs with friends etc. Don't get me wrong, when I'm reading I can be just as distracted but there's nothing like laying in bed reading a book then sitting at a desk staring at a computer screen.
ReplyDeleteI would much rather have access to hard copies of books and homework than to have all my supplies online. When I am online or just using the computer without the Internet, I am too tempted to waste time on frivolous sites or games. Plus, the eye strain really gets to me after a while! And what will happen during a storm or power outage? Will my homework just have to wait?
ReplyDeleteWell, first of all, digital books would cause damage to people's eyes, because of the backlights required for the screens. Displays that do not need backlights, such as E-paper, aren't really common enough or developed enough to allow digital textbooks to be a viable possibility right now. Furthermore, if any of you followed what happened with the Amazon Kindle, after deals with the rightsholders of George Orwell's work went south, Amazon remotely deleted every copy of 1984 of Kindles all over the country. With such a thing a possibility, I would never buy an e-book over the internet, let alone a textbook required for class. Also, I kind of just like having a textbook that I can hold, read, highlight, and scrawl notes in.
ReplyDeletei find that its easier for me to remember and complete homework thats assigned the oldfashioned way. i think this is because the internet is used, for the most part, as entertainment. when i have an assignment online i confuse the entertainment with the work and usually either fail to find the assignment or completely forget it altogether
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ReplyDeleteI spoke with Dr. Hugh Riley, a nueropsychologist at Baylor and he simply told me, "Look at technology then...and now. The world is at your fingertips." As much as I agree with Dr. Riley and use the internet to research topics and the such, I still like pen and paper. Why? Well, first, it is personable when writing a letter verses an e-mail or text. Secondly, it helps you to practice your penmanship and writing skills for writing is a form of communication and employers find it very important that you know how to talk, type, and write. Thirdly, when it comes time to prepare for an exam, you rewrite notes from class in your own words whether down on paper, flashcards, or a combination of both.
ReplyDeleteEven though it takes a lot of time, in the end, the pros outweigh the cons.
I personally would prefer all my coursework to be conveyed to me digitally. I spend most of my time on a computer anyways, whether on bearweb, blackboard, or facebook. Students are using computer for everything these days so why not go digital with school work? The upside to going digital would be that you can retrieve class information from anywhere and at any time, but the downside would be that students might get distracted and go on other websites instead. It is a risk that will have to be taken.
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