I was reading this article about the technology of the iPad and how Apple is making educational apps, books, and games more available for academic use. What do you think?

What if all of our textbooks were digital, and all we needed to carry around was our iPad? How would that change the way we learn? Suppose the new “digital textbooks” provided interactive resources, such as videos and games, to coincide with the text? Would that be helpful, or distracting? 

I know there are a lot of debates and contrasting opinions on ebooks and reading books digitally. (Discussion on that coming soon to Nerd Quirks).  

But as far as reading textbooks (and only textbooks, not considering books for fun or leisure) digitally, what do you think?

You wouldn’t have to carry around all the heavy textbooks in your backpack, teachers and students wouldn’t have to replace books for vandalism or damages, students wouldn’t be able to say they “forgot their book at home”, and their textbooks for all classes would be available at all times (possibly making doing homework while traveling  or during downtime a bit easier).

Any interactive additions to the text would be refreshing to the learning process. It would be a new way to look at things, and snap many students out of the “I’m reading this, but I have no idea what I’m reading” mindset that many of them fall into. The interactive additions would keep the student’s attention and reinforce information.

Of course, there are still drawbacks. If you go to a school where you own your textbooks, and you’re allowed to make annotations or notes in the book itself, then that will be rather difficult to do digitally, though still possible.

Another potential issue would be the challenge in making sure every student (and teacher) knows how to use the technology. You don’t exactly have to teach a student how to open a book and read it, but you will have to teach them how to adjust to the intricacies of the digital textbook, and also troubleshoot if they run into issues.

There’s also the issue of charging, and everyone having their devices charged so they could read their textbook. What about those families who cannot afford to spend the money on an iPad? 

How can a school make iPads a requirement if the money has to come out of the families’ pockets?

If a school wanted to implement iPads into the learning and teaching system, they would need to ensure that every single student had one. Seeing other students using their iPads in school could be upsetting for those kids who cannot afford them, or aren’t allowed one. That would be even more distracting to their learning process and would instigate jealousy and create high tensions between the students.

To add digital textbooks to the learning system, it would have to be all or nothing.

Obviously there are many other contributing factors to consider. Such as the schools planning on using the iPads or the ages of the students.

What do you think? Do the pros outweigh the cons? How would you feel if you went to school tomorrow and had all of your books taken away and replaced with an iPad?