Another step for e-readers

Amazon's Kindle has been the standard for e-readers for the past few years, but new, lower cost devices are now entering the market and may grab a large share of it. One of the most fought-over components of the e-reader market is textbooks. More and more colleges are using electronic versions of textbooks and K to 12 educators are hoping they can switch to more of them too. The cost and the lack of graphics has been holding back the development, but if the price hurdle can be overcome, the technical difficulties will surely be solved soon. Meanwhile the argument over the usefulness of electronic textbooks is becoming muddled by confusion over textbooks and miscellaneous content from the Internet. A N.Y. Times article reporting on the "death" of textbooks lumps together the use of an authored textbook provided in electronic format on an e-reader with the use of a variety of articles, videos and other material found online. But these are two very different educational sources and both of them are useful in their place. A well-written and ordered textbook can lead students through various concepts and guide them to understanding concepts and actions, while the use of a variety of sources in various formats can bring lessons to life and make them memorable. Both these formats have a place in today's education. Educators can celebrate the advances in technology that make it possible for students to learn effectively and to remember what they have learned. Old formats almost never die, they accommodate the new and we all benefit from the mix.