Students At Lynn University Get iPad Minis Instead of Textbooks 192
Dave_Minsky writes "About 600 students will enter Lynn University's freshman class this year, the largest since 2007, and they will all be using iPad Minis instead of textbooks. The iPads will cost $475, saving students up to 50% of what a semester's worth of textbooks would cost, estimates Lynn. Students will be able to access core curriculum classes on their iPads that are 'enhanced with custom multimedia content,' and will come with 'at least 30 education, productivity, social and news-related iOS apps — some free and some paid for by the university.' This seems to be the beginning of a new era for American colleges. The Boca Raton university is not the first to give iPads to students instead of textbooks. Back in 2010, New Jersey-based Seton Hill University announced it would give students the tablets rather than books."
Am I glad? (Score:5, Interesting)
Considering the cost of one Texbook (Score:4, Interesting)
This could be a good thing, but only if it reduces the price of the average content.
all prices subject to change if publisher feels he needs a bonus
Re:Considering the cost of one Texbook (Score:4, Interesting)
sometimes it is nice to have a book from a class for a while after the class is over. This will also end borrowing books, or buying really cheap used books. And want to retake a class for a better score... buy the book again. Everyone pays full e-price for access to the online content for this semester.
Actually, I like the dead trees (Score:5, Interesting)
My interest in science and technology was sparked by the college textbooks the prior generation left lying around. I'm not really opposed to ditching dead trees for digital, but I either want my access to the content to be permanent, just like a book, or I want the price to be WAY less than 1/2 the cost of buying the books.
Re:Considering the cost of one Texbook (Score:5, Interesting)
Sadly, it won't. One thing companies have shown us is that they have no interest in passing the cost savings of digital distribution on to the consumer. They just look at it as extra profit. "Books" will be as expensive as ever, but will now require the hardware to read them.
What's even more insulting is the number of college courses that require you to purchase a book, only to find out that the teacher will barely use it. There were lots of classes where I was able to just leave the book shrinkwrapped, and just return it after a week or so claiming I purchased an extra on accident.
I like this better the more free books they use (Score:4, Interesting)
As soon as anyone, anywhere in the world, has written a useful textbook with a free license, the whole world gains that textbook.
I hope we will start seeing graduate students writing undergrad textbooks as projects, and releasing them with open licenses. Or seeing "publish or perish" professors satisfying the "publish" requirement by writing free textbooks.
Even if the world only got one useful textbook per year for any given discipline, it wouldn't take many years before students could get a degree using nothing but free textbooks.
Also, for subjects like math, once a textbook is done, it shouldn't take much to keep it current. Even for subjects like computer science where the state of the art is evolving, it would be relatively easy to keep the books up to date, and the basics don't change that much.
Free and available textbooks would be nice to have for people living in wealthy countries, but would be a very big deal for people trying to get an education in really poor places. Etexts are the reason I got excited about the OLPC project when it was announced.
There are plenty of people and companies who like the current system, but there are also plenty of people who have no stake in the current system and could release free books.
If most or all of the books are completely free, then using a tablet is a complete win over dead trees textbooks.