CRANKY GENIUS

Students in the US educational system listen to music and watch video on their iPhones. They read news and keep in touch using Twitter and texting. Meanwhile, hardcopy newsprint is rapidly disappearing, television is no longer subject to time slotting, and devices like Amazon’s Kindle and Sony’s Reader are driving readers away from bookstores. Yet schoolage children lug outdated, heavy, hardbound books back and forth to school each day, books that are seriously outdated, easily vandalized, and increasingly irrelevent. America’s schools need to abandon hardcopy books, now!It’s rediculous to continue with traditional books when information today is so freely available in electronic form. Schools are strapped for cash and dwindling state budgets continue to force cuts on classrooms. Moving to electronic books could save school districts and colleges as much as a half billion dollars year in and year out.

Imagine the savings! Manufacturing and shipping would be a thing of the past. Updating content could be instantaneous. Student’s backpacks would weigh a dozen or so pounds less and reduce back injuries.

Today’s electronic readers might not stand up to the wear and tear induced by a third grader. So this program would have to start at the college and high school level. Starting the program with older students could produce savings right away, savings which could fund development of readers for elementary and middle students that would be as sturdy as a Nintendo DS.

Digital textbooks will also increase general market for electronic publishing , which would drive prices for all electronic books down – including college textbooks which is an enormous cost to college and university students.

There are already a half million public domain titles ready for electronic readers, so there’s plenty of content. And as publishers and bookstores finally enter the 21st century (as their news, video and music counterparts have had to do), the market would be transformed. Supplies of used books will dwindle, prices of new books would decrease,  and content providers (i.e., authors) would benefit greatly. Consequently ,the market for producing textbooks would become more lucrative to authors and editors, which would increase the competition to produce better quality textbooks.

But it’s got to start with a large scale initiative like a nationwide program to switch our educational system to electronic textbooks. It’s inevetable. Defending the status quo is wasteful and futile.