Textbooks and books are here to stay Essays - Education, Technology

Textbooks and books are here to stay Publishing for the K-12 school market is an $8 billion industry, with three companies - McGraw-Hill, Pearson, and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt - capturing about 85% of this market. Tablets are a $72 billion industry with 42% of US adults owning a tablet. As tablets have become more prevalent, a new debate has formed over whether K-12 school districts should switch from print textbooks to digital textbooks on tablets. Although it is true and inevitable that Tablets help students better prepare for a world immersed in technology, there are numerous reasons installing tablets in K-12 schools is not very practical. Tablets are expensive, too distracting for students, easy to break, and costly/time-consuming to fix. Tablets also contribute to eyestrain, headaches, and blurred vision, increase the excuses available for students not doing their homework, require costly Wi-Fi networks, and become quickly outdated as new technologies are released. Handheld technological devices including tablets are associated with a range of health problems. Handhelds contribute to Computer Vision Syndrome, which causes eyestrain, headaches, blurred vision, and dry eyes, according to the American Optometric Association. People who use mobile devices more often have a higher incidence of musculoskeletal disorders associated with repetitive strain on muscles, including carpal tunnel syndrome, neck pain (text neck), shoulder pain, and fibromyalgia (Lin) (Fishman). In addition, manufacturing tablets is environmentally destructive and dangerous to human health. According to the New York Times, the adverse health impacts from making one e-reader are estimated to be 70 times greater than those from making a single book. One tablet requires the extraction of 33 pounds of minerals, 79 gallons of water, and 100 kilowatt hours of fossil fuels resulting in 66 pounds of carbon dioxide. Print books produce 100 times fewer greenhouse gases. Two gallons of water are required to make the pulp slurry that is pressed and heat-dried to make paper, and only two kilowatt hours are required to form and dry the sheets of paper (Goleman and Norris). Using tablets is also a significantly more expensive than using print textbooks. Implementing tablets in K-12 schools requires purchasing hardware (the tablet) and software (the textbooks), building new wi-fi infrastructure, and training teachers and administrators how to use the technology. Implementation costs for e-textbooks on iPad tablets are 552% higher than new print textbooks in an average high school. Lee Wilson, a prominent education marketing expert, estimated the annual cost per student per class with tablets to be $71.55 vs. $14.26 for print textbooks (Wilson). The higher cost of tablets also marginalizes poorer school districts and increases the digital divide. Rich school districts can afford to implement e-textbooks on tablets, while poor school districts cannot. Low income schools are less likely to implement an e-textbook program than to pay for teachers or basic classroom supplies. Even if we overlook the installation costs, there are still other finan cial hurdles to think about. Many students do not have sufficient home internet bandwidth to use tablets. Students need home broadband to access digital content and to complete Internet based homework, according to FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski and Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, but about a third of Americans - 100 million people - do not have broadband internet at home ( Digital Textbook Playbook"). A 2010 FCC survey found that nearly 80% of K-12 schools reported broadband connections that were inadequate to meet their current needs (Fletcher, Schaffhauser, and Levin). As if purchasing and setting up tablets wasn't expensive enough, there is also a huge hidden maintenance fee that comes along with every tablet. A broken tablet requires an experienced technician to fix, which can be costly and time-consuming. On the other hand, textbooks can usually be repaired with basic supplies such as glue or tape. Another setback that comes with digital learning is technical difficulties. Print textbooks cannot crash, freeze, or get hacked. Unlike tablets, there is no chance of getting malware, spyware, or having personal information stolen from a print textbook. The average battery life of a tablet is 7.26 hours, shorter than the length of a school day. Tablets constantly need charging, increasing electricity demands on schools and the need for new electrical outlets ( What Is the