Making the Case for Traditional Textbooks

Access to course textbooks is key to a college student's success. I learned early in my college career the vast difference between using traditional and digital textbooks. Digital Textbooks can be convenient to the extent that a student doesn't carry 2.5 kilograms on his back. However, when it comes to learning, a traditional textbook provides many more options to the student. A student has only one type of interaction with the traditional textbook because it covers only one subject and doesn't provide distractions one touch away. If a computer is being used to compose an assignment, a student with a traditional text book would have the luxury of not changing between windows to read the book while completing the assignment. Two entire pages are in the field of view of the student, and the text size is already appropriately set. The most comfortable feature that traditional textbooks provide is the ability to flip between pages easily, highlight key points, and write off to the margin. Digital textbooks attempt to provide similar features, however technology has not come far enough to mimic that experience. A textbook is not dependent on a battery life or susceptible to failure if the medium is not reliable, be it an iPad, ebook, or laptop. There are also social consequences when dealing with digital textbooks. A user is handicapped from loaning it to another student or sibling without engaging in illegal activity such as pirating or duplicating the digital textbook. Mass and price, two leading factors causing students to gravitate towards digital textbooks, should not be the reason to substitute a traditional textbook for a digital one.