Now that technology is ever present and parents are looking for ways to engage their children in something educational enter the Nook, Kindle, IPad, Droid tablets, KOBO readers. These electronic reading devices may be just the solution to not only engage students but also alleviate possible longterm health effects.
As a kid growing up I remember lugging around many, many thick and heavy textbooks just to be able to do your homework. The problem – big heavy text books. These textbooks have not only have to be printed and distributed but are not easily replaced due to the logistics of revising the text, reprinting the entire text book with a few minor changes, distribution of the books not to mention the mountains of paper this produces. Certain risks such as destroyed books (vandalism, even theft and replacement costs) should these unfortunate events happen are covered by the child’s parents. The nightmare of tracking these books at the end of the school year for administrators is painful as they have to match each serial number and validate that correct serial number was handed in by the correct student.
Enter technology to rid some of these problems. The use of tablets, Nooks, Kindle, IPad, Kobo reader and any e-reader device can reduce some this confusion. Since books are created in soft copy anyway why not just invest in the hardware with a loaner deposit for the year, download all the textbooks to your e-reader and have them all available in a small, compact and light piece of equipment. The textbook materials can easily be updated with a download from school administrator should it be changed or updated, this reduces the physical costs of distribution and reprinting expenses. Think of the environmental impact alone of not destroying all those trees.
An additional bonus is that by containing multiple textbooks on a small light piece of hardware kids will not have to choose which homework to do as they cannot carry all the required textbooks for completion of all their homework in all subjects. An additional bonus for using these types of devices is that kids won’t become lob-sided by having their backpack over one shoulder all the time causing possible bone related problems to be seen later. Children already have way too much homework this would at least solve one problem in transporting heavy textbooks such as math, science, economics and other heavy textbooks back and forth.
By examining the physical aspects it is possible that an electronic delivery using the cloud medium to deliver content that is easily updateable and cheaper for now. An example of this is that at popular bookstores and sites such as Chapter’s, indigo, Amazon, Barnes and Noble etc. the electronic copies are cheaper to buy than the actual physical book. The advent of the new and many new vendors such as Sony, Vtech, Viewsonic, etc. are also driving prices down for these devices more everyday.
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