E-books or Textbooks?

If you have to make a choice between buying e-books or textbooks (printed books) for use during a semester or for your leisure time reading, which preference would you make?

A lot of comparison has been made between the benefits of e-books and textbooks. One likes e-books may argue that e-books are very easy to get and with regard to price, they are cheaper than textbooks. In addition, e-books are much lighter if you consider taking a laptop and a backpack of textbooks to school. Being environmentally friendly is the most prominent advantage of using e-books: you do not have to kill some trees for a book. However, those who favor textbooks may suggest that it would be hard to locate information especially during a test or writing papers with e-books. Using e-books may save some money, but if you are going to use it as your main reference for a semester or more, you’ll find the print version is easier to search and annotate.

Unfortunately, recent research and studies do not support e-books usage. The biggest con could be the process of reading electronically itself. As the University of Washing study seems to indicate, reading a printed textbook may lead to better recall of the material when it is time to take the exam (Boris, 2012). In addition, fewer college students bought and used e-textbooks in the 2011 academic year than in the year prior, according to a new report conducted among 1,625 college students. While about 6% of the textbooks students bought for courses in the 2010 academic year were digital books, only 3% were digital in 2011, according to the Student Attitudes Toward Content in Higher Education report by the Book Industry Study Group (BISG), an industry research organization (Greenfield, 2012). Among the reasons are that students cannot find the digital format of the course books; and due to the digital rights management (DRM) restrictions on e-books, students cannot share, lend or sell the used books to others.  Kate Garland, a lecturer at the University of Leicester, argues that people recall information through episodic memory or “remembering,” which involves consciously identifying the context in which they learned something, and semantic memory or “knowing,” which does not require context. In the long-term, “knowing” knowledge is better because important facts are recalled faster and more easily, Garland says. Her findings suggest that the shift from “remember” to “know” happened earlier when participants read paper than when they read screens.  A new study by the Joan Ganz Cooney Center at Sesame Workshop examines the way young children relate to stories they encounter in print versus on an e-reader. They found that children who read enhanced e-books recalled significantly fewer narrative details than children who read the print version of the same story –though across all formats, youngsters performed nearly equally when asked to explain a critical element in the story (Chiong, Ree, & Takeuchi, 2012). In other words, studies suggest that there may be significant advantages in printed books if your goal is to remember what you read long-term.

As discussed, both types of books have different strengths. If you want to study complex ideas and concepts that you wish to integrate deeply into your memory, textbooks are best. However, some subjects may be best learnt in a digital format as some studies may indicate (Szalavitz, 2012). As regard to leisure time reading, the choice of e-books or printed books may depend on what types of reader you are. As Coeus (2012) suggests, if you are casual readers (who read between 0-3 books a year), printed books may be best. However, if you are intermediate readers (who read between 4-10 books a year), you should think twice before making the decision as it also costs buying an e-reader of any kind. Finally, e-books makes very much sense if you you are a voracious readers (who reads over 10 books a year). In my opinion, reading is a hobby and also an important means of learning during your lifetime; therefore, just choosing the type of books that you feel most comfortably to do the reading so that the reading and also the learning process can be of great pleasure.

References

Boris, C. (2012). 4 pros and cons of e-readers vs. textbooks. Retrieved from http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/48186058/ns/technology_and_science-back_to_school/t/pros-cons-e-readers-vs-textbooks/#.UJ_WcuSTyGY

Chiong, C., Ree, J., & Takeuchi, L. (2012). E-Books vs. Printed Books: Some New Findings. Retrieved from http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/childrens/childrens-book-news/article/52549-e-books-vs-printed-books-some-new-findings.html

Coeus. (2012). Ebooks vs. Paper Books: The Pros and Cons - 2012. Retrieved from http://coeus.hubpages.com/hub/Ebooks-vs-Paper-Books-The-Pros-and-Cons-2012

Greenfield, J. (2012). E-Textbook Use Down Among College Students. Retrieved from http://www.digitalbookworld.com/2012/e-textbook-use-down-among-college-students/

Li, A. (2012). Tradition trumps tech: Textbooks better than e-books when it comes to learning. Retrieved from http://www.thestar.com/living/article/1152818--tradition-trumps-tech-textbooks-better-than-e-books-when-it-comes-to-learning

Szalavitz, M. (2012). Do E-Books Make It Harder to Remember What You Just Read? Retrieved from http://healthland.time.com/2012/03/14/do-e-books-impair-memory/