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Published online 1 April 2009 | Nature 458, 568-570 (2009) | doi:10.1038/458568a
News Feature
Technology: The textbook of the future
Undergraduate textbooks are going digital. Declan Butler asks how this will shake up student reading habits and the multi-billion-dollar print textbook market.
The rumble of textbooks thumping on to the desks of a university lecture theatre, the rustle of turning pages, the groan of backpack straps hoisting 10 kilograms of textbooks — these sounds may soon be an echo of the past. This semester, 1,200 students at the University of Texas at Austin (UTA) are foregoing printed textbooks in a pilot trial of Amazon Kindle e-readers stuffed with texts in electronic form.
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The piece I would be most excited about in an e-text is not the reproduction of the paper text but the potential for interaction. A general chemistry textbook where you could get coaching as you work through example problems - where how you responded to questions would guide your progress through the text, these would be fascinating experiments to try. There are platforms, like Mathematica, that can let you implement at least some of these features, I suspect.
The web software technology needed for interactive e-textbooks is still not here. It is coming slowly by the browser development teams of the Firefox and Webkit (Safari and Chrome) browsers. Intresting preview of possible interface to e-textbooks that can soon be implemented by simple HTML and CSS source in webkit can be found conceptually displayed by the CoolIris web plugin for Firefox, Safari and IE.
The evolution of convergent technologies and smarter devices for e-textbooks may make it diffuse faster among the student community in the developed,emerging and newly idustrialising nations where it will also eventually turn out to be a matter of prestige.The lap top- e-reader combination at cheaper prices,and with less stringent digital rights regime may herald in a burst of interest provided flexible flip,scan and print options evolve.Notings and compilations on margins and consolidated formats based on them can make e-textbooks more attractive.Publishers may also take to the innovations since they can vanquish the seconds market through technology based alternatives,with updation options,which is not there with print media seconds.All said and done the charm of a print with its new book smell,look and rustle will be something you will miss out,as also the scope for graphics that catch your eye as naturals. SURESHKUMAR,SCIENTIST AND ADVISER,NIIST,CSIR,TRIVANDRUM,INDIA
E-textbooks need power to work which is bad for future`s energy.
You?ll need more energy to print books (think about paper?s raw material). Part of the future increase in pulp and paper production will depend on the cultivation of fast-growing tree species in warmer climates and on tree plantations where forests are harvested for commercial use.