Last week the state of California released a list of 10 free digital text books that meet state standards for science and math. The California government is suggesting that using free digital text books is a way for schools to save money during these times of deep budgetary cuts. But is it? Many schools are saying that they can’t afford digital textbooks, free or not. They say using digital textbooks means that students will need access to computers that they don’t currently have. Implementing digital text books will require schools to purchase laptops for each student and to find ways for students to access the text books at home where some don’t have computers.

It’s fair to say that e-books are catching on. Amazon is developing a Kindle 3 and increasingly has more and more e-reader competitors. People are using their cell phone to read books. The United Nations has opened the World Digital Library and is scanning historical documents from libraries around the world. E-books will continue to grow in popularity and become a large part of how we consume information, and digital textbook use will probably increase as well, however are schools ready for this technology today? I think the answer is yes and no.

There are so many educators that want to embrace new technology including digital textbooks, but while there are schools that have computers for every student and have funding for teacher training, all too often schools don’t have this luxury. We need to invest more money into our schools for technology and professional development around using technology so that all schools can jump on opportunities such as free digital text books. It may be a lot to ask in the current economic climate, but as they say, there’s no such thing as a free lunch…or in this case a free book.

(pic from gigapple.files.wordpress.com)