Is the iPad textbook revolution really worth it?

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The discussion centers on the potential impact of Apple's iPad on the textbook market, highlighting both advantages and disadvantages. Digital textbooks offer easy updates, portability, and dynamic features, but require an iPad, which may limit accessibility for some students. Concerns are raised about the quality of digital conversions, particularly for complex materials like math textbooks, and the pricing often does not reflect the benefits of eBooks. Users express a preference for physical books due to ease of note-taking and flipping through pages, while some see potential in future iPad features for better annotation. Overall, while the iPad's textbook revolution presents exciting possibilities, significant challenges remain regarding cost, accessibility, and usability.
  • #31
I have been using an Ipad as a textbook for about a year and a half...I used an Ipad 2 for a year of that.

Despite the pro of saving my back because of massive first year hardback books, I began to dislike the ipad. There is nothing more tiring than looking at a back lit screen. Also the complete lack of effective page flipping for quick referencing makes it one more frustration when school homework can be frustrating enough. Sure there are lots of great apps for .pdf reading and often the textbooks are cheaper or free as .pdf. I have found that you just can't beat a physical book with pages, A book is so simple to customize and easy to access the organized info within the book and with no distractions. I get better grades reading from a physical textbook, that for me is why I have switched back...Its almost the Elliott Sober version of Occam's razor at work. "The simplest theory is the more informative one"I want to emphasize that its not the material of the “book /.pdf/media” that I grew to dislike on ipads. I dislike that the ipad media was not physical.The IPad can’t compete with the simplicity of just turning a page by hand.

Beating a dead horse here...If your looking for help on a HW problem chances are the info is free on youtube/or here on the forum and better that any new Media-book from apple will be.
 
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