Ebooks in the Classroom? Bravo, Y’all!

I was delighted to discover this story online this morning, about how the Texas legislature has given a preliminary approval to a bill that will allow schools to use textbook money to buy ereaders and etextbooks for students. Do you get how important this step is? It is right on so many levels.  From The Houston Chronicle:

“Schools would still have the option of buying hardbacks.

“Current law restricts schools’ use of their textbook allotments to traditional books, but some school districts use local tax dollars to purchase electronic learning materials and technology.

“The new proposal would ‘level the playing field and ensure all districts have access to funds that can be used to purchase materials above and beyond traditional textbooks if that will best meet the needs of their local students,’ said Jennifer Bergland, an advocate for the Texas Computer Educators Association.”

As a parent, I am immediately relieved to know that students can literally get out from under the weight of those gargantuan tomes. Doctors nationwide will tell you how damaging a 70+ lb pack is on a child’s back. But beyond that, it just makes sense to have a digital resource that can be updated at will. How about the next time those in the mighty halls of science decide to “downgrade a planet” or reclassify a bug? A simple download will “correct” all those science books. History is made everyday, and students can be automatically enlightened as world events occur. The functionality of Amazon’s “Whispernet” comes to mind.

As an author, what this means to me as that ebooks will become more commonplace. Here is a new inroad into encouraging the public to accept the digital age of books. College students who invest in an ereader will appreciate that the device can also be used for entertainment. Technology will provide teachers with ways to make assignments available for download, even sending grades and test results directly to their students’ machines.

Pundits, of course, are decrying the cost of the readers and saying that parents will likely get “stuck” with the cost of the devices. That’s not how I read it, but every state and district will deal with this issue individually. I can’t wait for this movement to spread here to California, where schools are digging deep for ways to save money. I, for one, intend to explore what I can do to help that process along.