E-Texbooks Gaining Popularity in the United States

In the U.S., textbook companies and universities are taking initiatives to cut their textbook expenses as well as their environmental impact. Statistics from an article from Epoch Times show that 65% of educators plan to phase out traditional textbooks and replace them with electronic textbooks in the very near future. California is the first state to attempt an all-electronic textbook initiative, which began in 2009.

Even publishers like Macmillan announced that it will publish their textbooks in an all-new electronic format, as well. The new format is called DynamicBooks, and it allows teachers and professors to customize the textbook for the purposes of their classes. They will also be available for download on Apple's iPad, which will launch on April 3rd, 2010.

From an environmental standpoint, 12 trees are cut down for one ton of paper for textbooks, and only 5% of paper is recycled. Economically, California expects to save $2 million for going electronic.

This news that California is leading the movement in transtioning to electronic textbooks is good news for The Global Text Project. Recently, the Red and Black reported that UGA is planning to incorporate DynamicBooks in Fall of 2010. While the movement is still happening in the U.S., the more accessible electronic textbooks are here, the easier it will be for the Global Text Project to provide textbooks absolutely free of cost to developing countries and to put our mission into action.

Some questions for our readers:

How would using an electronic textbook be different from a traditional textbook for you? What advantages and disadvantages would you predict to find? Further, do any of you already use an e-Book reader, and which kind?

Students for Students

All of a sudden it is the beginning of March and we are rapidly nearing our first book deadline. It's amazing to see all the work that the interns have been able to accomplish thus far, especially since we have only been on board the project since the beginning of this year. Big things are beginning to happen in the world of open education.

Open Educational Resources says it best: "In a brave new world of learning, OER content is made free to use or share, and in some cases, to change and share again, made possible through licensing, so that both teachers and learners can share what they know," and that is exactly what we have been trying to do at Global Text.

This semester we have five student interns from the University of Georgia (UGA) working to make textbooks available to students around the world. The most amazing part of this collaboration is the fact that we have students working for the benefit of other students. The Global Text Project office on campus at UGA is a place where students work together to learn more about the process open education. We are in the midst of a learning curve that will create ripples around the world.

The children of the world today are quite literally our future, and as students ourselves it is amazing to think that we are helping pave the way for generations to come. In America we are blessed with the ability to go to school every day - but other people our age are not as fortunate. Every day in the office is one more step to impacting a fellow student's life.

Global Text Project is more than your average internship. Yes, we have set hours to be in the office and are gaining incredible resume boosters, but we are doing so much more. We are creating a link - a bond - between students around the globe that will last years after we have graduated and will enable the children of today to become the leaders of tomorrow.