eTextbooks to Replace Paper

I've always preferred reading a hard copy of a book rather than perusing it online or in a digital format. I just like the feel of paper, I like marking up my books with  notes in the margins, and up until recently, my excuse was that I could take them anywhere, as opposed to a laptop, which can be cumbersome. (I don't have an e-reader, and replacing all of my books with digital versions doesn't appeal to me, even though it would save a lot of space). But what kind of scares me about However, recently, I've begun to change my mind, and its mostly cost related. Rather than buying course readers with compiled readings, it has been much cheaper to use pdf files, and if prices stay down in the e formats, I can see how they're starting to overtake the paper format.

In our teacher prep classes here,we've been talking quite a bit about the place for ipads and ireaders in the modern classroom.  Although the readers can  be expensive, the textbooks used are more so, and are less flexible in terms of the amount of information available, and the accuracy of that information, since they become outdated so quickly.

The other upside to using e books is that many students prefer them, according to @ShellTerrell and others.


Courtesy of: Schools.com

My only concern is that the lifespan of electronics is far shorter than that of paper. While they are excellent tools that it is necessary that we teach and take advantage of, Computers and phones malfunction all the time, but we still have books from the BC days. Although you can store files indefinitely,  technology is so constantly improving and changing that just like text books, any equipment bought for schools is going to quickly become out of date, or break down, so I'm not sure that switching over will solve the problem, as much as just relocate it in the modern age.