Lots of my friends' kids in other, more affluent areas, are either given or required to have an iPad, which I know is also the case at some IHE. Apple has just announced its entry into the e-textbook market Apropos of the discussion re: textbook costs over at Ink, and my prior ponderings of going "book free"
I ask what do you think?
Should there be an "official" cap per course for the cost of books?
Should stus give up "luxuries" like cell phones and beer to buy whatever text a prof. sees fit to pick?
Should schools wrap the "cost" of textbooks into tuition so that stus are in effect "forced" to buy?
Have at it my friends as this is a subject near and dear to my heart and one of the issues I plan to tackle post-sabbatical, return to TTLAC with tenure :)
2 comments:
I think that this project could also involve requesting that textbook publishers reign in the prices...because we all agree, I think, that prices are out of control (and have been, for a very long time). Meanwhile, curricular demands can force us to move toward a costly textbook out of necessity in some cases.
AND with the electronic means for reading textbooks, publishers might be willing to consider how many people are in transition to reading on iPads, Kindles, and Nooks, anyway, and how it would behoove them to make texts more appealing economically if they want to keep selling them.
My brother is taking a course where it costs $90 for the online textbook and he will lose access to it at the end of the semester. If he opts for a paperback copy of the book it is $190 (includes online access so he can take quizzes). He hates reading on screen and wants a copy to keep, but doesn't want to pay the extra $100. Seems like terribe options to me.
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