In the article “Making Science Leap from the Page“, Anne Eisenberg describes a new biology textbook that was designed to be digital-only. Most textbooks, as the article points out, have digital versions (often just scanned versions of the physical textbook) but add little if anything “extra” to take advantage of e-book potential. The textbook described in the article (Principles of Biology) has incorporated videos, mid-chapter quizzes, interactive illustrations and similar learning tools into the text. That way, students are given the best possible opportunity to learn the information.

My first semester of college, I had to buy a massive book containing everything Shakespeare ever wrote (except, ironically enough, one of the things my teacher specifically wanted us to read, so we had to buy another book for that). I had all my class stacked on the same day, so I had to carry it with me everywhere. It wouldn’t even fit in my backpack. I would’ve done about anything to have a digital edition of that book. And I wouldn’t have minded not being able to sell it back if it came with the kind of multimedia content that Principles of Biology has. For instance, the authors could include clips from performances of Shakespeare’s plays. Quizzes would probably have been helpful, as well as some sort of glossary/dictionary type function. There are so many possibilities to improve upon a physical textbook, but in my experience, publishers rarely take advantage of that fact.

I’ve used digital textbooks, and they do have a lot of advantages (even without all the bells and whistles). If I could buy a digital copy of all of my textbooks, I would only have to carry around one relatively lightweight device. My iPad can hold Nookbooks, Kindle editions, and iBooks–plus it does lots of other useful things. Also, most screen reader apps (Amazon Kindle, B&N Nook, etc.) include a search function. That can make looking up specific information much easier than using the index of a physical textbook. You can also highlight and take notes without “messing up” the pages (something my OCD side appreciates).

So far, though, I haven’t been in a situation where 1) all of my textbooks were available in digital form and 2) the price of the digital versions made up for being unable to resell them. I’ve also never had a digital textbook that was better than the physical copy. I’ve read several articles suggesting we don’t remember what we read on screens as well as what we read on paper. I’ve found that to be true for me. It’s not a big enough difference to outweigh the convenience of digital textbooks, but it is something to consider.

All of that being said, if all digital textbooks were like Principles of Biology, I probably wouldn’t mind buying (and keeping) them. It would be so easy to make learning new, traditionally boring things into a sort of interactive game. Until the other textbooks catch up, though, I’m not ready to go digital-only.