This semester, I made a life-changing purchase: I bought an iPad. *cue applause*

Thanks to that purchase, I was able to download nearly all of my textbooks in digital form, saving hundreds of dollars. Although there are some things that I do miss about print textbooks, the money factor wipes that away.

Nearly all of the textbooks that I was required to purchase for my classes were available online in PDF form either free of charge or for a low fee. Not only am I able to carry these books with me everywhere I go, but I can do so without the weight of five or so different printed books on my shoulder.

While I haven’t used any of Apple’s new textbooks, I do believe that a digital textbook would be more beneficial. Imagine a math textbook that could act as a teacher while we work on homework assignments, working out an example in an embedded video to help us solve that one hard problem that we just can’t seem to understand. This seems like a winning innovation that can’t really be argued. How could this be a bad thing?

Although textbook publishers might find it difficult to make the jump to digital, this jump is probably going to be required in coming years. If digital media has already begun to kill print industries such as magazines, bookstores, and newspapers, what makes textbook publishers believe that their print industry will be exempt?

It’s time that publishers let go and adjust to the digital media world that we are now living in. There’s just no fighting it – digital is king.