Anne Eisenberg discusses the benefits of having digitalized textbooks in “Making Science Leap From the Page.” However, these digitalized textbooks have “pizazz” because they are “replete with punchy, interactive electronic features” which means that they are completely different from digitalized text that is simply scanned (Eisenberg). This textbook that the author is describing sounds perfect. It allows students to read and truly comprehend the information by having check up quizzes in between. Additionally, there are audio, video clips, illustrations, which enrich a student’s reading.
As an English and Philosophy major, I am always bombarded with pages after pages of reading. I always prefer that I print my papers or have a textbook where I can highlight, underline, star terms, and draw little illustrations to the side. I also have this habit of constantly turning my pages to see how many pages I have left. At first, it was frustrating to read text online because I would have to take a separate piece of paper to take notes. Later, I realized that some of the digitalized text allowed me to annotate on the computer. I took Human Nutrition and Food over the summer and my textbook was online. The greatest benefit that I had was the fact that I could search the entire book for key terms. When studying for the exams, I did not have to re-read entire chapter because with the click of a button, the key term that I was looking for would be highlighted.
The article mentioned Eric Schulz who made an “interactive, digital version” of the Calculus book written by William Briggs (Eisenberg). This book included “650 interactive figures, including graphs of functions, derivatives, and integrals” (Eisenberg). This is a great tool in teaching as each student learns differently. As an R.A., I have to tutor residents. I find that some students can easily understand what I am discussing while others need me to draw diagrams and charts. Sometimes, I need to do a combination. I believe that teachers have to do the same thing when they are teaching. I find that the professors who had multiple ways of presenting information helped me to remember that information the best. If these textbooks that the author is presenting becomes more of a use in schools, it would do the same thing as if a teacher used multiple ways to teach. This is a lot better than just pdf files that are simply scanned in without any interactive tools.
