Perry Calls For Virtual Textbooks

On April 7, the Austin Statesman reported a proposal by Gov. Rick Perry that Texas abandon traditional textbooks in favor of computer technology. Gov. Perry was attending a computer gaming conference when he announced this proposal, which he hopes to explore when the Legislature meets in 2011. The primary reason stated was that this would allow students access to the most up to date material. The Bryan-College Station Eagle reported that Perry stated that the switch would have to be done cost effectively and he was unsure whether the move would save money. "There's obviously opposition [to switching to totally computerized material], but there's always opposition to change," Perry said. Additionally, KVUE reported that the Gov didn't have a cost comparison between books and online educational materials.

Should Texas switch over completely to ebooks and computer technology? In addition to having the most current material, an interesting possibility of switching to ebooks would be ending the controversy over what should be in them. If a student's parents wanted their child's book to include mention of intelligent design for example, it wouldn't require changing the text of every student. It would also be much easier to adapt the reading material to address students individual needs. However, I think it will take a while for teachers and students to effectively use the new technology. There is also a question of whether all this technology can be more of a distraction than a help.

The Columbus Dispatch reports in a story about an Ohio textbook bill, that ebook costs are half or less than that of traditional books. If using ebooks will save 50% off the cost of teaching materials, it would seem that would be a good investment. For K-12, you have to consider the necessity to provide laptops or some sort of e-reader to every student. That would be very expensive. Not to mention the maintenance and eventual replacement of this equipment or the need to improve school's IT systems. I think, especially initially, these costs would be prohibitive. In principal, switching to the new technology is a good idea and plans need to be made for it's eventual adoption. I'm not sure how we can make this happen right now, when the schools are already underfunded. We can have all the ideas in the world to improve our public schools, but they are meaningless if we don't fund them. Perry complains that since he took office in 2000, some schools have used textbooks saying Ann Richards was governor. Perhaps this is an indictment of his administration's funding of public schools.

On the college level, the move towards ebooks is already happening and the cost is already on the students. I see no reason to mandate ebook use exclusively, I think that should remain the choice of the student.

But why are textbooks so expensive in the first place? A quick search on the book used for this class has the price ranging from $68.46 for a used copy to $132.41 for a new copy. This is for a softcover book of less than 300 pages. I went to the self-publishing site Lulu.com and found that I could publish this book in the same format myself for $8.90. That is for a single copy with Lulu's markup. Let's say for argument's sake that the publishing cost is actually $5. $132 is a 2500% mark up! Obviously there are other costs involved including the authors need to be paid. However, this is the case with all books, yet the cost isn't nearly as high with them. Also, I don't think that the authors of these textbooks are making any higher percentage on these books than other authors, so I would assume that any extra money coming in is going to bookstores and publishers.

Something else that is interesting about textbooks is how often they are revised and new editions are put out. Our textbook is in it's third edition, the first being published in 2000. A quick search on Amazon and Textbook.com shows this to be pretty standard, a new edition every 2-3 years. It could be argued that this is to correct errors, reorganize, and add new information. Fair, but I suspect however that a major reason is the fact that after 2-3 years there are so many used copies floating around that it starts cutting deeply into new book sales.

Now, I make no claim to understand the in's and out's of publishing. There could be any number of reasons why the prices of textbooks are so much higher than other books. An article for Psychologicalscience.org makes a good case placing the blame on the used book market. The point is, I think we can agree that the high prices of textbooks has nothing to do with the cost of manufacturing.

The cost of publishing an ebook is $0. Outside of possibly some editing, I can think of very little that significantly changes the file from the author's computer to the file of the student that purchases the book. Honestly, 50% of the price still seems like a lot to me, considering all the publisher is doing is allowing a file to be copied. My suspicion is that the price of ebooks will actually not go down as they become more and more accepted. Sales will be impacted by the fact that students will share files (much like what has happened in the music industry in the past decade.) Why pay $50 for a file you only plan on using a few months when you can have that exact file for nothing? I think that while the savings are significant, they are also as artificial as the cost. The cost is determined by how much money is needed to maintain the outdated business structure and profit margins. I think the publishing world is going to be hit with the same reality that hit the film and music industries. The old business models do not work in this new world.