By: Rick Diehl

Rick Diehl — Fri, 19 Oct 2012 16:00:00 +0000

I am the bookbuyer for a small university in Colorado, and also act in an advisory role with a local charter school for their text purchases. Like many “book” people I have been highly resistant to moving to electronic texts and I wasn’t in the minority as all of our research has found that the vast majority of students and instructor still would rather use physical texts then electronic. However over the last two years the wholesale costs of textbooks have gone up more than 30%, with a sturdy hardback textbook averaging over $100.00 a copy. Add that the average textbook only has about a year of self-life, which means that a book in the end only is useful to a handful of students at best, the cost ratio per copy simply makes no economic sense.

Which is why even, as a “paper” person, I have to applaud the Kindle business model for education. The readers are solid and fairly damage resistant, sold at cost. The content can be controlled from the Internal IT level down to the individual instructor, depending on need. And most importantly the actual content of the text is provided at a much more reasonable cost, while allowing nearly unlimited options for ancillary materials (maps, videos, sound clips, test banks). As far as I can see it is a win/win situation for everyone. The publishers and authors sell books, the schools can afford them and the students are provided with a wider selection of material in an easily accessible format.

I love books, the smell of paper, the feel of the pages, just love them. But even more than I love books, I love smart, well educated kids. Amazon’s (and yes, Apples) model is an excellent step towards providing students with a great education without breaking the bank.

By: facebook-33658

facebook-33658 — Fri, 19 Oct 2012 13:31:00 +0000

It will be fascinating to see how this plays out…

Comments on: Amazon Going Up Against Apple In The Education Market

By: Rick Diehl

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