Abstract:
The modern technology has made an impact on different aspects on our life. The impact entails both individual activities as well as social. Their usage is not just limited to any recreational activity rather it finds its applications in professional and governmental organizations as well. The electronic books have changed the overall view of reading and at the same time, it has increased the level of reading and opportunities associated.
Key words: E-books, learning, virtual vs. physical, academic purposes, literacy rates.
Introduction:
Education sector is of those that has benefited directly from the emergence of technology. All these means of technological advances have made life easy in a certain way. The easing of life may either come in terms of automated functions or some positive impact on the society as a whole. Electronic books are one of those inventions and gifts of technology that will have an overall positive impact on society and its outlook. It has given the field of study a new dimension. The most prominent of it comes in form of the electronic means of books and material (Straubhaar, 72). The content is present all over the web, either for free or on purchase. This availability has enhanced the overall opportunities of reading and getting acquainted to learning and habits of reading.
With digital gadgets available all around, ranging from mobile phones to tablets, laptops, and other specific electronic readers, the e reading is gaining fast momentum. The traces of electronic reading can be stretched back to the last decade of previous century and with the growth of digital devices it became further common. Since the electronic books concept is a new phenomena Understanding the overall impact of technology on the field of academic study becomes very important this along with the concept of the availability of the books on electronic sources and the manner in which they benefit the researchers, the manner in which they can be used and the overall affectivity and impact it has had on different levels of education.
The usage of electronic books and related material starts from school level and is widely in use at university level and at post doctorate level. One of the most prominent use electronic sources is that of research papers. The research papers have enabled study of extensive amount of literature work related to that particular topic, this would not be possible prior to the digital technology and its facilitation of electronic material. Apart from the educational impact, the electronic books have a direct impact on the social outlook of society and it enables an eco friendly reading and learning practices.
The usages of electronic books require presence of digital device along with specific softwares and applications that enable their usage. PDF (Portable Document Format) is one of the most common one that is widely used around and is proprietary of Adobe Flash Player. Other patented applications in use by Apple Inc and other operating systems which aim to facilitate the reading.
The electronic reading is not just limited to one domain rather it finds its usage in the classroom environment, library, self study, research purposes, medical field and many other related fields. The news and current affairs aspect is also covered in the electronic means resources that are available around in all these gadgets and mobile phone devices.
Low literacy rates are concern all over the world and the underdeveloped parts of the world are lacking behind in economic and social field due to low trends towards acquiring education (W.Bank, 289). Different means can be adopted for this purpose, and electronic books are definitely one of them that will help countering the low literacy rates to a considerable rate. The under developed world and the third world countries can be targeted through this.
Formats:
The electronic books may be provided to the school level students in form of CD ROM drive disks, in portable flash drives, or at university level in form of online web resources from university website, or in case of journals, publications and dissertations of various writers. Books are available on large scale on different websites and access to books and libraries is possible via payment. Google Books is one of these that provide access to large amount of books (Clark and Phillips). Animated videos may also make up for the part of electronic books, and different video formats can come in handy in this regard. For purpose of ensuring better quality videos, high resolution format support should be enacted into the softwares, at the same time the option of low resolution videos may also help to allow more storage and more viewing in less time and little space consumption.
Major players in the field of electronic reading:
While there might be many other devices that provide support for the electronic reading, but the major players in the market are Nintendo DS- Lite, Amazon Kindle, Apple’s I Pod Touch to name a few (Smith, 299).
Research has been conducted in recent times to evaluate the overall impact of electronic reading content availability and it has been found that the presence and introduction of this technology has increased the overall rating and familiarity with the books reading. England in this regard is one of the country that aims at further increasing the facilities that would enhance the opportunities for reading through electronic sources (Medwell et. al, 122).
Microsoft is one major organization that has taken an initiative in this regard and it has targeted the underdeveloped world and has introduced special purpose laptops in African continent and other parts of Asia for the purpose of spreading education and increasing the overall literacy rate (ADB, 125).
One laptop per child is an effort initiated by Microsoft for the purpose of promoting the students increased frequency of attending schools (Foley, 250). The laptops so designed are specifically designed and support limited functions that are best suited to the academic environments and purposes. The target of this move is the African continent and parts of Asia with low literacy rates. This move will help increasing the trend and orientation of sending children to schools, at the same time allow the children to enjoy reading and ultimately increase level of education in different rural parts of backward societies.
Psychological impact:
The transformation from hard form reading material to the soft form needed acceptance of mind. People were little hesitant at first and the level of comprehension was slow as well. However with time as the technology has progressed and different operating systems and devices have introduced the e-books in multiple formats, the concept is earning familiarity and people are starting to associate their reading habits with e- books. The entire concept is a process of transfer and adaptability to a new platform. The most positive impact it will have will be on the school going children who always have to carry the heavy bags full of their class work copies and books, such change would impact their mindset positively.
Keeping in view the Copy Rights issue:
Online resources are subject to the copy right consideration and the usage of books and their availability for download is one similar factor that must be taken into account. Making sure that the content available on the web does not violate any privacy or copy rights rules nor does it promote any content that is contrary to the facts and actual events. Excessive amount of free availability of the content would result in the economic and marketing losses to the people associated with the publication services and profession (Sheehan, 21).
One in all Functions:
Carrying the hard form books is not possible to various places. The young age children would not need to carry the heavy bags to schools and only one single digital device would contain their notes copy, text books, class lectures, homework diaries and everything associated.
Overall impact on education:
Possible disadvantages of Electronic books: the disadvantage comes in form of the electronic data erase and hard disk format which often leads to loss of data. However the advantage is the fact that most of the information is available on the internet and is free to air and can be downloaded again.
The impact of electronic books on the field of academic discipline can be divided into multiple segments. With the first being that of its impact on the preschool and early stage developmental studies, second is that of high school, third its impact on the college students and finally the high level students who aim to excel in different fields.
Electronic books and children:
Children are one of the most important areas that benefit from the electronic books. There are number of benefits associated with it. The first being that of interactive backgrounds, presence of animations and other colorful items. All these components not only help the children sticking to books, but also allows easy comprehension. Visualization may not be possible in form of the hard form books, electronic books in contrast provide this feature. Electronic books at times also come up with video which makes it more interactive and easy for children to understand the topics.
O korat & Shamir (Korat and Shamir) have conducted research in this regard to assess the overall impact of electronic books on students. They took samples in form of studying the behavior of over 60 students who read the electronic books and they found out that the impact was overall positive Electronic books help the young children developing reading habits. In broader perspective the electronic books can set a firm foundation and help raising literacy rates across the different parts of the world that still remain underdeveloped in terms of low literacy rates.
Maynard & Co (Sally and Maynard) have also conducted research to evaluate the impact of electronic learning. They performed trial studies over a period of two weeks over students of early school age using electronic books and found out that the impact was positive.
Advantage of e-books:
Potential loss of the conventional book reading and the hard form books. The trend is supported by the fact that with passing time, libraries are growing shrink in their capacity to accommodate the books in the shelves. Thereby the e books can facilitate the space constraint solution.
With storing facilities provided by various applications, all these books can be stored on the hard disks of the devices. This will allow usage of any book anywhere and this comes as an advantage against the conventional form of hard copy books that may take up extra space and are placed in libraries and homes and are not available on the go.
Ease of Access:
Another factor is the full time access to the books over the digital platform. Mostly the libraries get closed by evening timings or are mostly open in university timings. The day scholars face issues in this regard as their reach to library is not always possible. E- Books can solve this straight away by providing a 24-7 access and student does not need to visit the university or library physically, rather they can access it with their digital device where ever they are positioned.
Steven Schwartz has undertaken the task of assessing the overall impact of electronic books and he has termed it the future source of learning and reading based on the fact that the electronic books would provide multimedia support as well. He has talked about the electronic book being formally published in Australia for the same purpose of academic pursuit under the Macquire Project (Schwartz).
Cost consideration:
Every new session/ semester the students are required to purchase new books and other reading material and reference books. The e-Books can solve this problem and will facilitate availability at either low cost or totally free. With so many online libraries and resources, books can be downloaded for free which will help the students in terms of spendings on books.
A lot of attention is given to the students regarding the use of electronic sources for reading, the teachers will also benefit from it. With extensive material available all around, it will enable the teachers preparing lectures and other related material in time with extensive coverage of various topics. Use of animations, videos or any other colorful sources will help the teachers interpreting the points and ideas to their students in a better way.
Online communities are an attached component of universities and student teachers platform. With presence of such platforms facilitated by the electronic books, it will help enabling the student and teacher remaining in touch more frequently and as a result better outcomes from the learning process.
Proprietary Issue:
One of the challenges that stands in the free flow of electronic books and other reading content is that of different companies using their own patented softwares and few of them are non compatible with the hardware of other applications and softwares. Apple Inc is one of these that do not provide support for the most commonly used Adobe Flash Player and PDF file reader. This reduces the productivity level of electronic books and comes as one of the negative trend of electronic sources against all the other positive aspects of it.
Marketing perspective:
The investors and publishers may find themselves at the direct beneficiary end of the entire concept. The spread of electronic books will allow them to promote their books, products and services through the uniform platform of internet and its associated digital devices. Promotion against its usage is an essential part and people should be given familiarity about its usage and the potential positive impacts associated with it that can be extracted from it if the technology is embraced fully and made use of in a more effective manner.
While the electronic book concept is still in its infancy, and considering the amount of benefits associated with it, measures should be taken to promote its spread and usage. Measures can be taken in form of governmental appreciation and funds allocation on different levels. This along with the purpose of providing digital devices and facilitating the schools and academic institutes representatives to provide for these devices which would allow for easy learning opportunities.
Future consideration:
Reducing the costs of download and availability:
More number of online libraries must be established. The university based portals and data bases must purchase more number of e books, this will not only facilitate the students all over but also allow for legal sales and publication and the writers would also get a payment for their work and dedication. More friendly ways of download and friendly file system support should be introduced.
Advancements may be made with regard to the better looking font styles and other layout schemes. Some people complain about the absence of page number on numerous pieces of electronic publications. This must be overcome in order to make reading and referencing further smooth( Wolff ).
Software support is another area that can be investigated and improved with course of time. Softwares that allow online connectivity will come in handy and make the electronic books readers more useful. Allowing on the go access to the online search engines, the academic videos portal, university libraries, all these will make the applications more user friendly and effective in terms of their productivity.
Conclusion:
Electronic books are here to stay, though they are not fully integrated as yet, still they stand as the technology and trend of future and will overtake the conventional form of reading in times ahead. It is hoped that this format would enable making the world achieve the goals that have long been only desired and missed due to various physical obstacles. With reduction of the physical interface requirements, the e books can serve as the best remedy against all the odds of low literacy rates and obstacles in reading and acquiring education.
Global partners must step in, in to the field of electronic books persuasion and strive for increasing its spread. Agencies like United Nations and more specifically the UNICEF (United Nations International Children Education Federation) can be incorporated into it to allow maximum benefits deduction from this technological advancement (Pilgrim and Pretty, 242). Helping the social cause of fighting low empowerment rates which are another name derived from low literacy rates. It can be safely said that this is the future technology and future trend and every school, college and university would have an environment full of these digital devices.
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