One thing that they have overlooked is that if they can get this adopted at the College/University level (at a minimum), we will have a generation who will have been introduced to this process almost exclusively and actually be the “Market Pushers”.

But there’s a tougher nut to crack and as usual it isn’t technological in nature: the cozy relationship enjoyed by professors, universities, and publishers. Textbooks, especially at the college level, are expensive. The usual reasons given are low runs and frequent updates, reasons which a tablet of some kind could address. However, there’s more to the story.

Professors are often “rewarded” for selecting a particular publisher’s text. One of the most coveted is an implied guarantee to publish a textbook written by the former. Universities make good money from campus bookstores and go as far as to require textbooks for courses that don’t really need them. Publishers for their part often make it difficult for off-campus competition to obtain the books that they need. A tablet that cold function well in the school and classroom environment would rip the facade off these relations.

Don’t expect publishers, universities, or even state textbook boards to forgo the gravy train without throwing up roadblocks. Good ideas often fail because they threaten an entrenched status quo.

Sure, it’s ambitious to think about the future and would require a huge amount of organization of infrastructure to support mainstream adoption but it can be done. I know that many schools have already tried to implement the use of laptops within the education system but the problem with that approach is that there was no organized effort applied to developing a useful set of tools and content that can be specifically utilized within the education system. If a solid framework of content can be developed for this device that actually facilitates and improves the current system of teaching, then I cannot see how this would fail in overtaking the completely archaic and overpriced textbook industry.

The hard part? Getting people to see past the status-quo instead of instantly condemning an idea to “it will never work”.

Sure, it’s ambitious to think about the future and would require a huge amount of organization of infrastructure to support mainstream adoption but it can be done. I know that many schools have already tried to implement the use of laptops within the education system but the problem with that approach is that there was no organized effort applied to developing a useful set of tools and content that can be specifically utilized within the education system. If a solid framework of content can be developed for this device that actually facilitates and improves the current system of teaching, then I cannot see how this would fail in overtaking the completely archaic and overpriced textbook industry.

The hard part? Getting people to see past the status-quo instead of instantly condemning an idea to “it will never work”.