Hi All,

My first post here, In Australia we have a digital initiative to give every student a notebook. The ipad is being seriously considered as an alternative if it meets the funding criteria.

If the government provided you with an Ipad thats a whole new ball game.

iPad slated for classrooms as part of national program | The Australian

Thanks for the info on Coursesmart. I didn't know about it.

I do think that it would take a little getting used to (e-text books). I am not doing well on my how to books that are on my touch.

I am too used to pen and paper, or highlighting. I guess I could still take conventional notes, but I need to experiment with highlighting on the screen.

I agree that when you buy the hard copy, you should be able to download 1 copy as part of the price. There are lots of smart people publishing education materials, so why not redirect some of those smarts into figuring out a way to make that happen. As far as pirating, some people are always going to take (steal) something if it's easy, so ignore those folks and make honest downloading easy for those that want to do it the honest way.

Originally Posted by Superbike81

Ummmmmmm, did you guys do any research at all?

Go to CourseSmart.com

I tried e-books on my laptop last semester, hated it because the battery didn't last long enough for my schedule and scrolling around in the book using the touchpad sucks.

As far as price goes, this semester, all of my books are available on CourseSmart at $55 to $60 each. I paid between $110 and $130 used for my books. If I would have had the iPad I would have bought e-books and saved almost $200. I'm a pre-med, I keep my books, so it's a big deal.

E-books will amazing on iPad! I can't wait.

Wow that's huge. Thanks for the heads up. Most students buy text books at around 150 and get like 40 bucks back losing 110. This lets you just spend an average of 66 on the book.

I also hate selling things to people, it's just a headache, answering e-mails, answering phone calls, dealing with "lowballers", meeting up for the sale, having someone flake out, meeting up with the next person, etc, etc.

So even if I technically would only save a little bit by going to e-books, it saves me a TON of headaches.

Originally Posted by Amy S.

Thanks for the info on Coursesmart. I didn't know about it.

I do think that it would take a little getting used to (e-text books). I am not doing well on my how to books that are on my touch.

I am too used to pen and paper, or highlighting. I guess I could still take conventional notes, but I need to experiment with highlighting on the screen.

Highlighting works great on a touch screen, so I'd imagine the iPad will make it very easy. I still take traditional notes, just because one of the ways that I learn new info is to write it out over and over again while saying it out loud. But taking quick notes on the iPad should be no problem.

Thought this was an interest read.

A Peek at Apple's Plans to Re-invent Textbooks - ipad - Gizmodo

I am not a student, but maybe you could, then, just print your highlights out.

Perhaps, iPad text books will download to the computer and then will sync chapter by chapter. That is how Dear John is, it is in 2 parts.

Rent the books for a semester for x amount

rent the book for 10 hours for reference for a term paper

Buy the books for y amount

the options are endless