I am entering my third year of school, halfway through my sophomore year, attending an entirely online university (American Public University if any of you were wondering). And while I have many things to say about the convenience of attending a university such as this, I’m not going to because I want to talk textbooks.
All the classes I’ve taken have incorporated eTextbooks except for one class. And you want to know something? It’s a beautiful thing! I can use my Kindle for reading assignments be cause most of the textbooks are compatible and one class I had to rent the textbook but it was conveniently offered through Amazon. And one textbook was only $6 on Amazon so I just bought it outright.
If you told me ten years ago that I would be able to carry around my textbooks on an electronic device, I would probably be amazed with the idea, but skeptical of it because it would be hard to wrap my head around the idea that we would one day have iPads or Kindles (and I was huge supporter of the Kobo app when it first came out and look where that got me?). If you told me the same thing five years ago I would totally believe you only I would prefer to purchase the hard copies just so I could highlight and use my post-its to make notes. It’s just easier since five years ago highlighting and note taking capabilities either weren’t supported yet or weren’t as reliable as they are today.
And here we are, living in the now, with highlighting, note taking, and bookmarking capabilities. Awesome! And so darned convenient for studying now. I can make notes and just by tapping on a couple of things, I can take a quick glance of all my notes. Add an app like Evernote into the mix and studying has never been so easy.
Amazing. Simply amazing.
And as I study for my finals this week, reflecting upon the technological advancements that making studying easier, I just had to take a break and write about. And whether or not I’ve dated myself with this post, it doesn’t change the fact that I’m still a geek and an information junkie at heart, because seriously, who thinks about the importance of highlighting and note taking capabilities, let alone write about them 🙋.