Textbook jockeys for place among newest technologies

Electronic publishing will spur the textbook?s evolution, not its demise, say educators.

By Bridget Murray
Monitor staff

Today?s students can read their 101 psychology text without ever cracking open a book. The online textbook is now a reality. But does it sound the death knell for print?

Technology forecaster Paul Saffo doesn?t think so.

?The horse didn?t disappear because the car came along, and the book won?t disappear either,? says Saffo, a director of the Institute for the Future in Menlo Park, Calif.

However, the role of the book will likely change, just as uses of the horse and the radio have evolved, Saffo says. Cars shuttle us to work, but horses are better suited for back country trails. Television may entertain us at night, but radio befits the morning commute. Similarly, new electronic media promise learning opportunities that will change the way we use books, Saffo says. The question to ask now is, ?which media are best at advancing students? learning?? Saffo says.

Psychology educators and publishing experts have various theories on that score. But most of them agree that a confluence of textbook and technology is likely. Books won?t disappear from the study aid scene, but they?ll no longer dominate it, psychology textbook editors predicted in a survey published last year in Teaching of Psychology (Vol. 24, No. 2, p. 119?122).

Many envision a slimmer, sleeker textbook sold with an accompanying CD-ROM for video and interactivity, and a web site for fresh news.

Unique assets

The book, CD-ROM and web each offers unique strengths, says John Mitterer, PhD, an associate professor with a joint appointment in psychology and computer science at Brock University in St. Catherines, Ontario. While computer publishing is timelier and livelier than paper-based publishing, the textbook remains the most portable and reader-friendly medium, says Mitterer, who develops CD-ROM versions of textbooks.

Yet computers will also grow progressively portable and reader-friendly, predicts William Buskist, PhD, an Auburn University psychology professor. He believes these advances will bring increasingly attractive learning aids, and he hopes faculty work with publishers on crafting them.

?Publishing?s sort of like the arms race,? says Buskist, who writes introductory textbooks for Allyn & Bacon Publishers in Boston. ?First there was the study guide, then CD-ROM and web publishing. Next we?ll have digital versatile disk (DVD). Then, who knows, maybe a mini-electronic book??

CD-ROM?s main attraction is its interactivity, says Buskist. Some CD-ROMs invite you to participate in simulated experiments. Others allow you to add your own notes in hypertext as you read.

And an introductory psychology CD-ROM called the Interactive Edition, due for release by Allyn & Bacon this year, allows students to view one-minute videos and hear the pronunciation of difficult words. The CD-ROM will also feature hyperlinks to World Wide Web sites?as you read about synaptic transmission, for example, a link whisks you to a Harvard University web page detailing the latest breakthroughs in that field, says Kevin Stone, head of Allyn & Bacon?s multimedia division.

Because CD-ROMs don?t require a server connection, they can quickly run software that would take hours to load on the web. Digital Versatile Disk (DVD)?similar to CD-ROM but with sharper graphics, crisper audio and a massive storage capacity?can run entire documentaries on such topics as Ivan Pavlov and classical conditioning, Buskist says.

However, Claremont Graduate School?s ?Campus Computing 1997? survey indicates that only 35 percent of college students attending a sample of 605 private and public universities own their own computers, something they need to use CD-ROM and DVD. Yet almost 75 percent of college students can now access the Internet in dorms, labs and libraries, making it a highly accessible resources that can be updated frequently.

?The web is a living thing,? says Jim Behnke, president and co-founder of Peregrine Publishers, a web-based publishing company in Wakefield, Mass. ?There?s no production line, packaging and warehouse to delay publication.?

Small companies such as Behnke?s supplement professors? core curricula with up-to-the-minute learning activities and late-breaking news. And large publishers, such as Allyn & Bacon, increasingly supplement their textbooks with companion web sites. The sites feature download-able practice tests, and slides illustrating dopamine reuptake and other such processes.

The book?s strengths

But psychologists agree that people continue to favor the convenience of a book for reading large amounts of text. You can peruse a book in bed or curl up with it in front of the fire?luxuries not yet possible with computers, says Don Forsyth, PhD, a Virginia Commonwealth University psychology professor and long-time author of introductory textbooks.

Forsyth also thinks that books? black ink on white paper makes long term reading easier on the eye.

Supporting his position, graduate students in a recent study pre-ferred reading lengthy entries in a reference book to viewing them on a computer screen. But the 33 participants favored using online hypertext to look up brief answers to specific questions. (The study appeared in the International Journal of Human?Computer Interaction, Vol. 7, No. 4, p. 293?313.)

Many of us continue to find books alluring simply because we grew up reading them, Buskist says. Children today, however, are raised with online text, he says. ?The transformation from the textbook to electronic technologies will take time because the older generations are resistant,? says Buskist. ?But another generation will come in and change the nature of publishing. Not in five years, but probably over the next several decades.?

Ultimately it?s up to faculty and publishers to jointly shape effective uses of emerging technologies in teaching, says Mitterer.

?Software developers shouldn?t be the only ones inventing the new literacy,? says Mitterer. ?Faculty should get in on this too.?