Textbooks In Korea To Go Digital By 2015, Samsung Hits Lotto

The thing I remember most about college was the cost and weight of my textbooks. The books I needed for a semester of school were about $800 back in the day and one of the books alone weighed about ten ponds. Schlepping those books from one end of campus to the other in a rush to make class was the suck. I would have been thrilled to be able to get all my books on a tablet, but in my college days, we were still packing heavy and thick notebooks.

In South Korea, the government has decided that all of the elementary-level education textbooks will be digitized and that by 2015 all of the curriculum will be delivered on computers, smartphones, and tablets. This makes a lot of sense with kids only needing a tablet rather than a backpack full of books. While South Korean officials haven't yet said what tablet will be used for the new digital books, my money is on Samsung.

The Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 would make for a nice little educational tablet. As the largest of the Korean electronics firms Samsung is seemingly the choice for the program. What do you think of digital textbooks? I know my kids would rather use a tablet in school than a book. My son already does all his writing assignments on a notebook in class and was thrilled to get it rather than having to write assignments by hand.

[via Technology Review]