Online textbooks

[momz]

My daughters textbooks are online this year. Is this something that can be downloaded? Or do you have to be connected to the Internet to use them? In past years, the school has provided the students with a "device" something like a little mini laptop that looked like the case could survive WW3. But the usefulness was limited because they needed a lot of maintenance and with only one IT tech, It took a while to get it back if it was not working. Also, the textbooks were not online, the devices were used for "research" (yeah right). She is changing schools this year and I don't know what to expect. We have less than 2 weeks to figure this out. I don't know yet if the school provides the device or if the parent does.

What type of devices does your school use? Do you have to buy your own? Kindle fire, iPad, laptop, notebook? What is your child's experience with online textbooks?

 

[MrsPete]

Once school starts, her teachers will give her a code number, which she can use to connect to the textbook from any computer. Probably an iPad would work, but a Kindle would not. That's a different format. Once she's done with the class, her code will expire. Why? Because when schools buy textbooks these days, companies offer a buy-a -classroom set and get codes for five years worth of students deals.

 

[wiigirl]

I am taking classes and most of my textbooks are online.

Just a note....Kindle and Nook won't work for my school but any iPad or Andriod Tablet will.

 

[momsully]

My son will be a freshman this fall. The parents are expected to buy the ipad and pay the cost of the books. They can also get regular textbooks if they prefer that over electronic but again parents pay and it is actually more expensive. This is a private school.

 

[drinkme]

My kids are jr high (6-8th grades) but they use their Mac book pro for their text books that are available. The tech person at the school puts them on the laptops and they are ready for the kids when they get to school on the fall. The kids don't have to be connected to the Internet to access them. Also, parents don't have to pay for the laptops. The kids get them at the start of the school year but return them at the end. The bring them home at night but they really belong to the school.

 

[clutter]

Depends on the district. Ours does not support iPads, Nooks or Kindles. Desktops and laptops only. Many of the online books aren't 'books,' like a Kindle. They are actually websites, so they are designed differently. They don't work on apple products (other than a MacBook) because they use flash. They are hard to manipulate on a Kindle. I'd call the school and ask.

 

[MichiganKris]

My daughters books weren't really books, but websites, so we needed internet access to see them. However, it did allow us to print out pages if needed, so as an example for math, I would print out the homework problems instead of just having her look at them online. It probably depends on the type of license the school has for the websites though.

 

[JB2K]

Just a note....Kindle and Nook won't work for my school but any iPad or Andriod Tablet will.

The Nook has been re-worked to be a tablet which can access Google Play (former Android Market), which now makes it largely competitive to other Android tablets...

 

[momz]

lots of different experiences noted here. I guess I will have to wait. There is an orientation day next week, I would imagine the information will be available then. This will give us one week before the first day of school. So still enough time to get what we need...provided there's not several hundred people also lining up for the same thing. (600+ kids in her 7th grade class. the school is 7th and 8th grade).

This is a public school, so I'm sure there are families that won't be able to just run out and pick this up. Maybe it will be provided by the district.

 

[eeyorethegreat]

WOW I must really live in the sticks. This is not something that happens around here. I also live in one of the poorest school districts in our state. Kids use books from the school (public) and many of them are very old. SOme work is done online with online resources as every kid grade 7 through 12 gets the use of an Apple laptop for the school year but text books are definitely not installed on them.

 

[MineMail]

If you have an iPad, the Safari browser does not support Flash websites, but you can download an app called "Puffin Browser" which does handle Flash. It works well, but it does cost $3.

Our high school has online textbooks and my DD was able to access them from her Kindle Fire or our computer. It did require an internet connection. Students who didn't have their own electronics could borrow a device or use the library computers.

Since my kids have had to pay for lost textbooks in the past, I prefer the online versions. Although, one of the teachers sent home three "return your textbook" reminder emails this year, even after being reminded that DD had the online version.