**This will be an ongoing series of article review and topic debate concerning this subject**
The New York Times reported a few days ago about students at Hamilton college who, like many university students, are struggling with choosing to use e-texts, traditionally purchased texts, or even the new idea of text rentals as they pursue a degree. This is an interesting issue as we face on ongoing digital divide and a seemingly inescapable abyss of cost with traditional texts.
What is of great interest in the story, however, is that as of today, 40 universities will participate in the Affordable Textbooks Day of Action, being headed by the U.S. Student Public Interest Research Group. The goal is of course re-state the very high cost of textbooks for students, and pressure universities and professors to offer more affordable print versions and/or free e-text versions.
Here are a few questions I am wrestling with in thinking more about this issue: What is the price of education, and the information we disseminate from education, in a world that is seemingly becoming more interconnected? Should not technology make education more affordable and open to the public? In providing that access and affordability, are we not moving more towards a goal of a better education for all, a some what more democratic education?
Please let me know what you think about those questions, and any of your own, below.
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