Dayton Daily News education reporter Scott Elliott writes about schools, kids, teaching and learning.
Home > Blogs > Get on the Bus > Archives > 2006 > August > 18 > Entry
The cost of free textbooks
Great news! At some colleges, students can now get free textbooks, downloadable to their computers!
There’s just one catch. Shakespeare now comes with coffee and American history with 5-cent copies.
That’s right. The Associated Press reports new textbooks may come with advertisements:
“Now, a small Minnesota startup is trying to shake up the status quo in the $6 billion college textbook industry. Freeload Press will offer more than 100 titles this fall — mostly for business courses — completely free. Students, or anyone else who fills out a five-minute survey, can download a PDF file of the book, which they can store on their hard drive and print.”
Some may consider textbook ads “undignified,” as the story says, but on the other hand saving as much as $900 a semester for books would be a Godsend for many students.
What do you think of this idea? Student salvation or corporate insanity?
(Image credit: www.easterfilms.com)
Permalink | Comments (1) | Categories: Colleges and Universities
Comments
By Denise
August 19, 2006 8:09 PM | Link to this
I think it is a fantastic idea. College students are being bombarded by ads at every turn anyway, so why not do it in a way that really benefits them (and frees up some money to actually spend on the items that are being marketed to them)? I just finished adding up how much I am going to spend just this trimester on books and if I had the option of getting them for free, I would be first in line.