Text books are expensive. If you have ever been to college you know that. It isn't at all unusual for me to work my part time job at ITS
(for which I get paid fairly well) half a semester in order to save enough money for my textbooks. Sometimes it feels like I've barely earned enough money for the next round when I have to spend it all and start over. I think the most expensive text book I've ever had to purchase was around $180 used. I think the only department that can seriously out do me on text book price is nursing and premed. (and their text books keep people alive!) Or so I thought....apparently education text books aren't cheap either.
Looking a tight budget made Kacie and me start to think about ways to save money on them. E Readers were the concept we found that would help. I began to do research on this, wondering if it would really be worth the money to purchase an e-reader and if the net savings would come out to be more.
Obviously, an actual tablet such as the Asus Transformer Prime are very expensive ($400 - $500). This was out of the question. No amount of savings off of electronic text books would cover that bill (no matter how fun it would be to have one!).
However, there are cheaper tablets out there, especially with new technology emerging every day. If you don't feel the need to have the coolest and newest there are more affordable options. The first question that most people will ask is: will the moderately priced option work ok when there's so much hype for the fastest one?
Answer: yes. Definitely. The reason the latest and greatest is so expensive is often because it's still new enough to be difficult to produce, and they can charge a lot more money for it. However, you really only need to buy a top of the line system if you have a specific use in mind for it (Such as extreme video editing or large amounts of storage). If you don't know what you would use a higher end system for, it's probably not worth it.
On that note, I stumbled across the Kindle series of e readers with the amazon bookstore. Depending on the model you go for and how expensive it is, it could pay for itself within a semester or two of buying electronic text books. Currently I am researching the Kindle Fire as a cheaper tablet option.
The main question I have yet to answer is whether or not it is comfortable for studying use. Still working on that issue, but more on that as time goes by. I will likely post on this again as we work through using this technology to save money.
(for which I get paid fairly well) half a semester in order to save enough money for my textbooks. Sometimes it feels like I've barely earned enough money for the next round when I have to spend it all and start over. I think the most expensive text book I've ever had to purchase was around $180 used. I think the only department that can seriously out do me on text book price is nursing and premed. (and their text books keep people alive!) Or so I thought....apparently education text books aren't cheap either.
Looking a tight budget made Kacie and me start to think about ways to save money on them. E Readers were the concept we found that would help. I began to do research on this, wondering if it would really be worth the money to purchase an e-reader and if the net savings would come out to be more.
Obviously, an actual tablet such as the Asus Transformer Prime are very expensive ($400 - $500). This was out of the question. No amount of savings off of electronic text books would cover that bill (no matter how fun it would be to have one!).
However, there are cheaper tablets out there, especially with new technology emerging every day. If you don't feel the need to have the coolest and newest there are more affordable options. The first question that most people will ask is: will the moderately priced option work ok when there's so much hype for the fastest one?
Answer: yes. Definitely. The reason the latest and greatest is so expensive is often because it's still new enough to be difficult to produce, and they can charge a lot more money for it. However, you really only need to buy a top of the line system if you have a specific use in mind for it (Such as extreme video editing or large amounts of storage). If you don't know what you would use a higher end system for, it's probably not worth it.
On that note, I stumbled across the Kindle series of e readers with the amazon bookstore. Depending on the model you go for and how expensive it is, it could pay for itself within a semester or two of buying electronic text books. Currently I am researching the Kindle Fire as a cheaper tablet option.
The main question I have yet to answer is whether or not it is comfortable for studying use. Still working on that issue, but more on that as time goes by. I will likely post on this again as we work through using this technology to save money.
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