Are textbooks really ready to go paperless?

Most of us have a lot of good memories associated with our education -- gaining knowledge, learning skills, making good friends, picking the brains of wise teachers -- but dealing with textbooks isn't one of them.

Perhaps the quality has improved today, but we remember when it seemed like writers went out of their way to make the content dry and boring.

The situation didn't improve much when we got to college, except now we were paying hundreds of dollars for text books that we might never crack, which we sold back for a fraction of the cost or worse -- became worthless when the instructor changed books or the editions were updated.

Today's public school student often doesn't even have the luxury of leaving his books in a desk or locker -- she has to lug multiple text books and supplies in a backpack, risking back injuries and creating clutter and security risks for schools.

And, teachers are faced with the task of getting their students, weaned on Xbox and Internet, to be interested in the printed page.

The late Steve Jobs thought he had a better way, and planned to position Apple to profit from it, the same way his company did by being the first company to push its personal computers into the classroom successfully.

Apple announced Thursday that it was "reinventing the textbook" by using the iPad, its iBooks bookstore and even a new app for creating books.

At its rollout Thursday, Apple pushed its system as portable, durable, interactive, searchable, current -- and with great content. Major textbook publishers Pearson, McGraw-Hill and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt have signed on to provide content at $14.99 and under.

Instead of 50 pounds of books, students can carry around a slim electronic device. Instead of making a trip to the library to look up vultures, they can click on a link and see one in flight. And, no more forgetting papers and textbooks at school -- they're always available on the "cloud."

The initial and ongoing expense of providing the iPads is a serious consideration, of course, but Apple is unlikely to have the field to itself, and competition will offer cheaper alternatives. Amazon already offers textbook rental on its Kindle readers, and projects like the One Laptop Per Child effort, which recently came out with a cheap tablet computer for developing countries, could lower the cost for American students as well.

Education will always be about transferring knowledge from one person to another in the most effective way possible. Technology isn't always the answer, but textbooks are one area where a traditional means of delivering that knowledge is ripe for a change.