eCampus.com carried out a survey that takes a look at students using eText books. It shows some interesting results!

First of all, almost every student owns a mobile device nowadays and 78% of them believe that it would not be possible to study without technology. When asked why they like eBooks, this is what they said:

The lower price is what attracts students the most, as there are plenty of things they have to purchase in order to attend school or college. Instant access and portability are strong reasons, too, considering that the purpose of mobile devices is not only making activities interactive but also carrying less weight.

Students had to choose the feature they liked the most about eBooks. The Search feature was by far the favourite! Highlighting also got a good amount of votes, maybe because these are two things we sometimes need to do to improve our performance when studying and cannot do with traditional books.

The matter of time also came up, with students having to count how many hours they were saving by using eBooks. Although some of the students do not save any time when studying in this way, others could save between 1 and 3 hours of time.

Where do students access their eBooks, considering that it’s important for them to have them anywhere? Most students access them on their laptops, but others use tablets or a desktop computer as well.

Finally, students were asked if they would buy an eText book next semester. They were enthusiastic about the idea, with 55% of them considering the possibility, depending on the class, and 38% ensuring they would do so.

All in all, having a look at this study, it can’t be denied that technology is increasingly part of adolescents’ everyday life.

At least three Brazilian universities adopted the use of tablets in classrooms in 2011. Unsurprisingly, various private high schools in Brazil did as well. One of these schools, located in Brasilia, went as far as to add tablets to the list of mandatory student materials for 2012.

The government of Pernambuco, which is located in the northeast of Brazil, declared that the state education department will propose the purchase of 170,000 tablets (a total expenditure of $170 million Reais) to be distributed among the students in their second and third year of public high schools in 2012.

Panarea Digital was founded on the premise that the widespread distribution of mobile technology would be implemented in the school environment. We are thrilled and excited to be able to witness exactly what we had hoped for.

This is an interesting article from Wired about the state of e-textbooks, its infant state of development, and their extremely high prices.

According to the report, “almost three-quarters of students (73%) say they wouldn’t be able to study without some type of digital technology”. Despite this, the prices do not go along with students’ interests and the available features need to be a lot more than zoom in and zoom out.

Our bet is that, at some point, the combination of open content and self-publishing will end up driving prices down, but in the meantime this is certainly a big obstacle to overcome.

As a startup company, we like to embrace technology as soon as we can and as best as we can. Here, at Panarea, all workers are encouraged to do the same.

This week, Panarea Digital is also at Google Plus. There, we’re going to share company news, videos and cool information. You can follow us here and here.

Oh, and it’s always good to remember: our Facebook page, where we add information about our blog posts, share info about our apps and photos about our team. On Twitter, we like to see what’s going on in the mobile, tech and educational world and post interesting news as well.

Finally, check out our YouTube and Vimeo profiles, full of videos about our products and services. BTW, have you seen the new Diabetes app?