In India, entire curricula are being put on an Android based tablets and used instead of books. There is a shortage of paper and books. Here is the press release from a few years ago from the Indian Government--http://pib.nic.in/newsite/erelease.aspx?relid=63417
Aakash is first in a series of Android-based tablet computers produced by British company DataWind
which is a direct quotation from Wiki.
The reason why I mentioned this is that Eire is heading the same way. Some gentlemen today were discussing that their twelve year olds in schools here have no books. There was a meeting with parents to explain that books and paper would not be used. I would like feedback from you all on this point. Twelve year olds are very good at technology. The students naturally take to this.
UPDATE on Tuesday morning: I am against this, as it is against the idea of Catholic curriculum. I worked as a Catholic curriculum adviser for five years, and I have a Master's Teaching Certificate from NAPCIS. A curriculum should be Catholic in every subject-a discussion we can have, but the point here is that most of those books are not electronically available Very few of the spiritual books which are out of print or rare are in electronic form, although Garrigou-Lagrange is. Not St. Bernard, for example.
And, if one is doing a Master's or Doctorate, one cannot do all the research on line. One must learn to go to libraries and archives.
I feel that a book also helps discussions more in the Socratic Method and better for thinking skills, which need time to develop. Reading is not merely for information, that is the utilitarian code, but for learning thinking skills and for reflection. More on this later...