Schools ought to replace textbooks with a digital medium.

thank you for accepting so quickly. Rebuttles 1. Yes a school is an inanimate thing, but that doesnt mean it cant be obligated to do something. My car ought to run and my shoes ought to fit. They are not living, yet it is something that they should do. Just because the school cannot assume the role of a living thing does not mean you cannot specify what it should or should not do. 2. It is true that in the resolution there was no specific reference, but refering to the word "ought" in the resolution i do not have to bring specifics into the argument. Let us assume that for this instance "digital medium" refers to but is not limited to DVDs and PDF files. In order to defend this i mearly have to prove that it would be in the best interest of the school and those influenced by such establishment to make the switch. 3. The dispute over the word "replace" is not really needed. DVDs were made to "replace" the VHS, but that doesnt mean that you can use DVDs and only that. Many things are created with the intent to "replace" things but that does not mean you still cannot utilize the other (older) objects. CDs do infact scratch but do books not rip? I have come across pagesthat have been defaced, spines that have broken and other issues that occur with books but that doesnt mean we have to go back to story telling. 4. Oh reliability, how you and technology go hand in hand so well. For this point alone i would like to assume that the digital media is on a laptop strictly for example. Now the average laptop battery last about 5 hours, that quite a long time. Not to mention there are power outlets located all around most school for charging of such items. If these were not reliable why would they be so accepted into mainstream society? Saying that a computer is not reliable is a silly fact, because if people didnt find them to be so we would still be hand writting our thesis papers and drawing our magazine adds. Throughout time these machines have become increasingly reliable, seeing as how you are looking at this now and your computer has not crashed yet has to prove that your computer is reliable. Now onto my own points 1 Ease of use 2 Cost effective 1. What is easier, looking for hundreds of pages to find a specific quote, of typing the portion of the quote you know into a search bar? Im sure everyone would agree that you will save time and energy by simply doing the computer search. What about viewing multiple pages that arent right next to eachother, you can do that without having to use multiple books if you were infact on a compter. There are obviously things you can do on a computer that you cannot physically do with a textbook, such as highlight specific portions, manipulate text and discover passages with ease. It is undeniable that a digital book is much simpler and lighter then a full sized text book. If the type on the page is too small on paper you have to hurt your eyes squinting, but on the computer it is a thing of the past when you can simply enlarge text files to suit your needs. 2 On to the cost of such a system, yes initially it may seem a bit pricey, but how much did your school pay initially for the textbooks it has? At an average of $50 per book the cost seems to add up quite quickly. You have to replace a textbook every, say, five years because students do not take care of such things. They get misplace, ripped, torn, thrown, burnt drawn on and the list goes on. Its obvious that if you were given a computer you would not harm it because it is important, useful and just cool to have. The odds of misplacing it rather then a book would be like comparing misplacing a skateboard over misplacing your car, its something that is extremely unlikely to happen. Its common sense that if you give a person nice, they will make an attempt to take care of it. As well as that my opponent argues that you will have to spend money on such technology ( ie digital books) but that isnt the case. Currently all books supplied by my school come with a disc, on that disc is a virtual copy of the book. In cases like this it becomes an effective solution because you no longer have to pay just to have a digital copy of such thing. I look foward to new point from my opponent rather than attacks on the resolution itself, thank you.