At the dawn of the second decade of the 21st century, the American educational system has changed dramatically over the last several years. Although History, English, & Geography still have a place in many colleges across the country, the new focus of the 21st century has been Technology, from hand-held gadgets and touch-screen computers to sprawling online social networks, games, and marketplaces.

As Ray Kurzweil’s Law of Accelerating Returns states: "an analysis of the history of technological change is exponential, contrary to the common sense ‘intuitive linear’ view". In other words, technology is continuing to mature faster and faster at an exponential rate, and thus more and more universities are expanding their curriculum to accommodate new students that are eager to jump on the bandwagon.

Technology impacts every industry, thus schools are finding unique niches to fill, including Game & Simulation Programming, Health Information Management, & Business Information Systems. The list goes on and on, with more new special programs coming out each year.

Yet, despite the growing amount of technology around every corner, most students still prefer a good old book to learn with. Electronic books and online study guides are being used in high numbers for homework assignments, and in order to keep up with the pace of society’s appetite for technology, all major textbook publishers are digitizing their materials.

For the moment though, when it comes to studying and learning the material, books still reign supreme, thanks in a large part to the fact that a pen and paper is still being used to take notes in class, physical textbooks are typically more affordable than their digital counterparts, and that the majority of synthesized lesson plans are provided in paper & booklet formats.

Call it nostalgia or ignorance to new technology, but it would seem that today’s universities still favor the physical textbook over the digital version. As technology continues to develop and students adapt to the new technology, the digital textbook may finally defeat his papery nemesis, but for now, textbooks still continue to be the standard.