健康生活:书包太重,孩子身体遭殃

Digital Textbooks May Help Ease Backpack Burden
数字教材可能有助于为书包减负

The issue of overloaded backpacks could well become moot if President Obama and his education gurus have their way. The president wants every student to be using e-textbooks by 2017.
如果奥巴马和他的教育高参们能够一路凯歌，过重的书包有可能将成为过去式。总统希望在2017年前，所有学生都能使用数字教材。

In January, Education Secretary Arne Duncan and Julius Genachowski, the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, recommended that states redirect budgets for printed books to the purchase of iPads, Kindles and the like and the software needed to foster modern education.
1月份，教育部长阿恩·邓肯(Arne Duncan)和联邦通信委员会主度朱利斯·格纳科斯其(Julius Genachowski)建议政府将原用于纸质教材的预算划拨用于购买iPad、Kindle和其他类似电子产品，以及用于健全现代化教育的各类软件。

Publishers and tablet makers will be urged to work together, and to lower costs, in order to supply the nation's 50 million schoolchildren with electronic products for educational use.
当局将敦促出版商和平板电脑厂商合作，同时降低产品费用，以向全美5000万在校学生提供电教产品。

Although not everyone endorses the idea of moving from words printed on paper to those delivered electronically, there are certain undeniable advantages.
尽管对于将注意力从白纸黑字转移到电子书上的想法，并非所有人都支持，但它确实拥有一些不可辩驳的优势。

For one, updates to e-textbooks are relatively easy to make, which means schools with limited finances would not have to replace outdated texts every five or six years. Learning would be more efficient and interactive, and materials supplied by teachers could be tailored to better meet individual student needs.
其中一项是，更新电子书相对更易行，这就意味着经费有限的学校不必面对每隔五六年就要换过时教材的问题。学习将更有效，互动性更强，而且由老师挑选的教材将能更好地满足学生的个体化需求。

In addressing a summit of industry and education officials in January, Mr. Genachowski said that $7 billion a year is now being spent on textbooks that often are out-of-date. He predicted that in five years, "we could be spending less as a society on textbooks and getting more for it."
在1月份一个面向产业界和教育官员的峰会上，格纳科斯基先生说，现在每年要在教材上花费70亿美元，而这些教材的内容往往已经落伍。他预言，在五年内，“作为一个社会，我们在教材上花的钱将更少，而所得的回报将更多。”

He acknowledged the greater up-front costs of moving from paper to digital books and other materials but insisted that in the long run the switch would bring huge savings to the country's educational system.
他承认，将教材和其他教辅材料从纸质换成数字版本，先期投入会更高，但坚信长远来看，这种转变将为美国的教育体系节省巨大开支。

The first challenge will probably be finding the money with which schools could buy devices like the iPad, which runs about $500 at retail. In school districts that cannot afford such purchases, strategies will be needed to help low-income students get their own.
首当其冲的挑战是寻找资金，用于学校购买电子设备，像iPad这样的设备零售价可达500美元左右。在一些买不起这类硬件的校区，还需要想办法帮助低收入家庭学生购买自己的器材。

Then there is the issue of safekeeping (although if every child has one, the risk of theft is somewhat diminished).
其次是安全保管问题（不过如果孩子们人手一台，失窃的危险将会减少些）。

Costs aside, the educational advantages are perhaps limitless on devices that allow students to do research, check their work and get feedback from teachers without leaving their classrooms or homes. Digital books can also provide interactive diagrams, audio and video that are not possible with traditional texts.
花费姑且不论，这类器材带来的教育优势将可能是无穷无尽的，学生们无需离开教室或走出家门，就可以进行研究、检查功课并得到老师的反馈。电子教材同时还可以提供交互式图表、音频和视频，这是传统课本无法企及的。

Apple has already introduced three types of educational software intended to make the iPad a fixture in the classroom: an updated electronic bookstore called iBooks 2 that allows students to download more interactive textbooks; iBooks Author, a program for creating books; and iTunes U, an app that instructors can use to produce digital curricula and share course materials with students.
苹果公司已经引入了三种教育软件，好让iPad适应课堂环境：一种是称为iBook 2的更新版在线书店，学生可在这里下载更多的互动教材；iBood Author，这是一个自成生成图书的应用程序；以及iTunes U，老师们可以使用这个应用来制作数字课程，并与学生们分享教学课件。

Protections are needed to prevent students from cheating — say, by e-mailing test answers to their pals or submitting work that someone else has created. And much to the distress of one of my digitally oriented grandsons, whose penmanship is atrocious, students still must learn how to write with a pen or pencil.
还需要提防学生作弊——比方说，用email将考试答案发给同学，或者提交别的同学已经完成的作业。此外，学生们仍然应当学习用钢笔或铅笔写字，这个要求肯定会让我的那个字写得特别烂、对数码产品十分痴迷的小孙子感到悲愤不已。

A remaining impediment: Will e-textbooks permit students who once complained that "the dog ate my homework" to find a new ream of excuses?
还有一个障碍：有了电子教材，原先抱怨“我的作业被狗吃了”的同学们，还能想到什么新的借口吗？

"The battery died, and I couldn't charge it." "My iPad got wet in the rain/a puddle/the bathtub."
“没电了，我没法充电。”“我的iPad被雨/水坑/浴缸给泡湿了。”

Or even: "My little brother hammered it to death."
甚至是：“我的弟弟把它摔坏了。”