The success of famed horror author Stephen King's experiment with electronic book technology this summer was encouraging to school officials intrigued by the technology's possibilities for K-12 education. But, despite pockets of innovation in a few schools around the country, how soon the technology becomes the "next big thing" for education might depend on two factors: the integration of multimedia capabilities into tomorrow's generation of devices and the willingness of textbook publishers to adapt their way of thinking to the digital age.

Electronic books, or eBooks, are exactly what they sound like: books presented in digital format to be read directly from the screen of a PC, laptop, Palm Pilot, or specially designed personal eBook reader.

"Stephen King publishing his new book online is really a revolutionary event for publishing. As usually happens, it is more likely that business and consumer markets will lead the way before schools," said Eric Walusis, president of Searchlight eBooks. Searchlight provides full-service eBook systems integration for its clients, including needs analysis and recommendations, implementation, and training.

"But things move more quickly now that they did in the past. It won't take 10 years. I think we'll see schools with eBooks" as soon as next fall, Walusis said.

eBook advocates see a vast array of educational opportunities in the fledgling technology.

"eBooks are economical because, first, the content can be continuously updated, and you are not investing in all that physical paper," Walusius said. "Second, the material is always current. Third, the cost of the technology is so low. Schools are still of the mindset that the price of entry for technology is the price of an internet-connected PC, approximately $2,000. All we're saying is that there is an intermediate step that provides rich-media electronic content at an affordable price."

"Average textbooks are a year out of date as they roll off the press. Paper just can't keep up with the pace of change," said Bill Hill, researcher for Microsoft Reader, a software program for reading eBooks designed to be used on Palm Pilots, laptops, and PCs.

"Ease of updating is a huge benefit. At many schools, books are only updated every eight years. Updated material is critical for some courses," said George Kerscher, chairman of the Open eBook Forum, a nonprofit association boasting more than 1,000 members from the publishing industry, technology service organizations, the disabled community, and software companies. Some members of the forum include Adobe, Gemstar, Glassbook, Microsoft, McGraw-Hill, Random House, Amazon.com, Houghton-Mifflin, Simon and Schuster, and Digital Owl.

According to Kerscher, eBooks will give students the ability to adjust the presentation of material. For example, a student with poor vision can increase the font size, making it easier to read. eBooks also can contain built-in tools, such as dictionaries.