A Review of Studies on the Health-adverse effects in using Digital Textbooks

Abstract

The government, Ministry of Education, Science and Technology(MEST) presented a new policy that standardizes digital textbooks as a method to accept the change of education paradigm in 2006. Since 2007, MEST has begun to provide digital textbooks for some elementary schools. MEST proposes to change digital textbooks as a standard in elementary, middle, and high schools in the future. However, the use of digital textbooks has led to concern about the health of students. The purpose of this study was to identify health-adverse effects of the use of digital textbooks on the health of students. Literature reviews regarding digital textbooks including national and international literature were conducted. The literature reviews found the key physical and psychological factors to be considered in using digital textbooks. The physical factors were symptoms and signs associated with eye, musculoskeletal system, general health, and skin. The mental factors were 'burn out of study' and 'stress due to study'.