Digital-only Math and Science Textbooks?

My initial reaction to reading this article in The New York Times about one Indiana school district switching over to digital-only textbooks was one of hesitation. While it was truly great to read about the benefits the teachers in this district see in the switch, I really don't know if they justify the $1.1 million (in infrastructure costs alone) this transformation cost.

Much to that point, the article even points out:

Even as more and more schools nationwide have eschewed traditional textbooks, spending an estimated $2.2 billion on educational software last year, vigorous debate continues over whether technology measurably enhances achievement.

Therefore, just from the monetary aspect alone, I have my doubts about such a quick and investment-heavy transition to digital-only materials. Why not have only some classes switch to digital and gather data before spending this huge amount of money, especially with education spending being a target of many watchdog groups today?

Additionally, a part of me feels like these students are being cheated of something by using digital textbooks. Math, to me at least, just doesn't feel the same when done on the computer. I will admit that even with my familiarity and comfort with technology, I always print out and write on all of my digital resources. Writing thoughts down, trying multiple approaches to the same problem and not having a computer support system with hints and such are all important in building not only mathematics skills, but problem solving skills. While digital resources are great when it comes to data analysis topics and algebraic graphing, there are some areas in math that I think are best served by a hand-written process--and an actual paper textbook.