e-Schoolbooks: open or closed systems?

An animated debate is being held on the use of digital products and devices at school, also related to the full adoption of e-schoolbooks. The generation gap is quite strong between those who are teachers now, still widely accustomed to the use of hard copies and traditional methods, and their students, in touch with Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) since they were born. Several problems arise: economical, methodological and educational, among which the structure of e-schoolbooks and access to hypertextual contents in general. Can e-schoolbooks allow a full access to the Internet or should they be strictly self-contained? From another viewpoint, can an e-schoolbook provide students with a full interaction with an external environment (roughly speaking, an open system) or should interactions take place with classmates and the teacher (closed system)? This subject is here debated, in order to understand the importance of getting in touch with advanced technologies and the external world, and to clarify the role of becoming properly ICT-educated from the early school years.