The study looks for keys to provide development direction of digital textbooks based on educational meaning and roles for increasing satisfaction of teacher and student uses in educational activities. In the paradigm shift toward learner-centered pedagogy, digital textbooks have been actively discussed in exploiting the pedagogical ideas, such as multimedia learning, self-regulated learning, deeper learning, and collaborative learning, offered by the technology. In the study, we discuss the concept and historical background of digital textbooks based on the changes of pedagogical paradigm, and then we discuss fundamental functionality, effectiveness, physical and psychological impact, and cognitive aspects to empower the use of digital textbooks in public education system.