The maker of the iPhone is discussing ways to include McGraw-Hill and Hachette e-book titles on its tablet, due to be introduced Jan. 27If Apple really wanted to help out in education, it's new tablet would automatically erase e-textbooks.
We don't need digital textbooks any more than we needed paper textbooks.
Kids need primary sources and smart teachers, not manufactured questions and one-size-fits-all standards.
[Thanks to @NMHS_Principal for Tweeting out the original article.]
AND...linnk them to SmartBoards with integrated student response systems...THEN we'll be cookin' with gas!
ReplyDeleteShelly, it will be a LONG time before teachers, parents, and politicans are comfy with the idea of not having textbooks. May not happen in my lifetime. In their heads, someone has to be the expert and it's not going to be the students (how could it? they don't know anything!)...
ReplyDeletePerhaps what we need is a teacher created aggregation of sources for the lesson? Print textbooks go out of date too fast, etextbooks go out of date pretty fast. How about something that was created this morning?
ReplyDeleteOh how true this is. When I taught I had a whole shelf full of textbooks, but rarely were they ever touched. I am in favor of textbooks...one per subject matter and to be used as one of many resources available to the teacher to CREATE authentic and personal lessons/curriculum to meet the individual needs of the student. It's like this blog was pulled from my own thoughts. Right on!
ReplyDelete@Scott
ReplyDeleteI dumped my AP Art History textbook (as well as giving ID tests) last year and my kids scored the best they ever have on the AP Exam.
This year, I'm teaching West Civ and my entire cohort decided to dump the CD-Rom Textbook in favor of online primary sources and free resources from the BBC and Met Museum.
Yesterday, I asked two teachers point-blank: "How many of your students read the textbook?" To which they each replied, "Not many."
What we really need to do is explain to parents how textbooks and school funding are intertwined and how we're all being taken advantage of by big publishers and purchase/funder-level admin hacks both in the schools and in government.
I don't care about 'comfy'. And I know you don't either. This textbook issue isn't about who the 'expert' is; it's about big sums of money.
Dump 'em.
- Shelly
@Andrew - That's EXACTLY what we need: a teacher-created enacted curriculum, developed collaboratively, shared online. We're talking about that at my school, but it's a big paradigm shift.
ReplyDeleteHow about reading a novel for extended reading? Personally, I would rather read one out of a (paper)book than electronic device. Reading out of from a web page...I would have to double the thickness of my glasses. Balance is the key...no?
ReplyDelete@Andrew - More on that thought: http://bit.ly/t46ci
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ReplyDeleteScott, I hope you live a long and prosperous life. If you can hang in there another ten years, I think you'll be wrong, and probably not sad to be wrong. Take good care of yourself.
ReplyDeleteWhat a revolutionary concept: teachers actually can KNOW something. And they can know how to teach! Without help from publish ... err umm experts!! *gasp in shock*
ReplyDeleteThis is all well and good if the teachers want to do the work....and it will demand way more work than most of our "professional educators" really want to do.
ReplyDeleteLet us start small. Throw away the teacher's guides and lesson plan books. Put yourself on your own resources. Unplug the copy machines. See if we can do that!
Oh, how many teachers have ever read the textbook they use from cover to cover? It is about work volume!
How about a multimedia textbook that allows for comments and multiple authors, and emotion and experience (ie. smarthistory.org)
ReplyDeleteDoes any one know of any teacher groups who are in favor of using textbooks? I would like to see both sides of the coin.
ReplyDeleteI am providing support to a group of homeschooling parents helping them gain confidence to teach and the with/without textbook issue (and whether it will impair their children's futures) is a prominent discussion.