TeachBookless

NPR ran a feature today on the future of books. Here's the part that most perked my interest (beings that many of us have been talking about this for some time now)...

Long the building blocks of academia, textbooks are seen more as albatross and less as asset these days. They are expensive — some costing more than $300. They are quickly outdated. They can be so heavy that students and teachers are forced to tote them around in wheeled luggage carts.

Students, professors and universities are rebelling against the weighty — and wasteful — tomes. Stanford University's brand new physics and engineering library is advertised as "bookless"; relying almost solely on digital material. Free and downloadable textbooks are at the heart of the growing "open educational resources" movement that seeks to make education more available and more affordable. Groups such as Connexions at Rice University and the Community College Consortium for Open Educational Resources in Silicon Valley are supporting free online textbook initiatives.

Question of the Day: Hey Kid... Got Tech?

Some interesting conversations on Twitter this morning got me thinking about the following question:


Does your school have any tech hardware/access requirements for students that are NOT provided for by the school?


Flashdrives? Laptops? MP3 players? 


Are you requiring students without home access to access after school via public libraries?


Are you in a 1:1 school allowing machines that students choose on their own as opposed to machines recommended by the school? 


Are there technologies your school is uniformly BANNING?


I'm interested in both public and private schools and whether (and how) you've seen expectations change over the last few years.

Just a Quick Note...

Ed Open Mic sessions will pick back up in September once the school year is again running full throttle. Will and I look forward to more chats and hearing what all of you have to say about redefining education.

For those interested, here's the audio of the last chat we had.

Guest Post at Edutopia: Increase Student Engagement by Getting Rid of Textbooks

Guest post published today at Edutopia. Came out of a recent #edchat and the comments many of you all made here about the pros and cons of textbooks.

Follow this link, head on over to Edutopia, and dig it: Increase Student Engagement by Getting Rid of Textbooks.

And thanks to Elana and Betty for the guest gig.