Yesterday I presented a few of my perspectives on how the use of modern textbooks in the classroom might be an actual impediment towards getting students to learn how to read in a more clinical manner (i.e. critical reading). I was only looking at this from the standpoint of being in the classroom. Outside the classroom, in the bowels of school district administration offices there are some other things which are worth mention…
There is a strange irony here… textbooks for middle schools and high schools seem to get more expensive every year, they get bigger, heavier, and have more color illustrations and associated external content. Here is the irony…textbooks are not used the same way as when I was a student (way back in the 1960’s and 70’s). Textbooks were much more reliant on printing versus imagery, and they generally were the foundation of any class. Now, with the wealth of external sources (via the internet) there is actually less and less need for so much full color imagery, and with the relatively slow adoption of modern technology, most texts books are often almost obsolete when they arrive new in a classroom.
I have plenty of questions about why there is a real need to continue buying math textbooks on a regular basis… as I recall; algebra and geometry haven’t changed much. I remember having to buy newer editions’ of calculus textbooks in college, where the only difference was that there were some different problems to work on…. And this was for an $80.00 book!
At least with regard to college textbooks there is the rather sad notion that compelling students to buy ever more expensive textbooks (which are never fully used in a class!) is in principal closer to the economic model of that of a drug pusher. There are comparable profits to be made here too!
In middle and high schools things are a bit different. Students are not compelled to buy their textbooks (directly…although their parents are indirectly…). For some schools the total cost of textbooks for any student may well exceed $300.00 per pupil per year! On the other hand, I have worked in some schools where the textbooks are kept in the classroom and are essentially ‘reused’ several times a day in parallel classes. This could save the school district quite a lot of money, on the other hand, if these textbooks are so important to the class curriculum, and that students can rarely take them home…what are they actually used for?
In the last week or so, I have seen a lot about how something like the Apple iPad could revolutionize the concept of the textbook. This seems to me to be well intended but a bit misguided. There is technology out there which would allow for a great deal more interactivity (read: access to flash technology…a verboten topic with Apple) as well as the ability to create content instead of merely (like the iPad) to become a passive piece of electronics which is only a replacement for a textbook instead of a real ‘revolutionary upgrade’.
