Selecting a New Textbook
Developing new curriculum is tough, especially in this day and age. Why? As a newly formed “History and Social Studies” department, we need to select new textbooks. The challenge – selecting the right resource that includes a great textbook that is both hardcopy and online. One may ask why we need the hard copy since we are a 1:1 school, but we also serve many ESL and resource students in our middle school. For this reason, many students need tactile interaction with pages, maps, questions, etcetera, in order to engage in multiple pages quickly.
Some rights reserved by Wesley Fryer
Most online textbooks don’t allow for this “quicker” interaction yet.
After perusing just a few potential texts, I’ve noticed a big change in the presentation. Some highlights include more bolded text, already highlighted sentences or phrases, and great visuals. Many books have included better maps, graphs, activities, and links to websites (many of which require a paid for password).
Which leads me another concern – price. Not only are textbooks
- On-Line Textbook – Personal Screenshot – Chris Fox
themselves, but add in all the other potential online and digital resources, the total cost go through the roof.
However, I am still looking forward to the challenge. It should be an exciting adventure fumbling our way through the new jungle of text – digital and electronic.
Comments
4 Responses to “Selecting a New Textbook”
Leave a Reply
You raise a very interesting question – whether print media is somehow quicker or more easily accessible to certain students. For those of us living in the digital transition, I think there are still many advantages to paper. I wonder if there are studies that have weighed this, and whether these studies would show a difference between generations. Do our students prefer digital, paper, or some combination? Do they still learn better with paper? Do students with particular needs (ESL or resource, etc) do better with paper? Certainly, paper provides a medium that brings more focus, since there are fewer options for distraction. In my own classroom, when I read from a class novel, I can tell that most of my students are engaged. But when I ask them to go online, I lose quite a few of them. Even when they are on the same page, their minds seem to wander, and they seem to hear much less of what I say. Getting their attention also takes quite a bit longer. So for these reasons, print media may still be a better option in the classroom.
It is an interesting debate between paper vs. digital. I’ve gotten really used to reading books on my Kindle, but I don’t like to read professional books digitally. There is something about being able to flip back and forth when you want to find a reference. I agree with Peter– I wonder if there is a generational difference in paper/digital preference when it comes to reference books.
Are you finding that there are a lot of online/software textbooks out there? The big companies seem to have some, but even those don’t seem to be that great. This is just the beginning and as more schools go 1 to 1 the demand should grow, so hopefully the resources will as well. The costs should lower as well. I guess that is cost of being a leading school in technology and 1 to 1, you pay the price.
I agree with Peter as well that the digital textbooks are cumbersome, at least on laptops. Scrolling with a mouse and seeing the whole page become difficult. Not always engaging or easy to flip back forth between pages.
Since a lot of this is new, maybe a company would give you a break if we got to use their resources on a trial and survey basis? Goodluck.
To funny…I’m almost the opposite of Peter and Laura. I like reading professional stuff on the kindle and hopefully my new iPad when I get it.
What kids I’ve talked to have said is they don’t like reading and taking notes on the same device. I think if they had a Kindle and a computer or an iPad and a computer that might work.
It takes some getting use to…and I say all this….but last week I observed a 6th grade class who is 1:1 and they had a piece of text to read and highlight and take notes on. They opened it up in Preview (Mac) and I watched as 4 kids didn’t miss a bit writing themselves notes, highlighting text, etc.
I think other tools like Diigo and how you can highlight and postit webpages is way under utilized in classes as well. A Diigo eductors account is a must in my book.
The bigger question is how does that paper textbook keep up with a changing landscape. At least if it’s digital they can push out updates as information changes.