"In a Digital Future, Textbooks Are History" by Tamar Lewin in NYTimes

[Connie Weber]

"In a Digital Future, Textbooks Are History" by Tamar Lewin in NYTimes

From the article:

"Textbooks have not gone the way of the scroll yet, but many educators say that it will not be long before they are replaced by digital versions — or supplanted altogether by lessons assembled from the wealth of free courseware, educational games, videos and projects on the Web.

'Kids are wired differently these days,' said Sheryl R. Abshire, chief technology officer for the Calcasieu Parish school system in Lake Charles, La. 'They’re digitally nimble. They multitask, transpose and extrapolate. And they think of knowledge as infinite.

'They don’t engage with textbooks that are finite, linear and rote,' Dr. Abshire continued. “Teachers need digital resources to find those documents, those blogs, those wikis that get them beyond the plain vanilla curriculum in the textbooks...”

What do you think? Current realities... possibilities... Do you have some examples to add to the list in the article? Questions? Thoughts?

[Andrew]

In a word, NO. Teachers are NOT given the time, financial commitment or framework to learn new ways. (At least it is not the case near where I teach/live. But, yes, there are always exceptions).

Right now, it seems, it's us: Individual teachers here at Fireside and elsewhere who have taken the reigns of Professional Development precisely because of this VOID. And, truly, Fireside and other social networks are professional development resources. How many PDP's for a blog post? Thoughtful response? Forum topic? It almost becomes insulting when I (you, too?) have to scramble to assemble PDP's every 5 years for "approved" PD when we've logged hundreds of hours reading, thinking, writing (about education) and allowing all of it to change us/our teaching/our curricula/our students...forever!

Time to start a Professional Development movement? Change requires training of those who are well poised to deliver this change. That's us. What a shock if teachers showed up at a school committee meeting en masse and instead of demanding a salary raise asked for more learning opportunities. "Please, will you provide opportunities for us to learn more and better ways of teaching our students? Thanks so much for your consideration." Could be a poignant moment.

[Connie Weber]

Andrew, regarding teachers learning in new ways, you are right. Participating on a social network like Fireside IS professional development. Yes, it's time for a professional development movement... time to share strategies for bringing more people into this new world.

Most teachers I know in offline life do not participate in social networks; few even know what they are. (Maybe they use Facebook, but regarding networks like this, they have no idea what the possibilities are.)

Wherever I go, I end up sharing Fireside and a couple of other networked groups, putting the main page up on a big screen and doing a "walk through" tour so people begin to see how it works. Somehow the F2F orientation really helps--as do the group questions.

Wonder how we can get more people to understand the possibilities of social networking for professional development? I feel we're losing out on a whole lot of old-world wisdom, simply because people don't know there are such powerful ways to share. Maybe we should create an each-one teach-one initiative, asking every member of a meaningful professional network to bring in someone new. What do you think?

[Ian Carmichael]

And, as I revisit this with my brain working a little, the exemplars which resonate with me as information books at school level are the amazing Dorling Kindersley series of books - two-page spreads to a topic, highly illustrated, rich content - subject, and biographical, expert, succinct comment. Such a design would dovetail nicely with rollover controls, popup windows, and a 'contribute' page.
I'm also reading the superb Joy Hakim trio The Story of Science (Vol 1 Aristotle takes the lead; Vol 2 Newton at the Center; Vol 3 Einstein Adds a Dimension) anyone looking for print stimulus material for gifted, literate, curious senior primary, junior high - it's worth a look. Ah, but the reason for their mention here is their multitrack design, rich graphics, short topical, biographical and incidental content, (which is a bit cluttery for a book) - but could be super in dynamic page environments.
A class could emulate, or be stimulated by, the design paradigm and without feeling that their group needs to produce a deep and long project... Rich and short is possible and rewarding.

[Connie Weber]

Hi Ian,

I love the books you mentioned here. Joy Hakim is brilliant--everything she creates is thoughtful and deep and full of questions. I have used her American History series extensively: The History of US. Whew--I could imagine those texts in hyperlinked, interactive form. Now that would be just about as powerful as any learning tool I can think of!

[Andrew]

I love this idea that these book's content was constrained by the page- that they might live and breathe better given a digital, hyper-linked environment. So true that the design and content of some (text)books is excellent.

This thinking reminds me that the only reason we should use technology anyway is to be able to do what we always wanted to do better-because it allows for that (not simply to use technology which many, sadly, do).

Thanks you, Ian, for the reminder and for the mention of these excellent resources.

[Ed Hitchcock]

It is sad, but true, that in some of our courses a textbook is retained because the parents demand one. The fact that some of these same parents then later ask why they paid for a textbook their kid never opened doesn't seem to sink in with the Powers That Be.
Textbooks for advanced courses - AP Biology, for example - are useful because vast quantities of relevent information can all be found in one source. For grades 9 and 10 courses, however, it seems that the textbook is more a crutch for the teacher than a useful resource for the students. Which is a shame.

[Vincent Mespoulet]

Connie wrote: Wonder how we can get more people to understand the possibilities of social networking for professional development? I feel we're losing out on a whole lot of old-world wisdom, simply because people don't know there are such powerful ways to share.

a possible strategy about it: we have also to use classic medias read by the majority of our colleagues. I'm writing an article on paper for one of the most important french educational review to explain what means social networking for teachers and between teachers (and in the case of School Beyond the Walls between teachers/students/parents). Have you ever tried this way ? I would like also to interview some administrators of social networks like you, here on Fireside. Would you accept i send you some writen questions, i'll translate in french your answers...

[Connie Weber]

I agree, classics are wonderful, Vincent--yes, study of classics is essential for a well-balanced liberal-arts education. And joining together in a network for education-book discussions as Laura did in her math group or as we many of us do periodically can be very meaningful.

I hope you share your article with us. When is it coming out?

[Vincent Mespoulet]

i have writen a main article "An educational social network : School Beyond the Walls - Is Education Nationale (it's the name of our Department of Education in France" afraid of socialnetworking ?". It will be published for this review into a special issue about networking in education. And now i suggest to the editorial comitee to add also american texts i'm translating and interviewes i'm trying to realize, with people like you. For example, here is the french translation of the wonderful text of Laura. I'll send you a private message with my questions about Fireside learners, ok ? i don't know exactly when my text will be online and on paper, i'll tell you too :)

[Andrew]

This is great! Here's the English translation of Vincent's and Laura's text on the same page.

[Vincent Mespoulet]

Hi Andrew, that's funny to compare the original text of Laura with the automatic translation of my translation :) ! I read into your profile that you are a music teacher. Music is so important, not only in my own private life, but also in my teaching. It would be a pleasure to share with you some ideas and projects about how i use music to teach history and geography. For example, you can show to european students what is New-York city by walking with the Bowerbirds in Lower East Side, or discover the chinese blues with this amazing instrument: the gu qin. Or learn about turkish music with musicians i met in Istanbul last year. And if you want to watch how french music teachers manage groups of students playing in a brasilian batucada try this link (i filmed and added english subtitles... Enjoy !