{"id":146,"date":"2009-02-27T10:54:53","date_gmt":"2009-02-27T17:54:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.k12opened.com\/blog\/archives\/146"},"modified":"2009-07-10T17:41:54","modified_gmt":"2009-07-11T00:41:54","slug":"textbooks-the-next-evolution","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.k12opened.com\/blog\/archives\/146","title":{"rendered":"Textbooks – the next evolution?"},"content":{"rendered":"

I have long ranted about the massive amount of money that is spent in K-12 for textbooks that are ineffective. In the many of the most engaging classrooms I visit, those textbooks are on a shelf in the back of the room, seldom if ever used.<\/p>\n

And yet, millions and millions of dollars are poured into these resources. In many states, the spending on these books is all but mandated. There is a huge bureaucracy (what I call the educational-industrial complex) made up of state textbook committees, textbook publishers, and associations like AAP<\/a>, BMI<\/a>, and NASTA<\/a>, that together rally to keep this system thriving, and thrive it does.<\/p>\n

Now, it seems, some states are thinking about making some changes to the system. Most notably, Indiana recently issued “An Open Letter to Indiana Educators about Textbooks, Computers and Instructional Materials<\/strong><\/a>” (really worth a read if you haven’t already) that said essentially that textbooks are not effective or engaging. It went on to encourage schools to pursue technology-based or other instructional materials in lieu of textbooks and to request waivers to use textbook funding for this purpose. They even specifically mention “content-loaded mini-laptops,” something I and other have been suggesting for years.<\/p>\n

This is a very bold and laudable step. The question is will others follow?<\/p>\n

In an article for THE Journal called “Signs of a Significant Disruption in the Traditional Textbook Model<\/a>,” Geoff Flecther speculates that the system is “breaking,” and that change is afoot.<\/p>\n

Let’s hope so. But in order to change, there will need to be new leadership, new business models, and new ways of doing things. I, for one, think that a model that involves open content could be a significant and valuable part of this. It will not be an easy process, but it is one that will benefit our entire society if it is successful.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I have long ranted about the massive amount of money that is spent in K-12 for textbooks that are ineffective. In the many of the most engaging classrooms I visit, those textbooks are on a shelf in the back of<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-146","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6mlV-2m","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.k12opened.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/146","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.k12opened.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.k12opened.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.k12opened.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.k12opened.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=146"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.k12opened.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/146\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.k12opened.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=146"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.k12opened.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=146"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.k12opened.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=146"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}