I couldn't get that link to work. Here it is:

http://www.cnn.com/2002/EDUCATION/10/16/heavy.backpacks.ap/index.html

--Dave

thanks dave!

i posted it during class while my students were posting to their blogsites and forgot the url....oooppss. all fixed now :)

Another serious corporate vs teacher issue. The work is being farmed out to large publishing houses. Teacher input is reduced.

Not good at all. In fact, not much different than any other franchise take over of the public schools (such as the cafeteria issues now big).

I agree--publishers already have too much influence over curriculum. However, one nice aspect of digital texts is that the "textbook" can assume a different role in the classroom. Assuming the class computers are Web-enabled, teachers can more readily integrate outside materials into the class. Because the textbook doesn't impose a "special" status by its physical presence in the classroom, some of its authority may be subverted (I mean this in a "good" way) by its being placed a relatively equal footing compared to other texts a teacher might also ask students to consult.

that's a great point. and probably especially true in k-12 where teachers have to use education board approved texts. yet, would be very easily to supplement classroom texts with additional web texts.

an your point raises another issue. how will education boards (state, county or local) deal with the issue of regulating web texts? on the one hand, it would be impossible to review every type of web text which might be used in the classroom. so how will they say "you can't use that one because it's not an approved text" in one circumstance versus another. will we see state and local govt's lose control of text approval for the classroom, giving more authority back to the teacher?

how will education boards (state, county or local) deal with the issue of regulating web texts?

Let's hope they use a "don't ask--don't tell" policy!

Seriously, though, these regional boards are part of the problem as well. The particularly powerful state boards--such as California and Texas--basically dictate the contents of the textbooks for the publishers. The result is possibly even worse than "corporate" textbooks--it's textbooks by political committee. The committees often place unreasonable demands on publishers ("write, edit, publish and print a book to our specifications in two months"). The result is poorly written, error-ridden, vanilla textbooks.

At least we can dream of more local control, and more professionalism and professional responsibility for teachers.

--Dave

I agree with both of you points about the "possibilities"

of using other texts...

but I doubt that's the case. These packaged systems are not designed for that. All or nothing.

One system/one portal/one package/one big price

For teachers who can't develop their own b/c they don't have the training and for admins who see this is a great thing b/c it's all rolled into one - this turns into the answer.

What we end up with, though, is a seriously homogenized system. No room for any other position.

I think most of what you have to say is depressingly true.

However, I also believe that unlike the traditional textbook industry, technology also has the potential to release us from the burden it has imposed. When a school district invests in a paper textbook, it's committed its resources to a static, unchangeable product. When it invests in technology, it is investing in a system that is inherently malleable. Change, though perhaps unlikely, is definitely possible.

I spent a [brief] time teaching high school, and I can tell you that many teachers are interested in innovating. Though the school district provided us with textbooks, the xerox room was the busiest room in the school--teachers were constantly designing their own educational materials, despite the fact that the school provided them with textbooks. Even though there was no budget for xeroxing, the PTA provided money for toner and paper--grassroots innovation at its best. If a school district really "went for it" with technology, teachers would have even more resources for innovation.

This may be starry-eyed optimism on my part, but I think the real challenge is to resist one-size-fits-all approaches with technology, and to give the teachers the resources to use technology effectively.

--Dave

despite what jrice, says, i still believe you were right with your earlier post. in a technology enhanced school where all texts are electronic, it won't matter whether the textbooks come as one package. teachers will still have internet access and the ability to make use of web texts, something whichi isn't possible in classrooms where the ratio is one computer to every two, three, or four students.

and no more standing in line at the xerox machine when it comes to digital texts :)