Digital textbooks are being introduced in some schools. As California schools begin adopting the state's first digital text, some ask why textbook publishers aren't offering more electronic versions of their hefty tomes. Teacher preferences, technology access as well as state and local policies all play a role, educators and publishers say. Go to the link below and read the article. Then, write a reflective comment about the topic.
Are all of the reasons given for the slow adoption of digital textbooks valid? Which is the strongest reason in your mind? How well would digital textbooks work at our school? How would you train teachers to work with digital instructional materials? As schools increase their expenditures for digital supplemental materials in the future, how should they spend their money? What sorts of things should they buy? What do we need at our school? What do you think about the electronic text reader idea?
Digital Textbooks Article
12 comments:
The reasons that the website had given for a slow adoption of the digital text book is valid because it is true that all homes don’t have much internet access. The new technology introduced to the teachers would confuse them, especially the older generations, like people in the age between 40 and 50. Lastly, the books are more easy to access. A program needs to have a computer while a text book can be read just about anywhere. The strongest reason would be of the new technology introduced to the older generation teachers. In my opinion, I think that the digital textbook would be not effective at our school. My reason for saying this is because all students would have to go either to the library or the computer lab to learn. And since there are lots of different classes during that time, there would be problems of scheduling when to go to the lab or the library. There would have to be classes for teachers to teach the new technology. The school should use money wisely when buying digital text book since they should buy those that can last long and that doesn’t change much as time goes on, such as math. In our school, we don’t need much things for our school except for digital media class, which uses the computer. We can bring them to school and our house and study at both places. I don’t think the digital texts are not very effective since you have to computers for every single class and for every single children.
I think the reasons of switching to digital textbooks are all valid but the strongest reason in my opinion is how small children and pupils suffer with the weight of textbooks; it's too much to handle sometimes. I don't think digital textbooks would work so well in our school because we've been using normal textbooks our whole lives and shifting all at once wouldn't really help us as much as confuse us. I believe the only way to train teachers to use digital textbooks is to actually expose them to such a technology while they're students. That would make the process so much easier. If the teacher used to use that kind of textbooks when he was studying, then he'll probably know how to teach the method to other children as well. If schools can manage to add more to their expenses, then they should definitely buy each student his or her own personalized digital textbook or laptop if the software is available. This way, the student will have as much learning resources as possible right in his or her hand at school. They should also buy the softwares.In our school, I think we need more laptops and more available softwares and applications on them. They should also try out the digital textbook technology to see how it works with the students here at ACS. The electronic text reader is a good idea as well, but I think the real textbook would be better in this case. It's more practical and easier to use.
In my opinion, the reasons given for the slow adoption of digital textbooks is valid. It is true that not all household have internet, specifically the less fortunate children who attend public schools who can barely afford rent. I also think that a sudden shift into digital books will confuse the students as well as the teachers. Being raised with books our whole lives, it would not be easy to shift to digital textbooks. I feel the strongest reason is the portability and access; it is much easier to find a book and carry it around from home to school and conversely. If the only textbook you had was digital, you would need a laptop, charger, the program, and internet to be able to use it. To train teachers to use the digital textbooks, I would set up classes and training programs for them to learn how to use the materials with a teacher. I may even use a training retreat where all the teachers go together and listen to seminars on how to use the basics of the digital materials, then how to effectively use them with their students. I feel that schools should only buy digital textbooks if they are upgradable via the internet, this way the expensive price will not go to waste with a need for new digital books every year. I feel that these digital books would not work well in ACS because we have a library and we get new textbooks in different departments every year, which means every department gets new books every 4 years. I feel that the only way these digital books would work is if they began using them in elementary school so that children grow up used to using the online books rather than the paper books. For this to work, the school would also need to ensure that each child has access to the book whenever they need it, at school, at home, anywhere. Rather than spending money on these digital books, I feel they should spend the money on better laptops and better programs to be able to use the laptops more efficiently. I feel that if we stick to normal textbooks and spend the money on upgrading our technology department, we would be more efficiently using our money. I feel that the electronic text reader is a clever idea, but still not practical for today. It will most likely be useful for the generations to come.
Yes, most of the reasons given for the slow adoption of digital textbooks valid except for the ones that talk about teacher preferences, which are just opinions. The strongest reasons in my mind is that the students do not have internet and maybe computers at home. Digital textbooks would work well at our school, some students have only one or maybe no textbooks on one day, and then on the other they have three or four. So if every classroom had good laptops then we wouldn't have to have so much physical strain from carrying heavy textbooks. To train teachers would be easy; you would teach them how to use them the same way you would teach a student, with online tutorials. As schools increase their expenditures they should not spend too much, get something that works not the top of the line, absolutely best technology. Schools should spend their money more on computers and updated software than anything else, if they must buy digital materials. We need PCs at our school, the Macs work fine but nobody uses them at home, and another reason to get PCs is so that we don't have to miss homeworks because of Microsoft Office 2007 software which does not work on Macs. The electronic text reader idea would not be a good thing, it would be too small, and it would be uncomfortable to use regularly, not to mention the fact that it is more expensive than most text books.
Hytham
The slow adoption of digital textbooks is valid because the reason in my mind is that it’s too much for the students to handle and some of them don't have computers at home. The digital textbooks wouldn't work well in our school cause of its confusion to students and teachers. Also you would need a digital device like a computer, laptop or a USB. The only way to educate the teachers to work with digital instructional materials is to represent them. They would need also new teachers and classes to teach this lesson. The school should buy and spend there money cleverly and not waste it for instance high-quality textbooks for each and everyone and laptops would be helpful for students, this way pupils would study more and have different options to study from. I think we need more laptops and maybe not so much textbooks because the laptops already give enough information on what we need. I also think the electronic text reader idea is not a very good plan because of the laptops that we have already for everyone but it could also be useful why? Because the laptops cant always examine of certain programs such as word 2007.
I believe all the reasons given for the slow adoption of digital textbooks are valid and the strongest is probably the generational gap between teachers. Obviously older teachers who are used to older teaching methods consider printed textbooks to be the norm whereas younger teachers who are more accustomed to technology and digital devices and learning are more likely to support the use of modern digital textbooks. I believe digital textbooks would work well for the majority of people in our school however personally, as a student who focuses on Literature based A.P.’s, I would end up struggling with a digital textbook because note taking and highlighting would be much more difficult without being able to underline and highlight certain words or phrases of the text. Teachers could train to work with digital instructional materials through the process of actually “trying.” I don’t really understand how one has to “train” to use digital instruction materials, but this could possibly be an example of the generational gap that exists. I believe that if a teacher hasn’t already figured out how to use at least some form of digital learning, then it is impossible for them to be up-to-date with information, especially information concerning universities and colleges where internet research and digital work is a predominant factor of higher education in today’s world. I believe that as schools increase their expenditures for digital supplemental materials, they should spend their money on up-to-date technology the benefits the students such as laptops, USB's, and even I-pods that can be used as educational tools, however, they should not waste too much money on digital textbooks and should reserve their money for printed textbooks. At this point, I don’t believe our school needs to buy anything else since we already have a larger number of computers and laptops within the school, as opposed to previous years where people would struggle to find a free computer to work at, and we are also up-to-date with digital resources and databases within the library. I don’t support the use of an electronic text reader since, as I stated previously, you cannot get the full benefit of being able to take notes, highlight, etc. with digital text and therefore cannot get the full benefit of being an educated and literate human being.
I believe that currently that textbooks are the safest route to take. The textbook gives students a study aid and teacher can easily build upon its infrastructure. A textbook in digital class allows the teacher to give both a theoretical course and an applying course they can build upon from the textbooks. People complain that textbooks cost too much, but usually the programs that are offer to school are not worth the money and don’t aid students much. Furthermore schools lack the funding necessary for good computer labs that would aid students with their classes. Although the cost for textbooks is high we must not forget that they can be reused and that a program that’s too new to work on an old computer doesn’t help the students either. Textbooks offer a simpler and easier solution with schools that lack funding. Our school should use more digital programs because we don’t lack the funding necessary for it.
Digital Textbooks- will they disappear?
I believe that the reasons for the slow adaptation for text books is valid because not every home of every student has a working computer, some families are yet to get computers. If all text books were online or on the computer then the people without computer would not be able to do thier work. I would train teachers for working wiht digital text books by slowly but surely converting all thier work onto computers. Schools should spend their money on teaching teachers how to teach on the computer and buying good digital equipment. They should buy good computers and programs that help students learn thier class. We would need those things in our school too, it they where to convert to the digital system. I also think the electronic text reader idea is a good idea, it would help challenged kids work!
Although text books are heavy and easy to be worn out, I still think text books are the most efficient way of learning. The text book is a useful source of learning, because of the way it’s organized. Teachers can easily teach and assign homework with it. In digital media the teacher can teach cooperatively or assign pages for students to read or solve questions, also the text books are easier to access than online textbooks. Most people assume that online text books are more efficient because it is a new way of teaching, but regular text books are the easiest the most efficient way of learning in my opinions. Maybe I say that because I like the idea of text books, but with time there will be no more trees to support making text books or paper in general. Therefore, I think, all text books and paper supplies will be digital.
Digital Textbooks- Will They Disappear?
I believe that the reasons for the slow adoption of digital textbooks from this site are valid. The strongest reason in my opinion is that not all the children have a computer and less have internet. I think that the digital textbooks would work pretty well in our school since all the people I know have a computer and have internet capability. I’d train the teachers to know what sites to go to in order to access these electronic text-books. I’d show them all the capabilities of this new technology. I think that they should buy only technological things that don’t cost that much. I think that this school needs a better internet service. I think that the electronic text reader idea is good since people don’t need to carry those heavy text-books all over.
By
Sasha
Yes I do think that the reasons for the digital textbooks having a slow adoption are valid. IN my mind the strongest reason is that the teachers and students for the most part aren’t that connected with the inter net or technology. It might be too much to ask a primary student to go online to find their textbook and to do homework that way, however it is easier for secondary students. At our school I think that digital textbook would work in most subjects, English, Writing, History, and Digital media. But for the math etc… then it is more important for the students to actually have paperback of hardcover books. For languages it is also better to have printed textbooks. They should spend their money on considering letting students borrow laptops for the year to have an easy access to a computer at home. I do not like the electronic text read is all that useful. In my opinion the real printed versions are much better than any digital textbook.
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