‘Arnie Terminates Textbooks’!
Many newspapers and web-sites are using the headline above to summarise a recent announcement by Arnold Schwarzenegger, formerly the ‘Terminator’ and now Governor of California (no, not a film role – the real thing!). Arnie believes that textbooks should be phased out in favour of online/digital materials, mainly on the basis of cost. He also thinks that textbooks are out of date, and today’s children may be more comfortable with electronic devices. He plans to start his textbook ‘termination’ this August with Maths and Science in the first instance.
Some people will think this is a brilliant idea, but at the other end of the spectrum , others will see this as an act of violence by an unthinking cyborg! However, in some subjects, the move might make a lot of sense. In sciences, for example, online materials could be easily updated to take account of new developments. They could also contain video and audio to show real organisms/events in real environments, and demonstrate processes that are very difficult to describe in words. Online materials might also be very useful for subjects like Maths where you only need small chunks of information at a time (I seem to recall Maths textbooks not being very readable anyway!). In all subjects, online content also gives scope for interactivity and formative assessment.
In subjects such as English literature, though, it would be useful – preferable?- to have actual books to hand, and whilst some textbooks may be cumbersome, others are easily portable and provide convenient, organised sources of information. ‘ebooks’ could be a helpful compromise, though not in terms of cost reduction. And what happens re. online resources if you haven’t got a reliable broadband connection, or no internet access at all? ‘Hasta la vista, baby’ !
June 12th, 2009 at 2:48 pm
I too have given some thought to this revelation coming from the leader of a ‘bankrupt’ US state. Where are all these resources that “the terminator” wants learners to use? How reliable are the sources of information and how will e-books be paid for if they can’t aford real books. I would hate to think that the demise of the paper book was accelerated by “Mr Universe”
July 6th, 2009 at 1:42 pm
The immediate future is likely to be a hybrid print/online model, so that the best of both formats are available, and the weaknesses of both formats mitigated.
Q: What did the printed textbook say to Arnie?
A: I’ll be back!
July 18th, 2009 at 9:21 pm
Although I only heard a short soundbite from “the Governator’s” announcement, I got the impression that it was more of a positive “we should start making all textbooks available on the internet” than a negative “let’s get rid of paper books.” If taken in that positive way, I say Amen and the sooner the better. There must and will always be a place for actual paper books, and textbooks in particular. But to put all textbooks online will only improve access for everyone. If a government official with clout like that of the California governor can convince textbook publishers to come up a with a sales-and-availability model for e-textbooks that everyone can live with, it can only be a good thing.