Brandi J. Clark

No More Paper, No More Books…No More Problems…

I find the topic of digital textbooks to be fascinating. It sounds appealing…heck it sounds romantic…. Really?…Lit Maven.

Let me explain….

The current situation is that most students are using “regular” textbooks.

I remember the excitement of opening a textbook at the beginning of the year and seeing who had their name in it last year.

If it was a boy, there was sure to be bad words somewhere…or Rock Band logos…Sometimes there were speech bubbles with inappropriate comments.

The textbook was a rite of passage. A unifying force so to speak. Walk down the hall and you knew who was in which grade or at least, taking which classes. But how old school is that notion…

But the question cannot be about textbooks vs. digital textbooks. It has to be this:

Can we move away from digital textbooks (textbooks) towards a blend of other internet resources?

You see…it is a matter of intention. If it is to save money, by having a digital textbook then essentially you are putting lipstick on a pig.

Are we enlightening he child…or lightening the backpack?

Oh I know..you are thinking..”there is so much you can do with a digital textbook, Lit Maven.”

Perhaps you can change the font size or search more efficiently…but really is this a breakthrough?

NO.

So what can we do instead?

This week I would like to investigate the possibilities of teacher created textbooks. That is… textbooks (resources) that are a blend of materials such as audio,video, images etc.

I will be answering questions like:

Where can you find the information to include?

How can you store and distribute the information?

Of course I may come up with more questions along the way.

But…

Until Next Time,

Lit Maven Out!

I need your help. I am nearing the 100th blog post and I need to know a bit more about your interests. This blog was created on January 2010 for a graduate course. Those “Post #1“, “Post #2” etc., were created for weekly assignments.

When the course ended, I wasn’t sure of the direction I wanted to go, so it was a mixture of classroom reflections, pop culture connections to education, social media chatter etc… and so I am curious what keeps you coming back to the Lit Maven?

I have created 2 Polls on the left side.You can choose as many selections as you wish. NOTE: POLL HAS CLOSED, PLEASE COMMENT BELOW INSTEAD. I appreciate the extra effort…cause,

“I just can’t quit you!”

(Note: Not the original movie quote…I took Lit Maven liberties…as usual!)

If you would like to be more specific than the polls allow, please comment below.

Until Next Time,

Lit Maven Out!