E-textbooks and open source books- the new resources for a new generation
In one of my discussions on the 21st century learning module, I asked my professor Dr. Shabbi Luthra a question about why, e books in spite of their obvious advantages e.g. inbuilt interactivity etc, are not more widely used. I found her argument that our generation, the digital immigrants are so emotionally attached to the what we have grown up with that we choose not to see these obvious advantages compelling and agreeable. I am glad that some of the reputed publishing companies are going ahead and focusing on publishing these textbooks in the digital format.
I can see some obvious advantages of e textbooks:
-e books are delivered immediately and specially in this case textbooks the students can buy them anywhere and anytime, they do not have to wait for them anymore
-the students do not have to carry many different textbooks, any electronic tool can help them download these books
-students do not have to worry about damaged and lost books
-as e textbooks have more often than not have hyperlinks, it can help the students to access more information and related websites
- e textbooks can have audio and animations which are embedded and can further help the students who learn differently (Adapted from www.successconsciousness.com)
As far as the open sources books, the article by David Warlick “Six reasons why textbooks should stop being textbooks” is quite convincing as to the reasons behind why these should be the new resources for the 21st century learning. A few of them as mentioned by Sarah Kessler in the article the power which the students would have over the content and the interactivity of the document, the books can be tailored according to the needs of the student. Above all it gives the teacher’s flexibility to present the content and build upon the knowledge of their students rather than follow the pattern described y traditional textbooks.
Though its advantages seem obvious I have doubts about the availability of technology tools in places which are economically backward and also the consistency vis a vis the difference in teaching styles. While posing this question I think I already have the answer, it calls for more collaboration amongst the educators through Skype, twitter through collaboration and discussion, teachers in different countries can help each other to align their curriculums in the same disciplines.
In the beginning of the post I had mentioned that I am a digital immigrant, it would probably take time to accept these as the new resources but I am already convinced that these are the right resources for 21st century learning. I cannot resist but post a link to a YouTube video which may be considered ironic in the next few years. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iwPj0qgvfIs (although the video is in Spanish, it has English subtitles)
References:
No comments:
Post a Comment