Sunday, May 19, 2013

The Object Formerly Known as the Textbook

Vaile Fujikawa
IL
Young, J.R. (2013, January 27). The object formally know as the textbook. The Chronicle of Higher Education. http://chronicle.com/article/Dont-Call-Them-Textbooks/136835/
Summary: What is the future of textbooks? Some publishers are creating an entire course worth of content with video, text and homework included in e-versions of their textbooks. How do these ebooks (or personalized learning experiences as some would call them) play into the future of education, especially MOOCs? Will MOOCs become the new textbook? How do these changes effect the publishing industry?

Evaluation: Reading this article really helped me see the value in these kind of interactive textbooks. The stuff that Young reports on in the article is a lot like what we have been doing in 250 and SLIS as a whole. I have a lot of questions about where we go from here and how these kinds of programs can be developed to help students who don't learn as well on their own. The move toward all "E" everything is slightly disconcerting to me, because I feel very strongly about the value of presenting materials in several ways to students. I just don't think that an ebook, even with a bunch of interactive software is going to appeal to all students. I guess that on some level it doesn't matter how far we've come, some students are still going have to learn in ways that are uncomfortable for them. 

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