Textbooks face ban under e-learning finance bill

Or we could stick to the FACTS and stop worrying about sensitive republicans and their "viewpoints."

In math, multiple methods; in science, multiple theories. History as it's taught is based on interpretation of primary sources. Here's a favorite sitting on my end table right now:

Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong by James W. Loewen

I recommend it.

Of course, computer-based learning can provide a variety of really bad sources of information, instead of just one.

:shrug:

use a variety of Internet sites (Library of Congress/archive sites/museum sites/university sites/etc) along with a textbook and a primary documents reader.

I'm not a huge fan of textbooks and don't believe they should ever be used in isolation, in a classroom or on-line. However, they do provide students with an overview which is particularly important in the on-line environment when they are studying - for the most part - in isolation.

I tried teaching the on-line class without a textbook and within a couple of weeks the students were very unhappy. I suggested a couple of different textbooks that they could buy (used and cheap) to supplement. It is a comfort factor for them, I think. Most people, even young people (who are not, in my experience, any more comfortable with computers than older people) prefer reading the printed word and having the option of a book that they can mark up and dog-ear and all the other stuff students do with books.

When I first put my lectures on-line, I didn't offer the printable option - just the HTML version. Even though some of the lectures are over twenty pages long, printed, the students wanted the hard copy. They wanted that printed page.

The key, in my opinion, is to offer options. Students learn in different ways; it can't be one-size-fits-all.

thank you for that insight. Very interesting that you've found that even the younger people like to have paper in hand when reading or at least the option to do so.

Thanks!

This is practically forcing students to have shorter attention spans.

is this the end of homework? Actually, sports have ended most of the homework but this could finish it off for good.

"If a school launches a digital curriculum and provides a computer for every child, textbooks for that subject would be removed in favor of the digital version."

furnish handhelds or laptops for their students.

Nice to see Arizona stepping up to the digital age.