Journal #10 / MI

Carney, K. (2011, August). Think oustide the book.Learning and Leading, 39(1), Retrieved from http://www.iste.org/learn/publications/learning-and-leading/digital-edition-august-2011.aspx


This article is about how text books have not done any favors for the schools.  With the ever demanding standards that need to be met, many teachers fall back on their textbooks to drive their lesson plans.  This not creative and leads to inability to meet standards that are not addressed in the textbooks.  Vail school district in Arizona decided to change this.  They started with the standards and used them as guidelines for the curriculum.  Empire High School, in Vail's district, opened the first textbook free all laptop school in 2005.  Because the schools were not guided by textbooks, the teachers had to rely on internest based information and even more so on collaboration.  From this, Beyond Textbooks was born.  It was a collaborative effort and included an online wiki site that teachers could use to gather information they need for lessons and to help stockpile and grow information toward continued success in the future.  The work Vail district has done has encouraged other districts to follow in their footsteps and to share the information that had been painstakingly gathered by Vail in promotion of their program.  One other key point is that the Beyond Textbooks program was thought of by administrational minds but they had allowed teachers to seize control and help define the program.  Vail's program has led to increases in performance tracked in 8 out of 10 subject areas and has allowed Vail to seriously reduce their budget per student.


Can this program prove that we are ready to move beyond textbooks in schools?


The program, although called Beyond Textbooks, is really about not allowing textbooks to drive the curriculum rather than removing them altogether.  I have wondered many times myself if textbooks are out of date.  They cost money to print, they use trees for paper, ink, they cost significant money, they must be shipped and use fuel, they are often limited in scope, and they go out of date quickly.  It seems to me that we should embrace technology rather than continuing to use printed books.


Can removal of textbooks from schools help the budget woes?


Well, we know from the above article that Vail had saved money.  In fact, they went from a materials budget of $53 per student to $9 per student in cost.  That is an amazing savings.  If that could be replicated, why aren't the other school districts following suit already?  I think that we should embrace technology and use it to better our schools in ways that traditional methods can not.