Arizona school won't use textbooks

[green lantern]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8540381/

TUCSON, Ariz. - A high school in Vail will become the state's first all-wireless, all-laptop public school this fall. The 350 students at the school will not have traditional textbooks. Instead, they will use electronic and online articles as part of more traditional teacher lesson plans.

[Duo_Maxwell]

Not going to work well. I had a class like that. No textbooks, everything online. The only thing that made it bearable was that I got free printing. Having to read 60 pages on a LCD is just painful.

Either they are going to kill alot of trees or few are going to read.

[bowerbird]

Theoretically this will give more up to date information as any textbook written is always at least 5 years out of date before it is printed. HOWEVER reading articles does not an education make. Sometimes you need the text book to explain the relationships between ideas and to disclose the key elements essential to learning.

[Churlant]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8540381/

TUCSON, Ariz. - A high school in Vail will become the state's first all-wireless, all-laptop public school this fall. The 350 students at the school will not have traditional textbooks. Instead, they will use electronic and online articles as part of more traditional teacher lesson plans.

You know, when I posted this same article with the same thread title yesterday, nobody even responded :p

-JC

[patrickt]

I think it's another of the fads that won't do much positive for education. I suspect the program is intended to do more for the resumes of some administrators than the education of the students. I would view the internet as a wonderful supplement to books but not a replacement.

I'm not a teacher but I suspect most factual information needed at the high school level is neither new nor fast changing.

Remembering when I was in school, a long time ago, what would have been great would have been the textbook on a CD so I could search easily for specific topics or quotes.

[poly_nightmare]

I think it's another of the fads that won't do much positive for education. I suspect the program is intended to do more for the resumes of some administrators than the education of the students. I would view the internet as a wonderful supplement to books but not a replacement.

You are right.

The internet is not a replacement. It can and should be used in addition to textbooks. Yes, some textbooks are going to be out of date, but anything recent is going to be online. Of course, school do update their books fairly often and if the teachers are good enough that should be able to teach modern history with ease.

Reading 60 pages worth of writing is not good for the kids. It could cause eye problem and even migraine headaches. You don't want your kids looking at a computer screen for 3 hours just for reading a book online. They are going to print it out and the school will be spending more on paper supplies. Even I hate reading something online that is going to take longer than 5-10 minutes. My eyes start to bother me. It's a fad that will long one year.

If it does succeed, I can see something bad happening. They may decide they don't need teachers anymore and use the internet. Anyone who has taught..like me...will tell you that you can never replace a teacher with a computer to teach something like History.

[NoGoodName]

not to sound dorky but i like text books they got some things no one is goan read the articals there gona be in the back playing games

[green lantern]

You know, when I posted this same article with the same thread title yesterday, nobody even responded :p

-JCthats the reason right there, because YOU posted it!!!! :eek: :p :p :p :lol:

[poly_nightmare]

not to sound dorky but i like text books they got some things no one is goan read the articals there gona be in the back playing games

I like text books too. If I'm going to do thing with History, I want to read about it in a book.

I would be one of those kids who would be doing that in the back of the room and yet I would still be getting As. :lol: