When I was the mathematics department chairman at Overlea High School, the librarian gave me the nickname 'Riggles'. I suppose this was because my last name is Riggs. However, "to riggle" means to clean out the fire-place with the poker. As I continue to analyze education and the Common Core movement, I feel at times that I am riggling current education to make room for the new education and educational approaches included in the Common Core.
Today, I continue to edit the Common Core Algebra 1 curriculum for full implementation this fall. My day began with a meeting to discuss the online platform that will house the new digital curriculum. (This in itself creates a bunch of issues with my curriculum, which perhaps I will save for tomorrow's blog.) After the meeting, upon opening up the Unit 2 file, I realized I left the main textbook resource at home. That meant I would have to use the online version of the text. I hate working with textbooks online. Unfortunately, that is the path it seems that textbook authors and school systems are heading towards. Clean out the fireplace of the old, bulky texts and make room for the new online texts.
This raises a new ethics of technology question with me. I am sure that I am not the only one who hates online textbooks. I find them difficult to read, difficult to get the 'big picture', difficult to follow, difficult to take notes from, etc. Mind you, I am not against e-texts. I LOVE my Kindle app (hee hee...Kindle, fire, riggle... em, sorry). I love being able to read books on my iPad. I love how I can finish one book in a series and immediately download the next book. But, I HATE online e-textbooks. They are cumbersome and difficult to 'leaf' through to find various locations quickly.
So, my question to ponder is this: Is it ethical to expect all students and teachers and school systems to move to the online version of textbooks?
One blogger, Richard Leiter, summarized the article Chronicle of Higher Education: Online Textbooks Fail to Make the Grade
(http://thelifeofbooks.blogspot.com/2005/02/chronicle-of-higher-education-online.html).
In his review, he states that many publishers are moving to online
texts, not for the ease in use, but rather the money that can be made
from them. Limiting access within the text, and limiting how many times a
student can view the text, are just some of the ways they can wrangle
more money from school systems.
School systems, unfortunately, have been tricked into thinking that the e-textbooks would be a cheaper route. Aside from publishing costs that have the potential to never end, and continue to rise, there is the ever-present software, hardware, and device issue. As Joanna Cabot states in her article, Why Online Textbooks Still Don't Work (http://www.teleread.com/textbooks/why-online-textbooks-still-dont-work/), there are many unforeseen hiccups that can happen with online texts. Screen resolution, broadband width, and memory requirements are just the surface of the issues that can happen to a student who tries to access an online text at home. Is it ethical to punish a child because his internet at home cannot support the online text and he cannot complete his homework? Will schools then be expected to provide the adequate resources at home so that students can have equal access to educational resources? Students who do not have the hardware and devices at home will need this provided for them to ensure equity across the school system. That $80 hard-bound text does not look so bad now.
School systems, like Baltimore County, hope that e-textbooks will be dynamic. They can be easily updated and changed, unlike the hardback paper text that is stuck with outdated data and less than modern examples. Interactive resources can be built into the e-textbook to make the text engaging and motivating. Links to online interactives and manipulatives can be provided. Current statistics and data can be referenced. Application to current events can be made. As Leiter states, "The real value of digitization is the interactivity, not the readability." Unfortunately, many e-textbooks are nothing more than textbooks that have been uploaded to the internet. The interactive resources are a separate package to purchase. Baltimore County has already purchased two such text packages: Holt's Geometry and Carnegie's Common Core Algebra 1. The online resources in these text packages are amazing. The videos, lesson links, and interactive manipulatives are top of the line. However, there was a separate price tag for the online resources. Most textbook companies charge each year to access the online resources, rather than one bulk purchase. Richard Mercurio supports this in his article, e-books are popular, but print is here to stay (http://www.malaya.com.ph/index.php/business/business-news/35441-e-books-are-popular-but-print-is-here-to-stay). He identifies the fact that many e-texts are nothing more than the paper text uploaded online. He further recognizes the software and hardware and access to device issues that schools will face going to the e-text. The costs schools will have to incur to rectify these issues, Mercurio says, are not obtainable at this point.
Am I just an advocate for change, but a proponent of staying with what is already working? Is this an older age that I have grown into... a 'get off my lawn (or hard-bound book)' curmudgeon? When movies went from 'silent' to 'talkies' and went to 'color', the public grumbled at every step. Now, we wouldn't consider going back (except for the rare artistic purpose, i.e. Secret Garden). Are these issues with e-texts just growing pains that we need to see through to the end?
Even with those final thoughts, my question to you remains: Given the costs, ease in use, accessibility, equipment, personal preference... Is it ethical to expect all
students and teachers and school systems to move to the online version
of textbooks? Please discuss!
Some other resources pro- and con- for the move to e-texts:
I feel that we have even moved beyond full online texts in favor of online resources from a variety of sources that can connect students to real applications of the mathematics and discover the rules and patterns, the beauty of mathematics with the careful orchestration from the teachers. Teachers are hired as professionals and as such, should be expected to meet the needs of the students, to engage and motivate them, to connect them to the world they live in, and to plan (using a variety of resources) comprehensive lessons for students to interact with daily. Creating an online text from several modules is one way, but it still does not address the cultural inconsistencies and inequities that exist in extreme rural or urban communities.
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