July 12, 2005
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TO BOOK OR NOT TO BOOK, THAT IS THE QUESTION
I read a wire story today about
I can certainly see why pursuing “paper-less” education would be an option worth considering. Textbooks become quickly outdated. Manufacturing textbooks consumes natural resources. Erasing all the crudely drawn depictions of male and female genitalia that have shown up on the pages over the years becomes tedious.
Although the advantages are numerous, I do see some potential pitfalls.
To begin with, any high school male that is honest will tell you that a laptop with an internet connection is good for only two things; video games and porn. Do we really want to encourage the already alarming trend among adolescent males of driving on the highway like they do when they are playing “Road Rage 5”, or of holding up Pamela Anderson-esque type women as the standard for the female form?
Secondly, the internet is not always the best place to get reliable reference material. For example: let’s say the assignment is to write a report on former Attorney General John Ashcroft. As an experiment, I googled Mr. Ashcroft, and on the very first page of matches I got the following two links which begin with very interesting quotes:
http://www.rotten.com/library/bio/usa/john-ashcroft/ This article begins: “Much like the Nazis in
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2002/06/12/opinion/meyer/main512021.shtml This article begins: “Who needs terrorists when we have John Ashcroft to scare us out of our pants.”
Are these two articles actually reliable reference material? Do they accurately portray what kind of man John Ashcroft is? Ok…this was a bad example because those two articles are ENTIRELY ACCURATE when it comes to Mr. Ashcroft, but I still bet there is a lot of inaccurate information floating around on the web.
Finally, I hate the idea of giving up books. Books are a tactile experience much more potent than staring at an LCD screen. I buy hardbacks whenever I can because I love the feel of books, the smell of books, the entire experience of reading a good book and then placing it on your bookshelf to come back and enjoy again in the future.
You can’t pull a dog-eared laptop out of your back pocket and curl up with it on a secluded beach. Ok…I suppose you can if that beach has WI-FI access, but it’s still not the same.
A world without books would be a sad place, but at least we would have bighooters.com.
Comments (11)
saw your site on http://main.xanga.com/NewlyUpdated.aspx just randomly saying hi
Ah, but “textbooks” are not ALL books. How cool would it be to have novels, plays, and great biographies as the books our kids read for school? No more back pain, and they might actually have a better experience with what books are. Mind you, I like the diversity in my lit books at present, but I still sneak around and copy stuff from other sources.
And part of what I try to do with my young’uns during research units is help them to recognize credible sources. “Rotten.com” would have been ruled out. And if they are working on a persuasive paper, then the editorial could have its purpose in a debate! That’s what editorials are there for.
I think it’s just a matter of responsible education. I don’t think the students at my school, one of the brightest (and laziest) of whom got busted for porn in his computer class ANYWAY, would be getting significantly more exposure with their laptops anyway.
Hell, we teachers have to constantly monitor the little suckers anyway. How much easier will it be on the screen with no (or fewer) papers or textbooks to hide things under?
i’m a firm believer of on-line textbooks!
most textbooks are out of date before they are printed and by using the online version, they can correct errors and update the textbook for little expense. they can be more interactive and engaging and use a variety of media to teach the topic. they can go deeper in depth as well. and while most high school students use the computer for gaming and porn, it’s still a powerful teaching tool. i think they should be given laptops by fifth grade 
I couldn’t agree with you more! Although it’s true that some kinds of textbooks become outdated, the internet is rife with useless, factless “sources” of no consequence to learning. I’m all for the internet, and for using the ‘net for projects to supplement lessons. Teachers can bookmark certain sites for use by students and block others. But the internet is so vast. . .and not so reliable. Any time I have my students use the internet, I must chase them away from the game sites and the porn. Even though our school has installed several filters to limit access to such sites, the kids always seem to find a way to reach them. As we say, students can think of 50 ways to subvert your best lesson plans, and if you can think of 25 of them you’re a genius. And most of us aren’t geniuses. I don’t think it’s appropriate to throw the baby out with the bathwater–the internet can be a good tool, for sure. But it should be used IN ADDITION to reputable textbooks, not INSTEAD of them.
Dude, thanks for the link…I gotta check out that site. : )
I have to agree with you about books. . . if there is one thing that I love, it’s the smell and feel of a real, honest to goodness book!~K.K.
Your Ashcroft example made me snort.
As to laptops over books ? No way. Regardless the inordinate amount of time I spend staring at a computer screen, I would hate to have to read books this way. That might be one of the few things in existence that would turn me off to reading. (And I say this as I hurry through “Backlash” so that I can start the new Harry Potter when it arrives in my mail Saturday, after which I’ll be tearing into the new efforts by John Irving and JD Robb.)
I’ll be curious to see how the paperless learning environment works out for this school.
It certainly would be a STRONG question of responsible education. The problem is, that is something very difficult to encourage in today’s political and social climate. Our education system is dry and needs a complete overhaul, one that I fear will never occur. This is not to say it’s impossible to get a good education, it most certainly is. I most certainly did. But trying to put more pressure on a teacher’s back is unbelievable with the current “Every child left behind” pedagogical paradigm.
I love WiFi. I think the internet and internet research should be a major part of every secondary education program. But books. Books are the foundation of knowledge. Knowledge is writ in paper and ink and glue and leather and bindings. It is found in ones and zeroes as well. But nothing, nothing will replace the book.
Yay for bighooters dot com!
I laughed out loud at your Ashcroft example. Love your humor.
I am so torn on this subject. While I can appreciate the fact that textbooks quickly become outdated, I can’t imagine a world (or even a tiny microcosm of the world, in the case of this school) without books. I guess because I’m too old fashioned and have spent my life immersed in them. They’ve given me too much pleasure and knowledge. Let’s hope they find a happy medium to employ BOTH forms of reference.
p.s. Thanks for subbing.
Have a great weekend!
xoxoxo
WHAT…NO BOOKS? Oh, you were referring to textbooks. I’m very attached to my books…loving the new Harry Potter by the way…but I don’t recall having much of a relationship with my textbooks. Still, I can’t imagine not having had them. My kids had some classes that they used their books in class and had to turn them in each day. They could check them out for homework, etc. This system seemed to work well and cut down on the number of books needed since they only had to equip the room not each child. I’m not sure what the answer is…as I think computer access is important too. If the schools can afford new uniforms for the football team seems like books should be in the mix somewhere. Could this be a priorities issue? hmmm…the irony.
Signing off – G