Education reform: Let’s start by burning all the textbooks
Mike Elgan – “President Obama wants to simultaneously improve education while getting costs under control. School districts are so stressed financially that they’re laying off teachers and ending valuable programs. Here’s one modest proposal from the tech blogosphere: Get rid of paper textbooks in favor of digital books and materials for high school and college students as a way to both improve education and cut costs.”
Whaaaat? How would professors earn their extra money, if not by publishing a new textbook for their classes every year?
Tech folks are always ready to throw out the books.
I agree that dated texts and the expense of replacement is a real problem in education.
As one who has to find the funding for the online materials that our students use, I can tell you that the yearly subscription costs nearly eat us alive. Also, once we cease to subscribe we have no archive of these wonderful materials.
Digital materials are not free and will only increase in cost as people try to figure out how to make a buck in the name of improving education.
A book is still something that you can take with you no matter where you are. Digital materials require access that not all students have yet.