I pulled this article from ABC’s news section…thought it was interesting and would share.
“The Calif. Gov. Wants to Save Money by Dumping Printed Books for Online Texts; Is it Feasible?
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is taking a page from high school science books in an effort to shrink California’s $24 billion budget gap.
In fact, he wants to take the entire book — and do away with it.
By next fall, Governor Schwarzenegger intends to make free, open-source digital textbooks available for high school math and science classes throughout California, a move that he says will help reduce the more than $350 million the state spends annually on educational materials.
Some critics doubt the idea will result in any immediate cost savings — and question a plan that might require investment in technology and teacher training at a time when schools face deep budget cuts.
But if California embraces open-source materials, which are now increasingly used on college campuses, a nationwide debate over traditional textbooks is bound to follow.”
Just curious as to what different teachers feel about this and what states you are from.
Tags: abc news, budget cuts, digital textbooks, high school, homeroom, math, schools, Schwarzenegger, science, teacher blog, technology
It’s an interesting idea. I know that taking online classes my husband really liked it when they finally put all the text online so he didn’t have to buy the book. On the flip side, he often printed off large sections, if not all of it - so essentially just dropped one expense for another. This is often true for students too. They like working on the computers, word processing and doing research…but they want to “print” everything! So, though text costs may go down, printing costs - ink, paper, etc. will most likely go up. Probably the most intriguing thing about this is the ability to get up to date information. We are still using health text books in 2nd grade that show children riding bicycles without helmets. People might think kids wouldn’t notice that, but they do…..immediately!
Good point on the ‘printing’ part, I didn’t think about that when I posted!
I am with you on the fact that the information would be very easily updated to keep everything current. I think that would be the best feature of this whole thing.