Reply to Why oh why don't schools use textbooks anymore??

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]It is not just nostalgia. Children need to be manipulating more objects than just computer mouses. Turning pages is fine motor skills practice. It is also physically grounding in the tangible physical world. It truly does engage different parts of our brains and bodies. And you can’t beat those beautiful color photos, eye-catching graphics, etc. My students really enjoy getting out our old set of gorgeous textbooks. [/quote]
None of this is true. None. [/quote]
 
I disagree. You seem very defensive though. Why, do you think?[/quote]

Because I've taught children ages 2 to 80, pre K-12, college, continuing education,  as well as graduate school, where I mentor teachers in all settings and have done so for almost 40 years. I've written tomes of curriculum for public and private schools, as well as charters for private schools.  I am a reading specialist who has worked with every type of learning disability  there is, and, within the last ten years, also have been very much involved with the autism community. I've written three books, too many articles to count today, and am a frequent guest on educational podcasts. I've taught Reading, English, English Literature, Humanities,  History,  Social Sciences,  as well as three math disciplines interspersed throughout the years.

That is why I know what I am talking about.  I understand what interactive synchronous and asynchronous/ dynamic curricula looks like, how it is used, how collaboration is used, and the role of a teacher. I uunderstand what a textbook is, having edited 20 of them and having used textbooks in entirety for almost 25 years. I've seen the progression of technology as it  has developed since I was in the trenches all this time. I understand the uses and possibilities of many materials. I can honestly say that a child today can literally go through school without one textbook (!) and learn more than what was  ever available in 1963, 1973, or 1993, or even 2003. Can a textbook have a place? Sure, but now only as a temporary reference. Literature? Sure, the physical book is lovely,  all for physical books as ancillaries and motivators,  but we can still buy more of those as ebooks if we want to maximize $$. But discipline-based textbooks...not really necessary and I can make a good case for their shortcomings, which are many. Think about how everyone gets their news today. Do you wait for your morning physical newspaper to find out what's going on in the world? No.

My advice- let educators decide how to teach. That's what we do. It's just not that simple or binary..textbooks or not.  There's so much open source and commercial material online that you are not aware of or even how to use it.Why not spend some time looking into it before you come up with an opinion not in your purview?
[/quote]

How much did you all get from Google and Microsoft to come to these conclusions? My bet is you are going to find out your entire career was wrong. [/quote]
Nothing. I have multiple degrees and teach at the graduate level in my field.  I think  I would know what the field  entails. 
  I hate to break it to you, but this comprises best practices in education today. Of note, if Microsoft and Google is all that you understand,  there's quite a bit more to know. You are not trained and are living in the 1970s. [/quote]

Best Practices = whatever they tell teachers to do at any given time[/quote]

News Flash- teachers are "they." We know what to do and how to do it. What we aren't going to do is let untrained, out of touch, and uneducated people with zero experience tell us how to do our job, just like anyone, in any job, who has trained and has considerable experience in the field. This  isn't a consumer driven field where the public decides how they want their product 
delivered.  There is a solid swath of practice and expertise here that isn't asking  for your advice, nor do we require it! We  aren't letting parents write curriculum and cherry pick what is to be taught in the classroom based upon their political and religious  beliefs. We are happy to explain what we are doing, how we are doing it, and welcome anyone to come observe. We also welcome people to become trained in various  methodologies, which includes technology in order for said people to understand how it all works. But, no, we aren't going back to 1976 because that's what you remember about education. [/quote]

I'm an educator who taught in DCPS for nearly 20 years. 
I have a BA, an MA, and an MAT.  
I'm not telling you what or how to teach.  
But I am telling you that what DCPS is doing is shortchanging students.  
Stop being so defensive. Try listening. There's a lot you could be doing to improve the quality of the academic program.[/quote]
Pretty sure you aren't teaching now, so, sit down. [/quote]

Still teaching, but not for DCPS.  And I use textbooks, trade books, short videos, some online platforms. I produce my own video lessons. Definitely not anything anybody was doing in the 70s.[/quote]

What access do parents have to all that material you are using to support the school work at home? When the kid doesn't remember what was in the video and doesn't have time to rewatch the whole thing  (times 6 classes) or sort through on line platforms to quickly review the confusing point, is there a book or a piece of paper to reference? I get how these things make it interesting and more dynamic for you as a teacher, but I have seen first hand how it loses the kids who cannot reinforce (or even find) at home what they were supposed to have learned at school -- unless they have a book with an index.[/quote]

I teach online.  Parents have access to all of the content that I post.  And I use a downloadable textbook that can be printed so that students can highlight, code, and annotate.[/quote]

That’s an equity issue right there.  Not all parents can print at home, and woe to the kid who asks the teacher to print it out, because ecoconsciousness. [/quote]

I agree. It is an equity issue. But it’s better than not offering a textbook at all.[/quote]

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