The Textbook Doledrums

The textbook industry is massive, earning about $4.3b annually. In a 2004 study led by State Public Interest Research Groups (PIRGs), price gouging tactics used by university textbook publishers are illuminated. (Full PDF here.)

They found:

“Overall, the expanded survey uncovered more evidence that textbook prices are a significant part of college costs, that textbook prices are rising at a fast pace, and that publishers use a variety of tactics to inflate the cost of textbooks. In addition, we found that textbook publishers increase textbook prices faster than the rate of inflation between editions and charge American students more for the same books than students in other countries. “

Not only do our students have heavy, out of date books to lug around – they have expensive ones! How can we pull ourselves out of this abysmal situation? I think the answer is in digitalized textbooks. This would provide our students with the most current information available (priceless), save millions of dollars, and allow our society to grow and adapt with current technologies instead of fighting them.

There is a Silver Lining!

California has already taken measures to take its students’ learning to the next level. Schwarzenegger explains that the new agenda for digital textbooks will first be implemented in high school math and science courses throughout the state. According to the governor, the state earmarks $350m for texts and teaching resources alone. To opponents he adds, “…There are those who ardently defend the status quo, claiming our vision of providing learning materials to students for free would risk a high-quality education. That’s nonsense. As the music and newspaper industries will attest, those who adapt quickly to changing consumer and business demands will thrive in our increasingly digital society and worldwide economy.”

Similarly, students in Wesport, Connecticut have done the same. There, students of Algebra I and II will be preparing for tests online. The district’s math teachers decided to re-write their old curriculum. Students are now exposed to HeyMath!, a Singaporean web service that features graphical representations of mathematical theorems and has examples of problems with real world context. The course makeover has already produced results. Standardized test scores are up, enrollment into higher level math courses increased, and less review in needed during class. Frank Corbo, head of the district’s math department has stated, “He said that the district will soon save at least $25,000 a year on textbooks.”

On the supply side of the coin, there are a few strong providers already. Some of my favorites include: Open Textbooks – college level textbook resource, Connexions – a collective database featured at a TED talk in 2006, and FlatWorld Knowledge – another university focused online goldmine. Wealth, geographic location, language spoken – all of these matter less and less. Knowledge is now translatable, downloadable, and interactive.

What About Portability?

As it stands now, the best technology on the market to carry out a vision this grand is the new Kindle 2.0 which offers a bigger screen than it’s predecessor, internet access anywhere, and PDF capability. Unfortunately, the price is seated at a whopping $489 – at that price tag not many schools can afford to supply one full round of Kindles to students. So far, there are 3 similar handhelds that I like: the Amazon Kindle, the Sony PRS line, and the little known BeBook. When will readers become more affordable? I’m not sure, but it is inevitable that it will.

The more we push against progress the farther we will be left behind. Freeing of funds, providing current updated information, allowing a variety of texts to learn from, displaying interactive guides as students learn all amount to one thing: a better education.

*This entry was revised from the original post on my personal blog: Organicedu.org
(pic from flickr.com/photos/fdecomite)

We have permission to question. Because the generation we are bringing up today will have to make some of the harder decisions about the shape of their planet we need to pay careful attention that we are not preparing our students for yesterday’s world but tomorrow’s. What does that mean? I grew up not knowing that:

• More than one billion people – approximately 1/6 of the world’s population are hungry, and every day nearly 16,000 children die from hunger and related causes

• The U.S. consumes more than 25% of the world’s energy and while accounting for only 2% of the population

There was no deep dark conspiracy to keep me ignorant, but the grand illusion that was also comforting was that the adults would be able to sort out international problems and that science and progress were marching forever forwards.

Isn’t it time to tell ourselves another type of story? One that does not put all the adults – whether they are business suited politicians or white coated scientists – in control, but one that takes a shared view of our collective responsibilities as global and national citizens?

Individuals can do much to change the world. Think of all the great inventors and pioneers who have changed our planet as well as the collective action on the part of “regular” citizens. Lets take a look at some powerful stories that suggest that students can make a difference. For example, students helped African villages obtain clothing and clean water supplies: http://www.villageofhope-ethiopia.org/stories/Make_A_Difference.pdf.

Teachers need not think that the stories of want and need are automatically depressing and a turn off for students. Take a look a the 8 minute excerpt from this FRONTLINE Documentary that has enabled students from around the US to feel that they could do something positive as they learned how to provide clean water for the prevention of disease and contamination.

We need to give students a new narrative as to how they can be proactive and have a positive impact on global situations. The textbooks we tend to use often tell a story of implacable forces and events as well as trends beyond the control of individuals. Other stories can be told that are far more compelling and relevant to today than the dry abstract accounts we read and see in textbooks and newspapers.

Our world can come alive in the classroom through showing PBS documentaries like the one above and connecting students using networks like E-pals and iEARN in which students can collaborate and work towards greater understanding of world situations. A network I recently wrote about in my book (Global Education: Using Technology to Connect the World to Your Students) Global Nomads, is indeed a wish come true for many teachers making possible direct connections between U.S. students and the often war torn regions of the Middle East and elsewhere.

This group is helping students put a human face on tragedies that are often found to be overwhelming. They have done excellent work with the Darfur crisis for example, bringing in journalists, film makers, special guests like George Clooney, and NGO leaders using videoconferencing technology to discuss with students how to prevent the suffering. See their programming at http://www.gng.org/pulse/fall2008/Darfur.html and be amazed at how for such low cost they can provide truly world class education with a global awareness edge.

So this new school season, feel empowered to reinvent some if not all of your curriculum. The world has changed, the technology delivery mechanisms have changed, and the question now to ask is, have you?

(pic from flickr.com/photos/wickenden)

Recently I attended Alan November’s Building Learning Communities Conference where I participated in a session for educators exploring how to become transformational leaders. A participant at my table said, “This is all nice, but kids need to learn that school isn’t always interesting. Sometimes school is just boring.” “Not true!” I responded. “School shouldn’t and doesn’t have to be boring.”

When I shared this with Alan he recommended I ask this participant, “Which teachers should teach students that they have to learn that school is boring?“ This certainly would not be me. While I’ve witnessed teachers who accept that students are disengaged, sometimes even falling asleep in their class, I do not believe a teacher passionate about his/her career would embrace the idea that it is okay for their students to be bored. In fact, I contend that if every teacher prioritized just one thing, we could eradicate boredom in our classrooms, deeply engage students, and dramatically decrease the dropout rate.  That one thing is…

Supporting Students in Finding Their Passion:

Not long ago I wrote about a school that supports students in finding their passions in my post You Can Get a Dalton Education at a NYC Public School. I was more formally introduced to the concept of educator’s supporting students in finding and developing their passions when I went to Confratute, a conference that focused on the Schoolwide Enrichment model which provides enriched learning experiences and higher learning standards for students through three goals: 1) developing talents in all students; 2) providing a broad range of advanced-level enrichment experiences for all students; and 3) providing advanced follow-up opportunities for students based on their strengths and interests.  Most recently, I was introduced to another formalized way to name what it is I have been talking and thinking about through this status update which I saw on Facebook:

Mark Wagner Today: “Blogs, Wikis, Docs: Which is right for your lesson?” http://bit.ly/XAUUx
Yesterday at 5:01pm via Twitter

As I followed the link, I discovered a slew of resources about what education scholar John Seely Brown calls “passion based learning” as discussed in an article on CNET. I was thrilled to find this body of work, as I felt this concept beautifully captured what it is I’ve been thinking about education.  I dove in to read more and was anxious to share my findings with others.  Here’s what I’ve learned -

Passion-Based Learning:

In the article on CNET Brown says that, schools should complement teaching with what he calls “passion-based learning” that focuses on getting students more engaged with topic experts.” Education expert Will Richardson shares that what really resonates for him is that Seely Brown praised situations where students who are passionate about specific topics study in groups and participate in online communities.

Richardson says, “To me, this is the one biggest advantages of the Read/Write Web, the ability to connect to others who are passionate about whatever it is that you want to learn. How rare is it to have that happen in physical space, where everyone in the room is ready and excited to learn?”

The same topic came up in response to a blog post a school administrator wrote about steps he plans to take to become a transformational leader. In response to his idea about renaming their computer lab and calling it the Global Communication Center, High School teacher Susan Ettenheim made this comment:

“It is wonderful for a class to share with another class across the world, but it is possibly even more exciting for one student to find that there are other people who can teach and share with them and take action to make the world a better place through a shared personal interest.”

In my own conversations with educators about our role as passion detectives, explorers and connectors for students, I have come up against resistance from some who ask, “Are you saying that students should just be able to skateboard all day, sit around watching Harry Potter movies, or worse persue some type of distructive behavior?” Of course not and I think Seely Brown hits on the reason for the resistance by some when he says, “For educators to really take advantage of the potential of technology, we need to rethink our practice.”

Will Richardson believes, and I concur, that the best way to do that is to get involved in “passion based learning” ourselves.  He believes this so much so that he has referred to himself as a blogevangelist and I credit him with being my “blogfather”. When Will would run into me at conferences, speaking engagements and the like where I was often passionately engaged in a topic of conversation, he would ask when I was going to join the conversation and begin authentically publishing and connecting with those with similar passions.  The reality is that it wasn’t until I began doing that, that deep, TRANSFERABLE learning occurred for me that I could confidently and credibly share with other educators.

Technology provides the window to connections and learning around areas of passion and deep personal interest that were never before possible. Some educators I have discussed this concept with have scoffed at the idea for various reasons believing it would be too much work for them to make individualized, differentiated connections for each student. I’ve suggested that their job is not to determine a student’s passion, or find the experts and make the connections, but rather to support their students in doing so.

That doesn’t mean have all the students in your class create blogs where they respond to your prompts or make a podcast about a topic you are studying in social studies.  That really, isn’t an effective means to helping students explore their passions, publish authentically to an audience they care about, or connect with others with their similar interests.  This is a big shift.  Here are some smart ways educators might engage in passion-based learning with our students.

(Continued on Wednesday…)

“Engage Me or Enrage Me” is a quote from “Dr. Kip Leland, online learning specialist and the founder of the Los Angeles Virtual Academy (LAVA) within the LAUSD.

In his review for Ed Tech, Wallace Hannum brings up an important point: professional development for teachers required to use technology is not effective if the professional development is limited to simply knowing how to use technology. What is effective, is educating teachers on how to integrate technology into their curriculum, lesson plans, and classroom activities. But, he asks, how should this be done? In Hannum’s opinion, Transforming Classroom Practice answers that question by looking at nine different professional development models through case studies, showing that there is not just one way, but many ways, to accomplish effective professional development for educational technology.

Teachers may need professional development to support technology integration into the curriculum, however Michelle Jacobsen in Education Review goes a bit further stating that we need to keep the focus and “emphasis on learning and teaching.” Jacobsen is pleased that editors Marlene Borthwick and Melissa Pierson make this distinction and examine professional development models that can help educators support “innovation and change” in schools.

Jacobsen and Hannum both recommend Transforming Classroom Practice as a resource for a wide range of individuals including teachers and principals, school leaders, professional developers, and teacher educators.

Have you read Transforming Classroom Practice? What are your thoughts on this book? Do you feel that it effectively demonstrates professional development models that can aid teaching and learning?

(pic from latimesblogs.latimes.com)