[CALIBK12] e-textbooks

[richardguy at aol.com]

 As entertaining as it is to talk about e-textbooks, that discussion has very little to do with what our governor has proposed.

Even he has moved away from his initial statement about free online textbooks.  Now he is talking about learning online, which is, of course, next to impossible on any broad scale in a state where 85% of the K-12 schools don't have a librarian.

To imagine that all the work that goes into creating a massive tome which exhaustively covers a subject would be given away free is just silly.  To pretend that such resources exist online for free is to fail to understand the nature of the Internet. To fantasize about the research skills of students given access to databases without guidance . . .

Can one learn online?  Of course.  One can have a rich, rewarding experience, interactively with people across the world with a vast diversity of viewpoints and ideas.  Those folks can bring resources with them about which textbook makers can only dream.

None of which is a free online textbook.

And Debbie is sharing the packaging problems of the stuff you have to pay for.

The discussions the governor is having may lead to some very interesting products and services.  They will all have a price.  It may also lead to the aha! moment....."Hey, wouldn't it be cool if we hired some librarians like they do in 49 other states......"



Richard K. Moore, InfoSherpa
Huntington Beach, CA
**********************************************************
A poem 
represents the mastering, even if just for a moment, of the pessimism and the melancholy, and enables you - you the poet, and you, the reader - to go on. -- Philip Larkin
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-----Original Message-----
From: debbie at abilock.net
To: Bay Area Independent School Librarians <listserv at baisl.org>; calibk12 at listproc.sjsu.edu
Sent: Fri, 12 Jun 2009 9:00 am
Subject: [CALIBK12] e-textbooks






















For those interested in the pros and cons of e-textbooks…



http://chronicle.com/free/v55/i39/39a01801.htm?utm_source=at&utm_medium=en



 



Debbie
Abilock



NoodleTools/NoodleTeach



debbie at noodletools.com



http://www.NoodleTools.com/debbie



 



"The
true test of character is not how much we know how to do, but how we behave
when we don't know what to do."  -- John Holt



 






 





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