A Designer Education : The future of textbooks
Unfortunately, I find this to be a complete misnomer if the “future” is coming in the next year or two. One thing we often don’t take into account with technology is the rate at which it is adapted, due to a variety of factors. Factors that will prevent tablets (specifically Apple’s new tablet) from being adopted in schools are many, but here are a few of the major ones:
- Rules - If you went to a public middle school or high school since the invention of the Walkman, iPod, or cell phone, you’re probably aware that almost all schools ban their use during school hours. Use it at school, and it’s confiscated. Use it in class while your teacher wants your attention, and you are well on your way to a letter grade lower. Now think tablet: If you can’t bring your laptop to school to take notes, why would they let you bring a touchscreen tablet to “read” on? You’ll have kids surfing the internet, instant messaging their friends on the other side of the room or in another class, and generally not paying attention. The only way to remedy this would be for schools to supply tablets for individual use. That’s about as likely as someone dropping a new MacBook Pro in my lap.
- Cost - Since no public school is going to foot the bill to supply their students with a fully loaded tablet - don’t forget that each of the books will still cost as much or more than it did in paper form - that leaves the bill for parents to foot. Good luck getting parents to pay $800+ for a tablet that does plenty more they probably don’t want their adolescent child to have access to, and again the cost of these electronic books.
- The Socio-Economic Disconnect - Surely there would be some students whose parents could afford to buy them a tablet and the eBooks to use for their classes. However, you’d end up with less than a quarter of students who could and do use one, and everyone else would realize their family can’t afford one. If your clothes, car and allowance weren’t enough to make you feel on the low end of the totem pole, your lack of a tablet sure will!
I think this would be a great way to learn if schools could purchase them for all of their students, customize them, and limit their use to approved applications. The chances of that happening in the next five years? The next ten? Even the next twenty? Very low given the pathetic shape our education system is in.
At the collegiate level, I could see students adapting this at a much higher rate. But again, the professors are much older and won’t be adapting this as part of their graded curriculum. And even at IU - at the time (and maybe still?) the most connected university in the country - many professors even at the graduate level didn’t allow laptops in their classrooms to keep the focus on them and the material they were presenting.
And at the end of the day, do we really want or need to replace textbooks? Isn’t there something to be said for highlighting, taking notes, even the accomplishment of wearing a book out after a semester or year of school?
